Understanding Content Strategy

Notes from Understanding Content Strategy

with Janine Warner

Content Strategist

  • Heavy content strategy
  • SEO
  • Meta data
  • Quality control
  • Team building

For small sites you may create the content
On large sites you may be reviewing the content

  • Client is king of small
  • Bureaucracy and politics rule the large

Content Strategy documents = style guides, flowcharts, spreadsheets, sitemaps

Gap analysis

  • Manage Nomoclature taxonomy – talk like your user
  • Clarify goals objectives – only give a client 3 main goals (scope)
  • Create audience targeted content

Content audits

Content matrices

Get the story on the content

Resource: Braintraffic.com

Gap analysis

  • identify the gaps in content
  • start with brainstorming
  • Study the competition,complemtary sites
  • Poll your clients
  • Do surveys ab testing
  • Study traffic analytics

Content Matrix

  • Prioritize what is worth having as content
  • Work with information architects

Google Analytics help to understand your user, recently = new tool content experiment

Writing for the web = Be concise

The inverted pyramid of journalism
Start with what is important now and work backward
Each paragraph leads to next paragraph
Huge Take Away – remember the audience may stop reading at any time
Readers scan on web

Broadcast media passive
Web is active

Current State(s) of story telling on web
Linear vs non-linear
Author driven vs reader driven
On demand content
Broad vs targeted audience:
One vs multiple sources

Build “Related info” for main content into the layout
Atavist platform
Book: Content strategy bible
video: Lynda.com

Lindsay gave a rousing tour and history of the agency Huge who hosted the Meetup

An energetic presentation by Janine in the new Wilshire digs of Huge agency. Janine had an obvious wealth of real world examples to bring her content to life. We even played games! Giving a shout out to Mario Noble for the organizing. Met a couple of people. Got an intro offer to the resources of Lynda.com.

All in all a great Meetup Event.

The ride home down the Sepulveda corridor with the construction…now that is another story! The ever widening of the 405, years in process, on one of the busiest commuter roads in the country.