IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:04 | Hi! I'm Janine Warner.
| | 00:06 | Welcome to Creating an Effective
Content Strategy for Your Website.
| | 00:10 | Over the next couple of hours,
I'll take you step by step through conducting a
| | 00:14 | content inventory, developing a gap
analysis, and ultimately designing a content
| | 00:19 | matrix to track and manage
all of your content development.
| | 00:22 | We'll also delve into the complexity of
managing content in many formats across
| | 00:28 | many channels, and review the importance
of wireframes, site maps, and metadata,
| | 00:34 | as well as challenging your
assumptions with A/B and multivariate testing.
| | 00:38 | Let's get started.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | Welcome to the Wisdom Pet Medicine website,
| | 00:02 | the home of our fictitious
but loving veterinarians.
| | 00:06 | I created this website about pets
because the subject lends itself to a wide
| | 00:09 | variety of content types,
| | 00:11 | including video, animation,
timelines, and infographics.
| | 00:15 | You won't find this site in your exercise
folder, and you don't need it to follow along.
| | 00:19 | But if you ever want to take a
closer look, you can find the entire site
| | 00:23 | online at wisdompets.com.
| | 00:27 | You will find a few
files in the exercise folder,
| | 00:30 | a questionnaire that you can use to
guide your interviews, and a few Excel
| | 00:34 | spreadsheets to get you started on
your content inventory, gap analysis, and
| | 00:38 | ultimately, your content matrix.
| | 00:40 | All of these files and the website are
available to you, even if you're not a
| | 00:44 | Premium subscriber at lynda.com.
| | 00:46 | So sit back, relax, and know that all
of the files I'll show you in this course
| | 00:51 | will be easy to find when you need them.
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| Understanding content strategy| 00:00 | Search the web and you'll find a
growing list of jobs for content strategists.
| | 00:05 | If you're taking this course because
you're trying to figure out what a content
| | 00:08 | strategist is, let me start by giving
you a quick orientation before we get
| | 00:12 | into all the details.
| | 00:14 | Content strategy is really just the
latest term for something many of us have
| | 00:18 | been doing for a long time:
| | 00:20 | planning, managing, and developing
all of the text, images, video, and other
| | 00:25 | content that goes into
creating a modern multimedia website.
| | 00:29 | The best content strategists are
part editor, part producer, part project
| | 00:34 | manager, part information architect,
part quality control, part content
| | 00:40 | wrangler, and above all else,
most of us love a good story.
| | 00:45 | That doesn't mean
technology isn't important to us.
| | 00:47 | It's just that some of us think it's
about time that web designers put as much
| | 00:51 | time into the front-end--the words,
images, and multimedia on a website--as we
| | 00:56 | put into the backend: the
databases, HTML, and other code.
| | 01:00 | I like to call myself a journalist turned geek.
| | 01:03 | I spent the first part of my career
as a reporter and editor, but I've been
| | 01:07 | developing websites and even writing the
code for them for more than a decade now.
| | 01:11 | And I truly believe that the best
content strategists understand at least the
| | 01:15 | basics of technology, as well as content.
| | 01:18 | Like me, many content strategists began
their professions in print or broadcast.
| | 01:23 | Former managing editors and
producers make great content strategists,
| | 01:27 | but you do have to understand what
makes the digital world different.
| | 01:31 | No matter what your background,
one of the first challenges will simply be
| | 01:35 | mastering all of the vocabulary.
| | 01:37 | Terms like content matrix and
multivariate testing can sound intimidating at first,
| | 01:42 | but if you are a word person like
I am, you'll catch up with all the
| | 01:46 | buzzwords soon enough.
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1. Getting Started with a Content StrategySetting clear goals and managing client expectations| 00:00 | The first step in any good content strategy is
getting clear on your goals and objectives.
| | 00:05 | If you are at the beach playing with a
German shepherd, the goals are usually
| | 00:08 | pretty clear: get some exercise, play
a little fetch, and don't get too much
| | 00:13 | sand in the car on your way home.
| | 00:15 | Developing a website is a lot more complicated.
| | 00:17 | But if you've ever watched a dog
charge into the surf to fetch a stick, you
| | 00:21 | understand how having a clear objective
is a powerful motivator, and that brings
| | 00:26 | me to the first question I ask any new client:
| | 00:30 | What is your goal in creating
or redesigning your website?
| | 00:34 | Getting clear on your goals is a
crucial first step, because every decision you
| | 00:39 | make as you develop a content
strategy should ultimately support your top
| | 00:42 | goals and objectives.
| | 00:44 | If you're working with a very large
organization, you may need to interview
| | 00:48 | multiple department heads about their
goals, and you may get different answers
| | 00:52 | from, say, the head of sales than you
will from the head of customer support or
| | 00:56 | the head of research and development.
| | 00:58 | On a big project, you may need to set
separate goals for each part of the site
| | 01:03 | specific to the key players responsible
for that area and the specific audience
| | 01:08 | they are trying to reach.
| | 01:10 | On really big sites, you may need to
treat each section as its own mini-site to
| | 01:15 | manage potentially conflicting goals.
| | 01:18 | But it's still a good idea to get
everyone thinking about the same goal for the
| | 01:23 | entire site, so that everyone can get behind
one clear objective and consider the big picture.
| | 01:29 | Whether you're working with one client
or many department heads, your ultimate
| | 01:33 | goal should be the same.
| | 01:35 | Let me give you an example of what I mean.
| | 01:37 | If we are considering our Wisdom Pet
Medicine site, let's imagine that our
| | 01:40 | client, the veterinarian, has set
three goals: attract new customers, promote
| | 01:46 | services to new and existing
customers, and educate customers about pets.
| | 01:51 | Pretty standard set of goals for
somebody creating this kind of website.
| | 01:55 | Now I always try to limit clients
to three goals, only three goals.
| | 02:00 | You can refine those goals as you go
along, and you should refine those goals.
| | 02:04 | But you really shouldn't ever let
anybody give you more than three, or it won't
| | 02:09 | serve the purpose of helping
you answer other questions later.
| | 02:12 | Even good jugglers usually can't do
more than three things--okay, the best
| | 02:16 | jugglers can do five.
| | 02:17 | But with content strategy, three
is really enough things to juggle.
| | 02:23 | Managing expectations and setting some
limits on what you can and should do
| | 02:28 | is an important first step in
developing a good content strategy.
| | 02:31 | After you've identified your goals,
try to take this process a step further and
| | 02:36 | get more specific. The more specific,
measurable, and realistic your goals, the
| | 02:42 | better they will serve you as
you develop your content strategy.
| | 02:46 | For example, if my goal is to educate
customers about pets, it's a very broad
| | 02:52 | goal, and one that could require a
seemingly never-ending supply of content to fulfill.
| | 02:57 | As you get more specific,
your goal might look something like this:
| | 03:02 | educate urban pet owners about
the value of preventative care.
| | 03:07 | Now you have a goal you can
actually use to answer questions.
| | 03:11 | So when somebody says, "What should we
include in the educational section of the
| | 03:14 | website?" you go back to that goal and
you realize that if your goal is to help
| | 03:19 | customers understand the value of
preventative care, then things like information
| | 03:24 | about regular checkups and
vaccinations clearly fit that goal.
| | 03:28 | As you develop the list of content you
want on your website, come back to your
| | 03:32 | goals anytime you have a question,
and consider revisiting those goals and
| | 03:36 | making them more specific as you go along.
| | 03:38 | So if somebody comes up with a question
like, "Should we have information about
| | 03:42 | elephants in the zoo?"
| | 03:44 | you can say, well, we are thinking
about urban pet owners. Remember that goal:
| | 03:49 | educate urban pet owners about
the value of preventative care.
| | 03:52 | And you can see how the more specific
you can get with your goals, the easier it
| | 03:58 | will be to ensure that the content
you create supports your key objectives.
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| Using interviews or questionnaires to identify content needs| 00:00 | I've been impressed by how many of the
job descriptions I've read for content
| | 00:04 | strategists include the need
for good interview skills,
| | 00:07 | so in this video I want to introduce
you to a few interview techniques and
| | 00:12 | talk about how using questionnaires
and conducting interviews can help you
| | 00:15 | define your goals, understand your audience,
and ultimately develop a better content strategy.
| | 00:21 | The first step in doing any great
interview is one that you probably learned in
| | 00:25 | grade school: do your homework.
| | 00:28 | Like most things in life, if you
take the time to prepare in advance, you
| | 00:31 | will get better results.
| | 00:32 | There are two reasons why homework matters
when it comes to conducting an interview.
| | 00:37 | The first may seem obvious.
| | 00:38 | You don't want to waste your subject's
time with questions that are so basic you
| | 00:42 | could have found the answers
yourself with a little effort.
| | 00:44 | There is this thing called Google, after all.
| | 00:47 | But the second reason
may be even more important.
| | 00:51 | It's about building a connection.
| | 00:53 | Before you can get the best answers
from just about anyone, you have to
| | 00:56 | build some rapport,
| | 00:58 | and that's a lot easier when the
person you're talking what feels like you
| | 01:01 | have something in common and some
understanding of who they are and what's important to them.
| | 01:06 | Taking the time to research the person
you're going to interview before you talk
| | 01:10 | with them can go a long
way toward building rapport.
| | 01:12 | How you do this will depend on
whether you have one client with relatively
| | 01:16 | modest needs or you're working with
a big company full of managers with
| | 01:20 | potentially competing objectives.
| | 01:22 | But no matter how complex your project,
the following tips and tools will help
| | 01:26 | you with this first step:
| | 01:27 | researching your subject and
conducting a good interview.
| | 01:30 | First, I suggest you go beyond Google's
front page. Check Google videos and see
| | 01:35 | if they have done a speech for an
interview that you can watch in advance.
| | 01:39 | Check Google Groups and Google Blogs.
Search for professional associations and
| | 01:43 | don't overlook the company's archives
as a great place to learn more about your
| | 01:47 | subject's history with the company.
| | 01:49 | Also look at Google News and
search for recent trade publications.
| | 01:54 | If you are designing a website for
animal planet for example, you would want to
| | 01:58 | know that one of their stars was doing
a high-profile auction, like the one you
| | 02:02 | see in Veterinary Practice News.
| | 02:04 | This is an example of a trade
publication and almost every industry on the
| | 02:08 | planet has its own
collection of trade publications.
| | 02:11 | Even if your subject isn't famous
enough to make the evening news, they may be
| | 02:15 | profiled in their alumni or trade magazine.
| | 02:18 | And finding small details like this
about a person's background can give you
| | 02:21 | something to refer to during the
interview and demonstrate you have taken the
| | 02:25 | time to learn something about them.
| | 02:26 | That can lead to a more
productive and illuminating interview,
| | 02:30 | but don't push the personal side.
| | 02:31 | If your subject is busy and
focused on business, you should be too.
| | 02:35 | No matter what, remember that the most
important thing in any good interview is listening.
| | 02:40 | Ask the question and then
remember, your job is to listen.
| | 02:44 | Here are a few questions to get you started.
| | 02:46 | I always start an
interview, again, with that top goal.
| | 02:50 | Now this may seem a little repetitive
because we just spent an entire video
| | 02:53 | talking about setting goals.
| | 02:54 | But it's a question that's worth
revisiting, and especially on a big project
| | 02:58 | where you may be talking to multiple
stakeholders, you're probably going to be
| | 03:01 | collecting different goals, so make
sure you ask this in every interview.
| | 03:05 | This entire collection of questions
will be included as a PDF in your exercise
| | 03:09 | files, and no matter what level of
access you have at lynda, you'll be able to
| | 03:14 | access this entire list of questions.
| | 03:15 | But let me just point out a couple.
| | 03:17 | I like to ask people about questions
and complaints they get, because that
| | 03:20 | often leads to a great place to look for new
kinds of content that should be added to the site.
| | 03:26 | But also make sure you ask where they
are getting compliments. People are quick
| | 03:29 | to complain and slow to compliment.
| | 03:31 | So if some of your content is getting
good results, you want to seek that out too.
| | 03:35 | Don't forget to ask in your
interviews if there's content that's not on the
| | 03:39 | website that should be.
| | 03:40 | A lot of times the best stuff was
either created too late or it just didn't get
| | 03:45 | submitted to the right people to get online.
| | 03:47 | So there may be some wonderful pieces of
content that are already created in the
| | 03:50 | company you are working with and
just haven't made it to the website.
| | 03:54 | Finally, I like to ask about specific
actions that you want people to take on the site.
| | 03:58 | I always like to throw in a couple of
wildcard questions like, if you are
| | 04:03 | successful beyond your wildest dreams,
what would that look like. That's the kind
| | 04:06 | of question I like to use
toward the end of an interview.
| | 04:09 | When you have built some rapport, you've
gotten all the basic stuff out of the way.
| | 04:12 | If you're feeling a good connection,
this is a great chance to just throw out
| | 04:15 | a question that catches people off guard: your
wildest dreams, what would success look like.
| | 04:21 | That can give people a chance to get
creative and sometimes the best ideas stem
| | 04:25 | from questions like those.
| | 04:27 | As you finish, I always like to end with
a question like, "Is there anything I've
| | 04:31 | missed that you want to add?" Leaving
an open-ended question towards the end
| | 04:34 | gives your subject a chance to add
anything they may have forgotten or you may
| | 04:38 | not have even thought of asking.
| | 04:40 | And finally, make sure you find
out who else who should interview.
| | 04:43 | They may be your best
source for the next interview.
| | 04:45 | A few more general tips that come from my
own background starting out as a journalist.
| | 04:49 | Keep in mind that asking the same
question a few different ways is a tried and
| | 04:54 | true interview strategy.
| | 04:56 | You don't want to waste your subject's time,
| | 04:58 | but often after someone has had a
chance to consider a concept, a challenge, or
| | 05:02 | an opportunity, they come back
with a better answer the second time.
| | 05:06 | And especially if you are interviewing
somebody on camera or you are trying to
| | 05:10 | record them, asking them the same
question a few times can give them a chance
| | 05:13 | to come up with a better, cleaner, more
concise answer that will work better in broadcast.
| | 05:19 | As you're doing a research, don't be
afraid to ask the obvious questions.
| | 05:22 | Most of us get so caught up with the
buzzwords in our own industries that
| | 05:26 | we forget that visitors to our website may not
understand things that seem very basic to us.
| | 05:32 | As the content strategist, if there is
something you don't understand, you can
| | 05:36 | pretty much guarantee it needs to
be better explained on the website.
| | 05:40 | Taking the time to conduct good
interviews early in the process can help you
| | 05:43 | identify these kinds of challenges and
suss out the resources that you can count
| | 05:48 | on later from your key stakeholders.
| | 05:50 | But remember, you can't always do all
of these interviews at the beginning; in
| | 05:53 | fact, it's often best to schedule them
at key stages throughout the process.
| | 05:58 | If you're working for a big company,
you may want to start by interviewing a
| | 06:01 | couple of people and then go back and conduct
more detailed interviews with more people later.
| | 06:07 | Similarly, after you complete the
content audit and the gap analysis that I'll
| | 06:11 | cover in later videos, you may want
to circle back and do some of these
| | 06:14 | interviews again once you have more information.
| | 06:17 | If you're working with just one
client, you are probably going to hold a
| | 06:20 | series of meetings along the way and you will
have many chances to revisit content strategy.
| | 06:24 | But if you're working with a big
company, you may need to create a content
| | 06:28 | strategy team made up of representatives of
each department, and meet with them regularly.
| | 06:33 | Ultimately, good interview skills may
be just as important as technical skills
| | 06:37 | when it comes to developing
the best content strategy.
| | 06:40 | But no matter what you do, here is a
final tip to put all this in perspective:
| | 06:44 | GI-GO. Yeah, garbage in, garbage out.
| | 06:48 | If you don't collect good intel from
the beginning, you'll never be able to
| | 06:52 | produce great content in the end.
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| Identifying your target audience| 00:00 | Before I begin creating a content
strategy or analyzing the existing content in
| | 00:05 | a website, I try to get as clear as I
can about who is in my target audience.
| | 00:10 | If you're thinking that your website
should appeal to everyone in the entire
| | 00:14 | world, you haven't
narrowed things down enough yet.
| | 00:17 | Trying to reach everyone is not only impossible,
| | 00:20 | it can make it a lot harder to
reach the people who matter most.
| | 00:23 | If you work for a big company or an
organization, you probably want to start this
| | 00:27 | process by talking with people in the
marketing department, the sales team,
| | 00:31 | customer support; these folks have
thought a lot about the audience.
| | 00:35 | But if you are working with a smaller
company, you may need to do some of this
| | 00:38 | research yourself and help identify the
best audience to target with the content
| | 00:43 | you are going to create.
| | 00:45 | Either way, the tips and suggestions
in this video are designed to help you
| | 00:48 | appreciate why getting as specific as
you can about your audience can help
| | 00:53 | ensure that your content is effective
and well received by the right people.
| | 00:57 | Here are a few of the characteristics to
consider as you define your target audience.
| | 01:02 | The first one is demographics.
| | 01:04 | That's a big word that represents
many things to many people, but it's
| | 01:08 | generally used to mean things like
gender, race, age, mobility--whether somebody
| | 01:15 | is in a wheelchair or they are a
marathon runner--economic status, employment
| | 01:21 | status, location--meaning where they
live, if it's an urban or rural setting--
| | 01:26 | those kinds of things.
| | 01:27 | As you identify your target audience,
you may also want to consider some more
| | 01:31 | specific elements, like language
requirements, what education level or reading
| | 01:36 | level they are likely to have,
| | 01:38 | whether they've ever used a computer before
or they are very experienced with computers.
| | 01:43 | If you are developing a website for
people who are gamers, for example, you can
| | 01:47 | probably assume a high level of experience--
| | 01:50 | other audiences, maybe not so much.
| | 01:52 | Similarly, computer equipment and
bandwidth can affect not only usability
| | 01:57 | issues, but what kind of content you create,
whether you can have multimedia and other formats.
| | 02:03 | So all of that comes into identifying
how you decide what kinds of content,
| | 02:08 | things like what reading level you're
going to write for, what formats to use,
| | 02:13 | again, whether you are going
to use video or animations.
| | 02:15 | Does your audience have the
bandwidth to support that?
| | 02:18 | And again what languages to use, what
cultural references, things like that.
| | 02:22 | So the more specific you get on that
demographic information, the more you
| | 02:26 | identify what kind of audience, the
more informed you are as you start to make
| | 02:30 | decisions like these.
| | 02:31 | For example, if I'm designing the
Wisdom Pet website for veterinarians--maybe
| | 02:36 | like this woman who is studying
for her veterinary license exam--
| | 02:39 | I would probably use far more sophisticated
vocabulary than I would use for pet owners.
| | 02:44 | I will give you an example of that at the end.
| | 02:46 | But before I do, I want to show you that
much as we saw when it comes to setting
| | 02:51 | goals, the more specific you can
get about your audience, the better.
| | 02:55 | So what else can we learn about our pet owners?
| | 02:57 | Again, much of it comes down
to asking the right questions.
| | 03:00 | Are the customers of Wisdom Pet's big
commercial ranchers with herds and pigs
| | 03:04 | and cows, or are they city dwellers,
more likely to have companion pets such as
| | 03:09 | cats, dogs, fish, birds?
| | 03:12 | Also consider what you might know about
your own community, and do some research
| | 03:17 | on what other people know about your community.
| | 03:19 | If for example Wisdom Pet was in Silicon
Valley, California, you'd probably know
| | 03:24 | you are in the heart of the dotcom world,
and you could probably assume that most
| | 03:28 | of your audience was computer savvy
and had relatively high bandwidth.
| | 03:32 | If you were on Miami Beach in South
Florida, a little research might reveal that
| | 03:36 | most people who live on South Beach
live in high-rise condos, and most of those
| | 03:41 | condos restrict their residents to
pets that weigh no more than thirty pounds.
| | 03:47 | That kind of detail can help you
determine, for example, that you might want
| | 03:50 | more content about small dogs than
big ones. As you research your audience
| | 03:55 | keep asking yourself, what makes my visitors
different from everyone else in the world?
| | 04:01 | Some designers go so far as to
create what they call user personas.
| | 04:05 | User personas give specific examples
of what key customer types might be like.
| | 04:11 | Having a specific user persona with
a name and a backstory can help you
| | 04:15 | humanize demographics.
| | 04:17 | So for example, for our Wisdom Pet site
we might create Michaela, a 10-year-old
| | 04:22 | girl who has her first puppy and
can't wait to train it to do tricks.
| | 04:26 | But even then, remember that we might be
marketing to her parents more than to her.
| | 04:31 | Other user personas might be someone
like George, a small business owner who
| | 04:35 | dotes on his white cockatoo
that he keeps in his office.
| | 04:39 | Creating user personas can be
fun, but I have to warn you:
| | 04:42 | as helpful as it can be to personify
your audience, creating user personas can
| | 04:47 | become a distraction all by itself.
| | 04:49 | If you are working on a pet site and
you find yourself imagining what paint colors
| | 04:54 | your customers might
choose for their dining room,
| | 04:57 | you're probably getting a little
too specific with your user personas.
| | 05:02 | As a content strategist, you should
know that lots of marketing people, user
| | 05:06 | interface designers, and
others love creating user personas.
| | 05:10 | And many writers find it extremely helpful to
have a specific person in mind as they write.
| | 05:15 | Just don't get too bogged down
at this stage in the process.
| | 05:19 | Ultimately, I recommend you define at
least the basic characteristics of your
| | 05:23 | audience and you use those to
guide the content development.
| | 05:26 | For our pet site,
let's assume we've done some research.
| | 05:29 | We've interviewed a few people,
we've studied the demographics of our
| | 05:33 | neighborhood, and we've
come up with the following.
| | 05:34 | Our audience is made up of urban professionals.
| | 05:38 | We don't have to get more
specific than that, but we could.
| | 05:41 | Our target language is going to be English.
| | 05:43 | We may want to change that in the future,
but for now, that's what we've identified.
| | 05:46 | We are going to assume most of them have at
least some college, based on where they live,
| | 05:51 | that they are relatively computer savvy,
and that they are most likely visiting
| | 05:55 | our website on a desktop computer,
| | 05:57 | although increasingly we're seeing
traffic on smartphones and tablets, and that
| | 06:01 | will also influence some
of our content development.
| | 06:04 | As you will see in a later video,
sometimes you need to target very specific
| | 06:08 | content to something like a smartphone.
| | 06:10 | Once we agree that our website is for
urban pet owners and not veterinarians for
| | 06:14 | example, then we can start to agree
that we should use simpler vocabulary, not
| | 06:19 | big fancy scientific terms.
| | 06:21 | So let's conclude this
by putting it into action.
| | 06:24 | On the Wisdom Pet site we have a
section where we have this video about how to
| | 06:28 | brush your pet's teeth, and the first
time the writer took a stab at describing
| | 06:32 | this, she used this:
| | 06:33 | You know the importance of dental
hygiene for humans, but did you know that dogs
| | 06:37 | and cats need regular
attention to their pearly whites?
| | 06:41 | Now, that's not bad, and I rather like
the use of pearly whites instead of
| | 06:44 | saying teeth again,
| | 06:45 | but dental hygiene for humans?
If my radar is focused on pet owners, not
| | 06:51 | veterinarians, then words like that are going
to jump out at me. That's a little scientific.
| | 06:55 | It's a little impersonal.
| | 06:57 | Wouldn't it be better to simply say,
you know the importance of brushing your
| | 07:01 | own teeth, but did you know?
| | 07:04 | It's a subtle change, but clarifying
your target audience can help you better
| | 07:08 | design content that they can relate to,
| | 07:10 | and ultimately, that's what may make
the difference in their choosing your
| | 07:14 | products and services.
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| Creating a content inventory| 00:00 | As I prepared for this course,
I reviewed a number of job listings for
| | 00:03 | content strategists.
| | 00:05 | In many cases, the job descriptions had
phrases like this one: "medical website
| | 00:09 | with 3,500 pages of text seeks content
strategist to help make sense of it all."
| | 00:15 | That job description didn't actually
say "make sense of it all," but believe me,
| | 00:19 | that's a lot of what's involved with
content strategy work: taking inventory of
| | 00:24 | what you already have.
| | 00:26 | The first thing to consider as you do
a content analysis or take inventory is
| | 00:31 | whether you are going to do a
quantitative assessment, where you are going to
| | 00:35 | focus on the quantity, the amount, and
type of content you are dealing with, or
| | 00:39 | if you're doing a qualitative analysis,
where you are focusing on the quality,
| | 00:43 | relevance, effectiveness,
the value of the content.
| | 00:46 | Ideally, you should do both, but how you
manage the details depends on many factors.
| | 00:51 | A good content analysis can be as
simple as looking through the pages of a
| | 00:55 | website or as complicated as managing a
team of people for taking inventory of
| | 01:00 | thousands or even hundreds of thousands
of pages. To help demonstrate what goes
| | 01:05 | into a content audit or analysis,
| | 01:07 | I designed this very simple, very text-
heavy version of the Wisdom Pet's website.
| | 01:13 | I'm sure you'd agree that it's
badly in need of being updated,
| | 01:16 | and over the next several videos we
will work on modernizing and improving the
| | 01:21 | impact of the site by adding, videos,
infographics, and other rich media.
| | 01:25 | But the first step is to make sure we have
an understanding of what we already have.
| | 01:30 | Whether you are working on a really
small site like this one or a giant website,
| | 01:35 | here are a few things to consider
as you start your content analysis.
| | 01:39 | The first one is that you need to make
a list of all the pages in your website.
| | 01:44 | I find that Microsoft
Excel works very well for this.
| | 01:47 | Content inventories are by nature
something that work well in a spreadsheet.
| | 01:51 | You've got a row of IDs, so I have a
unique ID for each piece of content, the
| | 01:55 | page URL, the title, the headline.
These kinds of things go into a good content analysis.
| | 02:02 | You can save yourself a lot of time
by starting with a computer-generated
| | 02:06 | list of all these pages.
| | 02:07 | If you've only got a few pages,
it's pretty easy to put together.
| | 02:10 | You can even use something like Microsoft Word.
| | 02:12 | But if you are working with many pages,
there are a number of ways to generate a
| | 02:17 | list of URLs and pages.
| | 02:19 | Any good content management system--
WordPress, Drupal, any of the other CMSes--
| | 02:24 | should have some way of creating a
sitemap or generating something like a site
| | 02:28 | that you can use as your list of pages.
| | 02:31 | Even if you are working with a
website with static pages--something that was
| | 02:34 | created in a program like Adobe
Dreamweaver--you can still use an online site-
| | 02:39 | mapping tool to generate a sitemap for you.
| | 02:41 | You'll find several of them if you just
Google "generate sitemap" or "create sitemap."
| | 02:46 | Here is a quick overview of what
you should do as you go through any
| | 02:50 | good content analysis.
| | 02:52 | Start with a list of page titles and URLs,
read or at least skim all--or at least
| | 02:58 | a representative sampling=--
of all of the pages on the website.
| | 03:02 | Obviously, if you are dealing with
hundreds of thousands of pages, this may not be
| | 03:05 | practical, but the more and the better
you can understand what you're working
| | 03:09 | with from the beginning the better
you can manage the process of adding,
| | 03:13 | editing, and updating the site.
| | 03:15 | Make sure you are paying attention to all of
the content on the site, not just the text.
| | 03:19 | And make sure you are taking inventory
of what's not on the site but may have
| | 03:23 | already been created. In those
interviews you do with people and other research
| | 03:27 | you are doing, be on the lookout for
content that may never have made it to the
| | 03:32 | website but still could be valuable to.
| | 03:34 | And think about categorizing that content
by file type, format, and other criteria.
| | 03:39 | I'll give you some ideas for that in a moment.
| | 03:43 | As you think about the different kinds
of content on a website, pay attention to
| | 03:47 | things that are easy to
overlook, like the photos on this.
| | 03:51 | In this old version of our Wisdom
Pet's site there are only two photos, and
| | 03:55 | it would be easy to dismiss them as not very
good images that should simply be replaced.
| | 03:59 | But if I didn't ask about these images
I'd be missing a chance to learn something.
| | 04:05 | It turns out that this photo of the
kittens on the front page, this one of them
| | 04:08 | in a cage, it's there because the
veterinarian's office rescues kittens,
| | 04:13 | and it keeps them in this big cage in
the waiting room where they try to get
| | 04:17 | their clients to adopt them.
| | 04:19 | That's a great story. It's a terrible photo.
| | 04:22 | The photo says "kittens in a cage";
it doesn't say "adopt me and take me home."
| | 04:26 | But if I hadn't asked about the
photo I'd never have learned the story.
| | 04:31 | Here's another example put into action:
on the About Us page the only photo is
| | 04:35 | this picture of bunnies and parrots.
| | 04:37 | Again, not a great photo, but an
opportunity to learn something.
| | 04:40 | Interviewing the staff, I found out
that one of the vets have bunnies, and that
| | 04:44 | this is her picture, and that's part of
what led to the idea on the About Us page
| | 04:48 | in the new site of having pictures of
each of the vets holding their own pets.
| | 04:54 | If you are working on a website where
you don't know much about the content and
| | 04:57 | you are still trying to understand what
these people do, asking questions about
| | 05:01 | things as trivial as photos
can often reveal great stories.
| | 05:06 | In the next video, we will explore how
you create a gap analysis, which is just
| | 05:10 | a fancy way of saying a list of all the gaps
in your content, the things you need to add.
| | 05:15 | But it's more than okay, even as
you are doing this inventory, to start
| | 05:18 | brainstorming that list of new ideas.
| | 05:21 | So anytime you're looking at something
in the old site and it makes you think
| | 05:25 | of something new, at least jot it down;
at least capture it and start working
| | 05:29 | toward that gap analysis.
| | 05:30 | Here is a second version of a content
inventory that has a few more fields, just
| | 05:35 | to give you an idea of how
far you can go with this.
| | 05:38 | We're still looking at four pages,
but notice as I scroll over to the right
| | 05:41 | that I've added images, multimedia, metadata,
and even the author of each of these documents.
| | 05:48 | Keeping track of where content comes
from and how you can find the original
| | 05:53 | versions can really help you later.
| | 05:55 | As you are doing this initial inventory,
remember, you are not just looking at what's there;
| | 05:59 | you are creating a map to how to get
back to it when you want to revise it,
| | 06:04 | update it, or put it on the new site later.
| | 06:06 | Here's a list of some of the most common
things you might include in a content inventory.
| | 06:10 | This is really just to get you started,
and I have included this in your exercise
| | 06:13 | files so you can refer to it.
| | 06:15 | But remember that in addition to the
quantitative elements--the number of
| | 06:19 | articles, et cetera--you may also want
to include categories for things like the
| | 06:24 | qualitative value, whether this has
been written for the web and it's scannable
| | 06:28 | and has subheads or bullet points.
| | 06:30 | Whether the contents terribly outdated
and should either be removed or updated.
| | 06:35 | Those kinds of things can also be fields.
| | 06:38 | And again, you can see how your
spreadsheet could get very long and very complicated.
| | 06:43 | If you're working on a really large
website, especially if you're working with a
| | 06:46 | team of people who are conducting this
inventory together, you may need to spend
| | 06:50 | a fair amount of time just developing
the categories you are going to use to
| | 06:54 | record this inventory.
| | 06:55 | If you are going that far, I definitely
recommend that you take a little bit of
| | 06:59 | time to test those theories before
you complete your entire inventory.
| | 07:04 | Sample a few pages from each of the main
sections of the site and then come back
| | 07:08 | together with your team and make
sure you haven't gotten too far ahead of
| | 07:11 | yourselves before you know that you're
doing the inventory consistently enough
| | 07:15 | that it will all feed in to one
good content matrix in the end.
| | 07:19 | As you go through this preliminary
process, remember, most big projects go more
| | 07:23 | smoothly when you break
them into manageable parts.
| | 07:26 | At this stage, your goal is to assess the
current condition, location, and status
| | 07:31 | of existing content.
| | 07:33 | Don't get too far ahead of yourself.
Tempting as it may be, it's generally best
| | 07:37 | not to start fixing or creating new
content until you've completed your
| | 07:40 | inventory, then the gap analysis I will
discuss in the next video, and prioritized
| | 07:45 | your ideas into that great content matrix.
| | 07:48 | The whole point of content
strategy is that you want to be strategic.
| | 07:52 | You want to be strategic about how you
edit and create content, and to do that,
| | 07:56 | you need to make sure you take the
time to do these preliminary steps first.
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| Creating a content gap analysis| 00:00 | A good content gap analysis is part wish
list, part list of missing pieces, part
| | 00:05 | analysis of what's working and what's not.
| | 00:08 | Ultimately, it's designed to identify the gaps,
| | 00:11 | the places between what you already
have on your website and what you need to
| | 00:15 | have to achieve your goals.
| | 00:17 | At this stage it's okay to ask for the world.
| | 00:20 | This step is all about exploring the
possibilities and brainstorming new ideas.
| | 00:25 | As you create your gap analysis, it's a
good idea to review the goals you set
| | 00:29 | earlier, as well as who you've
identified as your target audience.
| | 00:32 | Similar to the content inventory we
created in the last video, it works well to
| | 00:37 | use an Excel spreadsheet
to create a gap analysis.
| | 00:40 | Some people like to simply turn their
content inventory into a gap analysis;
| | 00:44 | others prefer to create two separate documents.
| | 00:47 | Either way, here are some of the
categories you might want to include in a gap
| | 00:52 | analysis spreadsheet: a topic and title so
you can identify everything as you go along,
| | 00:57 | brief description,
| | 00:58 | the goal and objective. You can look at
what is the objective of this piece of
| | 01:03 | content or how does this piece
of content serve my objectives?
| | 01:07 | You can start thinking about formats,
although we'll revisit this later, and you
| | 01:11 | may want to do more of this as you get
into the content matrix. But if you start
| | 01:16 | with a vision of, hey, this new
piece of content would be perfect as an
| | 01:19 | animation or an infographic,
| | 01:20 | it's okay to put that in
here, even at this early stage.
| | 01:23 | It's also okay to start thinking
about timeliness: Is this new piece of
| | 01:27 | content something that's evergreen or
something that will have to be updated
| | 01:30 | regularly? And you can look at the
current state of content. You're not just
| | 01:35 | looking at things that are missing
completely; you may also be looking at
| | 01:38 | things that are already on the site
but need to be updated or weren't done very
| | 01:41 | well from the start.
| | 01:43 | So how do you know what's
missing from your website?
| | 01:45 | How do you know what should be added?
| | 01:47 | There are lots of ways to create a wish
list, but brainstorming is one of the
| | 01:50 | tried-and-true ways to develop new ideas.
| | 01:54 | It's also a really good practice to
study the websites of your competitors, and
| | 01:58 | even to look at unrelated websites.
| | 02:00 | Sometimes the best ideas come
from places you wouldn't expect.
| | 02:04 | Ask your customers or your clients
what they want to find on your website.
| | 02:08 | Sometimes being direct is
the best way to find the holes.
| | 02:11 | Sometimes it's better to do a survey or
to do A/B, or multivariate, testing, which
| | 02:16 | we'll cover in a later video.
| | 02:18 | Sometimes your customers don't even know
what to ask, but if you watch what they
| | 02:22 | do, you'll start to understand what works best.
| | 02:25 | Also keep in mind you should be able
to study the traffic analytics of the
| | 02:28 | current site to see what's already
working on the site, what areas seem to
| | 02:32 | be getting attention, where you might want
to focus your energy to develop new content.
| | 02:36 | As you develop a content analysis and
you are brainstorming with the team and
| | 02:40 | conducting interviews, make sure that
you clear the stage of the process that
| | 02:44 | this is just about coming up with new ideas.
| | 02:47 | Why is that important?
| | 02:49 | Well, most people are hesitant to
suggest new content ideas if they are afraid
| | 02:54 | they'll be the ones that have to write
or develop the new content themselves.
| | 02:59 | If you can reassure people at this
stage that the goal is just to create a
| | 03:02 | wish list and that later on you'll work
out what the priorities are and who will
| | 03:08 | write, edit, shoot, or otherwise
produce the content, you're likely to get much
| | 03:12 | better answers when you
ask what content is missing.
| | 03:16 | For more suggestions on what
questions to ask, review my earlier video on
| | 03:20 | interview techniques, or check out the
PDF of suggested interview questions in
| | 03:24 | your exercise files.
| | 03:26 | Remember, it's never too early to start
thinking about new ideas and working on
| | 03:30 | your gap analysis, and you can develop
some of these documents simultaneously.
| | 03:34 | You don't have to create the
inventory before you create the gap analysis;
| | 03:38 | you can do them together.
| | 03:40 | Also keep in mind that you can spend a
little time or a lot of time creating a
| | 03:44 | gap analysis, but you can also come
back and add to it later as you think of
| | 03:48 | additional types of content
you want to add to your site.
| | 03:51 | Ultimately, creating great content for
your website should be an ongoing process.
| | 03:56 | At this stage, your goal is to create
the most comprehensive list of content you
| | 04:00 | can and not worry too much
about how you're going to create it.
| | 04:04 | That's your really big goal at this
stage: to help your client or key managers to
| | 04:09 | see what's possible, to see all of the
ways that creating great new content can
| | 04:13 | help take the website to the next level.
| | 04:16 | Expect them to push back. Expect to be
forced to prioritize your wish list based
| | 04:21 | on the constraints of time,
budget, and resources.
| | 04:24 | But don't start prioritizing
before you've collected your best ideas.
| | 04:28 | That part comes soon enough.
| | 04:29 | In the next video, we'll explore
how the content inventory and the gap
| | 04:33 | analysis form the basis of a content
matrix: the most important document in
| | 04:38 | your content strategy,
| | 04:40 | the one that will guide you and your
team through creating and integrating all
| | 04:44 | of the new content on your website.
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|
|
2. Managing Content ProductionDeveloping a content matrix| 00:00 | Much of the work we've done in the
previous videos will come together in this
| | 00:04 | one, as we combine our content
inventory with our gap analysis to create one
| | 00:09 | big content matrix.
| | 00:11 | Think of it like putting together all
of the ingredients you need for a pizza.
| | 00:15 | First you make the crust, then you put
on a little sauce, then you top it off
| | 00:19 | with your favorite toppings.
| | 00:21 | So what's exactly is the content matrix?
| | 00:23 | Well, not unlike pizza, that depends on
which toppings you prefer to use and how
| | 00:28 | big a pizza you are planning to make.
| | 00:30 | Think of the content matrix, which
some might simply call a content project
| | 00:34 | plan, as the central document you'll use to
track and manage all of the content in your website.
| | 00:40 | You can create a new file to serve as
your content matrix or you can do what
| | 00:43 | many of us do, which is to save a
copy of your inventory and turn it into
| | 00:47 | your gap analysis and ultimately create a
copy of that that becomes your content matrix.
| | 00:53 | Each time you're just adding
more fields to your spreadsheet.
| | 00:56 | Stir, bake, add a little seasoning
to suit your taste, you get the idea.
| | 01:02 | Here are some of the types of
additional fields you might want to add as you
| | 01:05 | create your content matrix.
| | 01:08 | Perhaps the most important
one is the prioritization field.
| | 01:12 | I like to use a scale of 1 to 5, with 1
being assigned to content that must be
| | 01:17 | completed and 5 being reserved for
things that might be nice to have some day.
| | 01:21 | I'll give you a quick sneak preview of
the content inventory that I have created
| | 01:25 | for Wisdom Medicine, just to show you how
using a priority scale of 1 to 5 allows
| | 01:30 | me to sort this document based on the
priorities, so all of my 1s come to the
| | 01:35 | top then the 2s and so on.
| | 01:36 | It just makes it easier to keep track
of what I have to create before I launch
| | 01:40 | versus things that would be nice to have later.
| | 01:43 | If you're working on a really big
project, you may want to manage the
| | 01:46 | prioritization steps separately and
only include content that you'd categorize
| | 01:51 | as a number one priority in
the content matrix itself.
| | 01:54 | Other things you might include in this
management document, things like where the
| | 01:58 | content will be published on the website,
whether it's going to the blog or to a
| | 02:01 | social media channel or it's a main
section front, definitely include due dates.
| | 02:07 | In my experience, almost nothing ever
gets completed without a deadline, so this
| | 02:12 | section is particularly important when
you are managing content development.
| | 02:15 | You may also want to add fields for
author, editor, legal, and other reviews.
| | 02:20 | That makes it easier to keep track of
who needs to sign off on content as it
| | 02:24 | goes through your process.
| | 02:25 | Obviously, language requirements.
You may have multiple languages you need to
| | 02:29 | check off, metadata which I'll cover
in a later video, and finally, testing:
| | 02:34 | any information you need about the
final testing and review process before the
| | 02:38 | content can go to actually be published.
| | 02:41 | To help you see this in action I've
created this relatively simple content
| | 02:45 | matrix, and I included it in your
exercise files if you want to use this
| | 02:48 | version to get started.
| | 02:50 | Notice that even in this very simple
one, I have to scroll back and forth to
| | 02:54 | see all of the fields.
| | 02:56 | But notice also that I'm using the plus
and minus, the collapsible panel feature
| | 03:01 | in Excel, so that I can do things
like see the name close to what type of
| | 03:05 | content might be getting created.
| | 03:07 | Even simple Excel features like this
can really help you manage these seemingly
| | 03:13 | unmanageable giant documents that
often end up being called content matrices.
| | 03:18 | If you're new to Excel, you'll find some
great training on lynda.com, and the more
| | 03:22 | comfortable you are with Excel the more
you'll be able to use macros and other
| | 03:26 | features to manage this part of the process.
| | 03:28 | You may also have to create things like
abbreviations. Notice down here where I
| | 03:32 | have there is a social promo.
This stands for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
| | 03:37 | You may need to create little
abbreviations for things that would take up too
| | 03:40 | much room to be practical in a spreadsheet.
| | 03:43 | Ultimately, what fields you include in
your content matrix really should depend on
| | 03:47 | your team, how your organization has
broken up, and you may need to break this
| | 03:51 | big content matrix into multiple versions.
| | 03:54 | Many content strategists use the
matrix as the master document and then share
| | 03:58 | different pieces of it with different people.
| | 04:00 | So for example, you might have one
version for the production team and another
| | 04:04 | that goes to the information architect.
| | 04:06 | Similarly, you might have one version for
testers and reviewers so they can check
| | 04:10 | things off as they are finished.
| | 04:11 | If you are managing content that
will be published on blogs or through
| | 04:14 | social media, you may also need a
version of the matrix for your PR and
| | 04:18 | marketing departments.
| | 04:19 | Often you'll have attachments to your
content matrix, so you might include
| | 04:22 | something like this wireframe to demonstrate
where the content goes in the pages of the site.
| | 04:28 | We'll explore wireframes and how
content strategists often work closely with
| | 04:32 | information architects in a later video.
| | 04:34 | But I mention it here to help you
appreciate just how complicated it can get
| | 04:38 | when you're creating a good content
matrix that can even include attachments.
| | 04:42 | As you create different versions of the
content matrix, remember, less is more.
| | 04:46 | These documents often work best when
you only give people the information they
| | 04:50 | need for their part of the project.
| | 04:53 | You never, for example, want to give
your client or an executive the entire
| | 04:57 | detailed content matrix;
their heads might explode.
| | 05:00 | Remember, the goal of these documents is
to provide the right information to the
| | 05:03 | right people in a way that
helps them do their jobs better.
| | 05:07 | The most complicated version of your
content matrix, that one's all yours.
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| Creating a style guide| 00:00 | A style guide is a valuable key to
guiding your decisions about the style of the
| | 00:05 | content in your website.
| | 00:07 | You may already be familiar with some
of the most popular style guides, such as
| | 00:10 | the AP style guide, The Chicago Manual of
Style, or The New York Times Manual of Style.
| | 00:15 | It's not a bad idea to start by
choosing one of these well-developed references
| | 00:19 | to serve as your official style guide,
but it's also good practice to create
| | 00:23 | your own supplemental style guide to
address things like vocabulary that may be
| | 00:28 | specific to your business or specialty.
| | 00:30 | For example, do you prefer website as
one word or two. Should you include a
| | 00:35 | hyphen in email or a capital letter?
| | 00:37 | Most editors agree that the most
important thing is that you be consistent.
| | 00:41 | If you decide to use website as one
word, make sure it's written that way in
| | 00:45 | every article on your website.
| | 00:47 | A good style guide serves as an
important reference for everyone who is working
| | 00:51 | on a website, which is why it's also
helpful to include information about tone
| | 00:55 | and voice and the style you want to
use for the content across your site.
| | 00:59 | Southwest Airlines, for example, is known
for being unusually playful as an airline.
| | 01:04 | The flight attendants literally say
things like, "If we notice you smoking on the
| | 01:08 | plane we will assume you're on
fire and respond accordingly."
| | 01:12 | I really heard that once.
| | 01:14 | Most other airlines are a bit
more serious in their tone of voice.
| | 01:17 | But even if you choose a humorous voice,
you may still need to change the tone to
| | 01:22 | reflect the message you're conveying.
| | 01:24 | In our website about pets we have lots
of room for humor, and we can certainly
| | 01:28 | use a more informal voice.
| | 01:29 | But even if we take that approach,
we may want to use a more serious tone and
| | 01:33 | be more respectful anytime we're
writing something about sick pets or how to
| | 01:38 | care for injured pets.
| | 01:39 | You should also consider whether you
want to write using the first person, using
| | 01:43 | I or the royal we, or if you'll
write in the third person: he, she, or it.
| | 01:48 | On the Internet being less formal can
help you see more authentic, but again the
| | 01:51 | most important thing is to be
consistent and make sure your style matches your
| | 01:55 | company or organization.
| | 01:57 | When you're creating a style guide for
a website you may also include visual
| | 02:01 | style guides, such as how to display the
logo, what colors can be used and what fonts.
| | 02:06 | When you're working with digital
content you may also want to create a naming
| | 02:09 | convention: a fancy way of saying that
being consistent with how you name the
| | 02:13 | files and folders can make it easier to find
your content later and keep track of it all.
| | 02:18 | For example, many companies include
the date, the author's initials, and other
| | 02:23 | details in every name of every
piece of content they create.
| | 02:28 | Many web style guides also include
things such as which formats to use, whether
| | 02:32 | images should be stored as TIFFs or PSD
files, whether they should be converted
| | 02:36 | to JPEG, GIF, or PNG before they're published.
| | 02:39 | And you may even need to include things
as specific as what size files can be, and
| | 02:44 | word count restrictions, so that the
content will fit in specific areas of the
| | 02:48 | design of your site. Don't forget to
address legal and policy issues, especially
| | 02:53 | if you work in a highly
regulated industry, like medicine.
| | 02:56 | As you are probably starting to
realize style guides can get long and
| | 02:59 | complicated and they vary
dramatically from one organization to another.
| | 03:03 | I include these tips to get you started,
but remember, you can always update your
| | 03:07 | style guide as you go along,
which is a great reason to keep it online.
| | 03:11 | Don't print it out in a book if you
don't have to; storing your style guide
| | 03:14 | on an intranet or in a secret part of
your website makes it easy to update
| | 03:18 | and share.
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| Establishing an editorial calendar and process| 00:00 | The best websites are not static;
| | 00:02 | they continue to grow and develop overtime.
| | 00:04 | But you don't want them to grow haphazardly.
| | 00:07 | That's where an editorial calendar and
setting up a few editorial processes can
| | 00:11 | really make a difference.
| | 00:13 | Most businesses face different
challenges and opportunities throughout the year.
| | 00:17 | For example, pets may need flea and
tick treatments in the summer, when bugs are
| | 00:21 | at their worst, or schools may change
the way they update their websites when
| | 00:25 | students are on vacation.
| | 00:26 | Developing a calendar makes it easier
to manage content creation throughout
| | 00:30 | the year and can serve as a helpful
guide to promoting your best content when
| | 00:34 | it's most relevant.
| | 00:35 | Here are a few tips for
creating an editorial calendar.
| | 00:39 | Start with the four seasons. Take a
macro view and think about how content may
| | 00:43 | change each quarter.
| | 00:45 | Factor in the big holidays.
| | 00:48 | Look for any content connections you can
make that are relevant to Thanksgiving,
| | 00:52 | Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Purim,
Passover, Rosh Hashanah, and any other
| | 00:56 | holidays that are important to you,
your company, or your audience.
| | 01:01 | There are a lot of holidays in the world,
and if you're not sure about, say, when
| | 01:05 | are all of the Jewish holidays or when
should you celebrate Chinese New Year,
| | 01:09 | a quick search of the web will help
you find all of the cultural calendars
| | 01:13 | you could ever need.
| | 01:15 | How did we ever manage before Google?
| | 01:17 | To find updates that may be specific
to the business or organization that
| | 01:21 | you're working with, do a fresh review of all
of the content created over the last year or two,
| | 01:26 | and look for seasonal events or trends.
| | 01:28 | For example, if you're working with a
department store, they may have a home sale
| | 01:33 | at the same time every year.
| | 01:35 | Reviewing the last year's worth of
annual reports, sales materials, catalogs, or
| | 01:39 | advertising can also be useful.
| | 01:41 | And researching the editorial calendars
of local newspapers, magazines, or other
| | 01:46 | websites can reveal events
you might not have thought of.
| | 01:50 | Here's a tip on that front:
| | 01:52 | you'll often find the editorial
calendars of newspapers and magazines if you
| | 01:56 | look in the How To
Advertise section on their websites.
| | 02:00 | Once you've developed your editorial
calendar, you can plan your content
| | 02:03 | around special events.
| | 02:05 | It also may be helpful to plan
certain kinds of content in advance.
| | 02:09 | So for example, if you sit down and
brainstorm fifty-two tips that you can send out
| | 02:14 | once a week in your email newsletter,
you can save yourself scrambling every
| | 02:17 | week to come up with a new idea.
| | 02:19 | Similarly, coming up with the twelve great
blog post ideas in advance means you can
| | 02:24 | plan them over time and take more time
to develop, research, and write the best
| | 02:28 | content you can, at least
once a month on your blog.
| | 02:31 | Also consider using tools that enable you
to schedule social media updates in advance.
| | 02:37 | There are more and more tools on the
market every day that allow you to plan and
| | 02:41 | manage social media.
| | 02:42 | So you don't have to post to Twitter,
Facebook, and other sites every day yourself.
| | 02:46 | Some of those things you can
schedule in advance and coordinate with
| | 02:49 | your overall calendar.
| | 02:50 | You'll find lots of great social media
training in other courses here at lynda.com.
| | 02:56 | Although creating an editorial
calendar can help, it's only a part of the big
| | 03:00 | picture when it comes to
developing a good editorial process.
| | 03:02 | If you're working with a small company
or a startup people tend to wear a lot of
| | 03:06 | hats, and the content production
process may be a rather ad hoc affair.
| | 03:11 | In contrast, large companies often
suffer from having too many processes, which
| | 03:15 | can lead to duplication of effort
and even contradictory policies.
| | 03:19 | If you're working with a new company
or one that's still developing basic
| | 03:22 | procedures, you may get to help
develop a process for creating, reviewing,
| | 03:27 | and managing content.
| | 03:28 | At a bigger company, your best role as
a content strategist may be to simply
| | 03:32 | assess how content is currently being
produced and prepare recommendations
| | 03:37 | for how production and editorial
systems may be improved as you implement
| | 03:41 | your content strategy.
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| Working with information architects and wireframes| 00:00 | Information architects organize
information and develop the structure of websites.
| | 00:04 | Similar to content strategists, the role
of an information architect is still a
| | 00:08 | relatively new concept, and job
descriptions can vary dramatically.
| | 00:12 | But as the name implies, the job is similar
to that of architects who design buildings.
| | 00:17 | Information architects and content
strategists often work very closely together,
| | 00:21 | and I have seen a number of job
descriptions for content strategists that include
| | 00:25 | tasks like creating wireframes and
sitemaps, which are more often assigned to
| | 00:29 | information architects.
| | 00:30 | So what do information architects actually do?
| | 00:33 | Well, one of the most common job
responsibilities is to create diagrams of how
| | 00:38 | pages in a website link
together, kind of like this one.
| | 00:42 | Often called flowcharts or sitemaps,
these are visual representations of the
| | 00:46 | sections and pages of a website.
| | 00:49 | Think of them as the blueprints,
designed to help everyone working on a website
| | 00:53 | to visualize how the various pages
and sections will be organized, and how
| | 00:57 | visitors will move from one
place to another around the site.
| | 01:00 | Notice how the arrows, even in a simple diagram,
| | 01:03 | show how pages can be linked in multiple ways.
| | 01:06 | Also notice that using different shapes--
squares and circles--can be a useful
| | 01:11 | way to distinguish between
different kinds of content.
| | 01:13 | It also makes your flowchart look cool.
| | 01:15 | A good flowchart or sitemap is
like a floor plan for a big building.
| | 01:20 | Just as you wouldn't want to design long
hallways that lead people to dead ends,
| | 01:24 | information architects don't want to
create a content path that leads users to a
| | 01:28 | page with nowhere else to go.
| | 01:30 | As a content strategist you may
find that a flowchart or a sitemap is a
| | 01:34 | handy reference for studying how your
content works throughout the site, and
| | 01:38 | it's a fresh way to recognize if
you have too much information in one
| | 01:42 | section or not enough in another, or
if there should be more links among
| | 01:46 | related types of content.
| | 01:47 | Some information architects prefer to
create text outlines, often called site
| | 01:52 | structure listings, which are usually
just lists of text with indenting to
| | 01:56 | indicate sections and subsections.
| | 01:59 | Like many things in this course, whether
you need a flowchart or sitemap or just
| | 02:03 | a structure listing depends on
how big and complex your project is.
| | 02:07 | Sometimes I start planning the
structure of a website with a few sticky notes I
| | 02:11 | can move around a table.
| | 02:13 | In addition to sitemaps,
most information architects create wireframes.
| | 02:17 | Wireframes, which are sometimes called
schematics, are guides to where content
| | 02:21 | should be placed within a web page.
| | 02:23 | You don't usually create a wireframe
for every page in a website, but it's good
| | 02:28 | practice to create one for each of
the main sections, and for each of the
| | 02:31 | templates you'll need in a site.
| | 02:33 | Wireframes are often used to make
sure the client is happy with the overall
| | 02:37 | structure of a site
before you start building it.
| | 02:39 | They're also used to inform designers
and to help the production staff to put
| | 02:43 | all of the pieces
together when they build a site.
| | 02:46 | I created this wireframe using Adobe
Proto, which makes it possible to create
| | 02:50 | interactive prototypes with links
as well as basic wireframe pages.
| | 02:54 | Notice that this page includes a list
of all of the pages in the wireframe
| | 02:58 | along the right-hand side, and Proto
enables you to set links from one page to another.
| | 03:04 | I like Adobe Proto for multiple reasons.
| | 03:06 | It's intuitive and I can use it
while I'm reclining on the couch.
| | 03:10 | Although Proto is not as robust as some
of the other wireframe programs in the
| | 03:14 | market, it's more than powerful enough
to mock up basic pages and even create
| | 03:19 | interactive prototypes. But what I
love most about Proto is that it gets me
| | 03:23 | away from my computer.
| | 03:25 | I find that especially helpful when it
comes to prototyping, because the hardest
| | 03:29 | thing about creating wireframes is not
the technical stuff; it's the thinking
| | 03:33 | part and I definitely think
better when I'm curled up on the couch.
| | 03:38 | Although you can draw wireframes and
sitemaps yourself with the pencil and
| | 03:41 | paper, there are a number of
software programs that make it easier.
| | 03:45 | On the low end, some people use the
SmartArt functions in Microsoft Word to
| | 03:49 | create simple flowcharts.
| | 03:51 | You can also use Microsoft
PowerPoint and Adobe Fireworks.
| | 03:55 | If you want to get more
elaborate and you have a bigger budget,
| | 03:57 | consider Microsoft Visio and for
Mac users, by far the most popular
| | 04:02 | program is OmniGraffle.
| | 04:04 | For more on that popular tool,
consider Jason Osder's course on Creating Web
| | 04:08 | Sitemaps and Wireframes with
OmniGraffle, here at lynda.com.
| | 04:12 | You will also find a growing number of
online tools and services that can help
| | 04:16 | with creating flowcharts, wireframes
and prototypes, including Gliffy, Axure,
| | 04:21 | and Balsamiq.
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| Creating metadata| 00:00 | Metadata is data about data.
| | 00:03 | Yeah, that's pretty meta.
| | 00:05 | Metadata can be used to describe data
in many different ways, but at its heart,
| | 00:09 | metadata is all about
helping keep data organized.
| | 00:13 | You may already be familiar with
metadata because it's a key part of search
| | 00:17 | engine optimization, but metadata is
important anytime you're dealing with so
| | 00:21 | much content that you need
help keeping track of it all,
| | 00:25 | even if you're working on an
intranet and don't care about SEO.
| | 00:28 | Because this is not a class in SEO,
I won't go into too much detail about all of
| | 00:33 | the different types of metadata that
matter to search engines, but you can learn
| | 00:37 | lots more about SEO in
other courses here at lynda.com.
| | 00:41 | Metadata includes things like the page
title, which you see here at the top of
| | 00:45 | the Wisdom Pet Medicine homepage.
| | 00:46 | I've circled it in red to call your attention.
| | 00:49 | Although the text in the title tag
doesn't appear in the body of the page, it's
| | 00:53 | arguably the most important piece of metadata.
| | 00:57 | Title text is also what gets saved
when someone bookmarks your site, and it's
| | 01:00 | highly valued by search engines, which
is why many people recommend you include
| | 01:04 | your most important keywords in your title tag.
| | 01:07 | In WordPress, the page title is
automatically used as the title of the document
| | 01:12 | unless you override it.
| | 01:13 | So as you see here, here's my page
title, and that's copied up here in the
| | 01:18 | title text at the very top of the page.
But if I come back to the WordPress
| | 01:22 | Dashboard, I'll show you how I can overwrite
that and use different text in the Title field.
| | 01:28 | In almost any good content management
system, like WordPress, you should have
| | 01:32 | some way of adding a title as well, as meta
description, keywords, and other data to your pages.
| | 01:38 | No matter how your CMS or web design
program works, the thing to remember is
| | 01:42 | this: the headline of an article is
not always the best title for that page.
| | 01:48 | And that's why good content strategy
documents often include fields for both the
| | 01:52 | headline and a title.
| | 01:55 | I'll use this blog post to illustrate
how all of this works in WordPress, but
| | 01:58 | you can find instructions on how to
add metadata using almost any web design
| | 02:03 | program in the courses here at lynda.com.
| | 02:06 | Again, at the top of this page
I have a headline: Cuttlebones:
| | 02:09 | a healthy bird treat and a
fascinating toy all in one.
| | 02:13 | Not a bad headline. But this is an
article about how Cuttlebones are useful for
| | 02:18 | bird beaks and the word beak
doesn't even appear in that headline.
| | 02:22 | So for search engine results, I'd be
much better off with the words I have here
| | 02:27 | in my Keyword field.
| | 02:28 | For the purposes of this demonstration
I'm just going to copy this and paste it
| | 02:33 | into the Title field.
| | 02:34 | Lots of people use titles that are
basically a list of keywords, and that's
| | 02:39 | perfectly legitimate. Just try to keep
it under 60 characters. That's where most
| | 02:43 | search engines will cut it off.
| | 02:45 | I'll point out that the Keyword field itself is
generally ignored these days by search engines.
| | 02:50 | Too many web designers tried to stuff too
many unrelated keywords into the Keyword
| | 02:54 | tag and most search engines
started ignoring it as a result.
| | 02:58 | But keywords may still be very
important for improving results in your internal
| | 03:02 | search engine, especially on a really
big website, so it's still good practice
| | 03:06 | to include a list of keywords, even
though Google won't pay attention to it.
| | 03:11 | The Meta Description tag here in the
middle is also very important because this
| | 03:15 | is the text that appears
in search engine results.
| | 03:17 | Let me show you an example of that.
| | 03:20 | Here you'll see I've done a
Google search on the word recipes.
| | 03:23 | The best descriptions are really
mini-sales pitches, and a good description can
| | 03:28 | make a big difference in someone's decision
to click or not click on the link to your site.
| | 03:33 | Again, there is a character limit.
| | 03:35 | Most search engines will cut you off
after 160 characters, but including a good
| | 03:40 | well-crafted sales pitch as a meta-
description is a key part of any good content strategy.
| | 03:47 | One other important piece of
metadata that's easy to miss is alt text.
| | 03:51 | Alt text is an HTML image attribute for
alternative text, which lets you include
| | 03:56 | a written description of
every image in your pages.
| | 04:00 | It's like a little secret message
hidden in the code behind the page that
| | 04:04 | describes your picture for search
engines and other programs that read pages
| | 04:09 | but can't see them.
| | 04:11 | Adobe Dreamweaver, which you see in
this image, prompts you to add alt text
| | 04:15 | whenever you insert an image,
unless you turn that feature off.
| | 04:19 | And most good content management
systems, like WordPress, include a field for
| | 04:23 | alternative text in the image options.
| | 04:26 | As you can see in the highlighted text
here, alt text is just text included as an
| | 04:30 | attribute of the HTML image tag.
| | 04:32 | In this example, I've included the
description, "Labrador attacks toilet paper."
| | 04:38 | One last meta tag that's especially
important to content strategists is the
| | 04:42 | Author meta tag, which is used for
the name of the person who authored the
| | 04:47 | content of any web page.
| | 04:48 | It looks like this.
| | 04:50 | This is my name and how I would add
this to any page on the web that I author.
| | 04:55 | In addition to helping you keep track
of who wrote or created each page on your
| | 04:59 | site, the author tag has become
increasingly popular because it can help you
| | 05:03 | identify your own content if it
gets stolen by pirates, who usually use
| | 05:08 | automated content scrapers to copy content from
the web and pick up the author tag along with it.
| | 05:14 | If you use the author tag and you
create a Google profile with your
| | 05:18 | photo, Google will even show your picture in
the search results on pages you've authored.
| | 05:23 | Whether you're adding metadata to
improve search engine optimization, to help you
| | 05:27 | keep better track of the content in
your website, or to make the search features
| | 05:31 | internal to your site work more
effectively, creating meta content is a key part
| | 05:36 | of any serious content strategy.
| | 05:38 | My best advice is that you start
developing metadata as early in the process as
| | 05:43 | possible, and that you include fields
for metadata in all of your planning
| | 05:47 | documents, including your content
inventory, gap analysis, and the content
| | 05:51 | matrix we covered earlier in this course.
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|
|
3. Choosing the Best Medium for Each MessageAppreciating the value of text and images| 00:00 | The life of a content strategist was so
much simpler when all you could publish
| | 00:04 | on a website was text and a few small images--
| | 00:07 | simpler but oh so vanilla boring.
| | 00:10 | And as far as I know, no one got paid to be a
content strategist back in the good old days.
| | 00:16 | Today, there's so much hype around
video, animation, and other rich media,
| | 00:20 | it's easy to forget that good old text
and images are still the best choice for
| | 00:25 | most of the content on
most of the world's websites.
| | 00:28 | So before we get into best practices
with rich media formats in the next few
| | 00:33 | videos, let's give text a little respect.
| | 00:36 | It's easy to get caught up in the power
of video, but never forget that most of
| | 00:40 | us can read faster than we can talk.
| | 00:43 | I know some of us talk really, really
fast, but believe it or not most people
| | 00:48 | can still read even faster.
| | 00:50 | That doesn't mean you should use text
for everything, or that you should use text
| | 00:54 | at the expense of images.
| | 00:55 | We would not have improved the old
text-heavy version of our Wisdom Pet website
| | 01:00 | by simply converting everything into
video. And even on the pages like the
| | 01:05 | educational section where we do include
video, animation, and other rich media,
| | 01:10 | we've still included text descriptions.
| | 01:13 | These text descriptions are designed
in part to sell our visitors on the
| | 01:18 | value of our rich media.
| | 01:20 | That's because we're asking a lot of
people on the web when we ask them to watch
| | 01:26 | a video or sit through an animation.
| | 01:26 | Most consumers want to know if that rich
media is worth their time before they click on it.
| | 01:33 | Adding text to pages like this one,
where you have a video, can also improve your
| | 01:38 | search engine results.
| | 01:39 | Search engines can't parse the words in
a video and thus they will never match
| | 01:43 | this page in a search engine if we
don't also include text with important
| | 01:47 | keywords and phrases.
| | 01:49 | Here is another example of content that
should always be presented as text: your
| | 01:55 | address and phone number.
| | 01:57 | I am amazed at how many people still
save their address and phone number in
| | 02:02 | graphics on the pages of their website.
| | 02:04 | This may look like a
graphic, but this is all text.
| | 02:09 | The problem with having phone numbers
in an image is that more and more of us
| | 02:12 | are surfing the web on mobile devices
and you can't click to call if the phone
| | 02:17 | number is in a graphic.
| | 02:18 | Similarly, you can't copy and paste
text that's in a graphic, which means you
| | 02:23 | can't copy an address into your
address book or into an online mapping
| | 02:27 | program to get directions.
| | 02:29 | Remember, the biggest goal of our pet website
was to get people to call and make appointments,
| | 02:35 | so we wanted to make sure the phone
number was as easy to find as possible.
| | 02:39 | That's why we put it in
multiple places on the site.
| | 02:42 | But even here on the front page where
it looks like this text may be part of
| | 02:47 | this image I made the photo a
background image, so that I could place the text
| | 02:51 | over it and it can still be
copied and pasted or clicked to call.
| | 02:56 | You can learn how to use background
images like this, as well as many other great
| | 03:00 | CSS techniques, in the web
design courses here at lynda.com.
| | 03:04 | As for images, I'm sure you've heard
that a picture is worth a thousand words.
| | 03:09 | As for the value of text, it can get
pretty boring all by itself and even
| | 03:13 | intimidating when displayed in large chunks.
| | 03:16 | So on a page like this Services page,
photos and other images can help break up
| | 03:21 | the text and draw our
attention to important information.
| | 03:26 | As you consider the best ways to
present content on your website, remember, text
| | 03:31 | and images are still a great choice,
especially when you're providing contact
| | 03:36 | information such as phone numbers or addresses,
| | 03:39 | when you want people to be able to
copy and paste information--when you're
| | 03:43 | restricted by limited bandwidth, text and
images still download a lot faster than
| | 03:48 | all that rich media--
| | 03:49 | when you want people to be able to
scan information quickly, when you want to
| | 03:53 | make information easy for search
engines to find, and when you're providing
| | 03:57 | instructions or a recipe
that's easier to follow in text.
| | 04:02 | And never forget, images are text's best friend.
| | 04:05 | Just because video and animation have
become popular on the web, doesn't mean
| | 04:10 | they are always the best
way to share information.
| | 04:12 | If a client, colleague, or boss starts
asking you for video and animation just
| | 04:17 | because it's cool, but you as the
content strategist believe that text and
| | 04:21 | images are still the better choice,
don't be afraid to make your case. Text and
| | 04:26 | photos still serve a very
important role on the web.
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| Using video to make content more compelling| 00:00 | If you want to sell an idea or teach a
complex concept, video offers a powerful
| | 00:05 | way to show, not tell.
| | 00:08 | Consider how you'd explain to someone
the process of brushing a dog's teeth, or
| | 00:12 | even your own teeth for that
matter, if you are restricted to text.
| | 00:16 | Now assume that the reader has no idea
what it means to brush someone's teeth
| | 00:20 | and they've never seen it done.
| | 00:22 | You might try something like this. Step one:
| | 00:25 | take the cap off the toothpaste. Step two:
| | 00:27 | squeeze a half inch of paste
onto the bristles of the brush.
| | 00:30 | Three: hold the brush firmly in your hand.
| | 00:32 | Four: use the other hand to
force the dog's mouth open.
| | 00:34 | Five: put the brush in the dog's mouth.
| | 00:36 | Six: move the brush in a circular
motion over the dog's teeth, while politely
| | 00:40 | asking the dog not to bite you.
| | 00:42 | Okay, I think you get the idea.
| | 00:44 | Now, let's imagine that you actually can
use video and watch this segment to see
| | 00:50 | how much more impactful it is to
show rather than tell.
| | 00:54 | (Female speaker: Brushing your pet's teeth
with a veterinarian-approved toothpaste made just for pets)
| | 00:59 | (a few times a week can prevent periodontal disease.)
| | 01:03 | (And with regular brushing, your dog will actually
start to enjoy the process and crave the toothpaste)
| | 01:08 | (as a tasty treat. Best of all, they'll have fresh breath
and a healthier smile. Because we all know that happy dogs smile.)
| | 01:18 | As you consider how to present all of
the content on your website, remember that
| | 01:23 | video is best used when you
want to convey information quickly,
| | 01:27 | you want to share instructional
information--video is ideal for how-to
| | 01:32 | information--or the information that
you want to share is highly visual,
| | 01:36 | especially if it's hard to describe in words.
| | 01:38 | For example, it's much easier and more
impactful to show a video of a tornado
| | 01:45 | than to try and describe how a tornado moves.
| | 01:49 | Keep in mind, sometimes the best use
of video is to combine it with text.
| | 01:54 | For example, if you're teaching me how
to cook brownies, it may be helpful for me
| | 01:58 | to watch you prepare the batter and see
you take the brownies out of the oven.
| | 02:03 | But when I go to make my own brownies
I probably appreciate it if you also
| | 02:07 | included written instructions, so that
I can follow along and I don't have to
| | 02:12 | watch the video again just to figure
out how much flour or sugar to add.
| | 02:17 | Remember, you probably don't want to
replace all of the text on your website
| | 02:21 | with video, but adding a little video
here and there can make the information
| | 02:25 | on your site easier to understand,
more visually impactful, and ultimately far
| | 02:31 | more powerful.
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| Explaining complex concepts with infographics and animations| 00:00 | When you can show the real thing,
photos and videos are great, but
| | 00:04 | sometimes infographics and animations are the
only way to truly illustrate complex concepts.
| | 00:09 | Infographics like this one, which
illustrates the lifecycle of a heartworm, are a
| | 00:14 | great way to share information
in a concise and engaging way.
| | 00:18 | Done well, they can also serve as
excellent link bait, meaning they can attract
| | 00:22 | new visitors to your site and even
get other websites to link to you.
| | 00:27 | Infographics have also proven
very popular on social media.
| | 00:30 | If you invest the time and resources in
creating this kind of rich media, make
| | 00:34 | sure you promote it across all of the
channels you use to reach your audience.
| | 00:39 | More on that in a later video.
| | 00:41 | Infographics work especially well when you
want to show how things are interrelated;
| | 00:47 | demonstrate cause and effect;
illustrate complex systems; make data visually
| | 00:53 | understandable, from simple pie charts
to complex graphics--and this whole trend
| | 00:58 | toward big data makes infographics
even more important; or when you want to
| | 01:03 | illustrate complex
relationships using multiple datasets.
| | 01:06 | Here is an example of that, and
this isn't just any infographic.
| | 01:11 | This is believed to be the first
infographic ever published in a newspaper.
| | 01:16 | It appeared in a French paper in 1869.
| | 01:20 | This infographic shows the number
of men in Napoleon's 1812 Russian
| | 01:24 | campaign army, their movements, as well as the
temperature they encountered on their return.
| | 01:30 | Even today, it demonstrates how
infographics work especially well when you want
| | 01:34 | to show distance, time, fatality
rates, and temperature and how all of those
| | 01:39 | combined to take a toll on Napoleon's army.
| | 01:43 | An infographic may also be the best
choice when you want to offer a visual
| | 01:47 | look inside something.
| | 01:49 | For example, if I just had a
photograph of this truck, I could only show the
| | 01:53 | outside, but with an infographic I can
show how the engine fits in the front
| | 01:57 | of the cab, and provide a better visual of
both the inside and outside of the truck at once.
| | 02:04 | If I wanted to show how the engine works
then I might want to graduate to an animation.
| | 02:09 | Animations are ideal when you want to
show how something moves or changes or
| | 02:14 | multiple things interact in motion.
| | 02:19 | Animation also works especially well
when you want to demonstrate scientific
| | 02:23 | concepts or health, such as how
Serotonin moves between neurons or anything else
| | 02:29 | like this that's virtually
impossible to capture with video.
| | 02:33 | Animation is ideal when you want to
show dynamic data, when you want to show
| | 02:38 | moving parts, demonstrate chemical or
physical reactions, show how to assemble
| | 02:44 | something--because you can actually show
how parts fit together--or when you want
| | 02:49 | to attract attention.
| | 02:51 | Just including a little motion on a
web page captures your users' attention.
| | 02:56 | When visitors see something moving
they react on an instinctual level.
| | 03:01 | If you overdo it, animation can be
terribly distracting, but used well, it's
| | 03:06 | one of the most powerful ways to
attract attention and to teach or
| | 03:10 | demonstrate complex concepts.
| | 03:12 | Bonus tip: animated GIFs, which seems
so 1990s, have made a surprising comeback
| | 03:18 | on the web, because they bring motion to
web pages and they work across all devices.
| | 03:24 | More on designing for mobile in a later video.
| | 03:27 | And here's a final tip:
| | 03:28 | no matter how you create an animation,
whether it's an animated GIF or an
| | 03:32 | interactive slider like the one on
the front of this site, don't let your
| | 03:36 | animations repeat or loop forever.
| | 03:39 | I find three times is the magic number.
| | 03:42 | On a slider like this, I also like to
include controls, so if somebody wants to
| | 03:47 | actively move through these or stop on
a particular slide, they have the choice.
| | 03:53 | Limiting the number of times an
animation repeats and providing options for your
| | 03:57 | users lets you get your users
attention without distracting them too much or
| | 04:02 | worse, driving them crazy.
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| Using timelines to give context over time| 00:00 | Timelines are a powerful visual way to
provide context, relevance, history, and
| | 00:06 | to show how things change or evolve over time.
| | 00:09 | In this timeline on the wisdompets
website users can quickly find out what
| | 00:13 | vaccinations they need
based on the age of their pets.
| | 00:17 | That means they don't have to wade
through a long written explanation of when
| | 00:21 | and how to get a vaccination.
| | 00:22 | They can just jump right to the
section that's most relevant to them.
| | 00:26 | This simple timeline was created using a
slideshow tool, but there are many ways
| | 00:32 | to create timelines.
| | 00:34 | In addition to the Slideshow tool that
we used to create the timeline on the
| | 00:37 | wisdompets site, you'll find a
number of dedicated timeline plug-ins for
| | 00:41 | WordPress and other content management systems.
| | 00:44 | You can also design timelines as
graphics using Photoshop or Illustrator. Even
| | 00:49 | the WordArt in Microsoft Word is a
handy way to create a simple timeline.
| | 00:54 | And you'll find a growing list of
dedicated timeline-creation tools.
| | 00:58 | If you just search Google for
"timeline tools," you'll find the latest.
| | 01:02 | Interactive timelines are a useful
way to help visitors to your site
| | 01:06 | learn how your company or
organization has developed and grown over time.
| | 01:10 | Showing history can help build consumer
confidence, because most people assume
| | 01:14 | if you've been around for a while
you must be doing something right.
| | 01:18 | Similarly, timelines can be useful when
you need to see how things happen across
| | 01:23 | different time zones.
| | 01:24 | Using a timeline can also help you put
current events and perspective, because
| | 01:28 | you can include links to previous
stories and show how things that are happening
| | 01:32 | now build on events from the past.
| | 01:35 | Further evidence of the power and value
of timelines is the Facebook timeline,
| | 01:39 | which lets you see the posts and
milestones in any user profile over time.
| | 01:44 | Facebook recognized the power of
providing context in recent updates by letting
| | 01:49 | users build a history.
| | 01:51 | Timelines work best when you want
to show how things change over time,
| | 01:56 | illustrate how one event leads to another,
provide a quick reference that users can control,
| | 02:02 | and ultimately, adding timelines to a
website can help you take advantage of
| | 02:06 | one of the things that makes the Internet
different from any other form of communication:
| | 02:11 | the ability to provide context, to
show the past as well as the present, and
| | 02:16 | even hint to the future.
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| Making the most of PDFs| 00:00 | The Portable Document Format is popular
in part because it's relatively easy to
| | 00:05 | convert large text files into PDFs quickly.
| | 00:09 | Using Adobe Acrobat, you can turn a text
file into a static PDF as easily as you
| | 00:14 | can send it to print.
| | 00:15 | In fact, with Acrobat integrated into
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and many other
| | 00:20 | programs, you can literally use
the print option to generate a PDF.
| | 00:25 | Unfortunately, anything that's
that easy is often over used.
| | 00:30 | As you conduct a content analysis
of any existing website, pay special
| | 00:34 | attention to the PDFs.
| | 00:37 | Formatting content in HTML is often a
better option, because text formatted in
| | 00:41 | HTML is generally more searchable.
| | 00:44 | By that I mean search engines generally
can't search the contents of a PDF the
| | 00:49 | way they can search text formatted
in HTML across an entire website.
| | 00:54 | HTML also generally loads faster in a
web browser and text is often easier to
| | 01:00 | edit and update later, because you don't
have to go back to the original Word or
| | 01:04 | PowerPoint document, edit that,
regenerate the PDF and upload it to the
| | 01:08 | website, all of that just
to make a simple text change.
| | 01:12 | But if the content were in HTML, it
would have been a very easy thing to fix.
| | 01:17 | That said, there certainly are
times when PDFs are the best choice.
| | 01:20 | PDFs are especially useful when you
need to preserve complicated formatting in
| | 01:25 | a document designed for print, such as
a legal contract, a sales brochure, or
| | 01:30 | the pages of a catalog.
| | 01:32 | In our fictitious wisdompets site,
we've resorted to PDFs to provide the
| | 01:36 | detailed medical information that
comes with the drugs our vet prescribes.
| | 01:41 | Please keep in mind this is a
completely fictitious website.
| | 01:45 | I'm sorry if it disappoints you,
but no pharmaceutical company that I know of
| | 01:49 | has actually invented a bark
suppressant called Barkhof or a drug like XCALM,
| | 01:54 | which includes side effects
like making your pet levitate.
| | 01:59 | We created these fake drugs and their
instructions to amuse ourselves, and we
| | 02:03 | hope you, and to illustrate
one of the better uses of PDFs.
| | 02:07 | When you're dealing with something like
prescription drug information, for pets
| | 02:12 | or humans, you're dealing with
information that's highly regulated, which means
| | 02:17 | that the information often has to be
presented in a very specific way, and even
| | 02:22 | the order and the relative
size of the text may be regulated.
| | 02:30 | In a document like these, a single typo
or an accidentally deleted phrase can
| | 02:34 | lead to lawsuits, or worse: someone might
actually get sick if they misunderstand
| | 02:39 | the warnings or the instructions.
| | 02:41 | When you simply convert a document to PDF
there is not much chance of human error.
| | 02:46 | PDFs are also a popular choice when you
have hundreds or thousands of pages of
| | 02:51 | information, and entering all of that
content into a database or formatting it
| | 02:56 | all in HTML is time- or cost-prohibitive.
| | 02:59 | Although I have to say, of all the reasons
to use PDFs, that one is my least favorite.
| | 03:05 | The best uses of PDFs won't
necessarily save you time, but you can create
| | 03:10 | interactive PDFs with links,
embedded videos, and other rich media.
| | 03:14 | And although creating an interactive
PDF is generally no less complex than
| | 03:19 | formatting content with HTML and CSS,
| | 03:21 | they do offer a compelling advantage.
| | 03:25 | An interactive PDF can be shared in
one self-contained file and can be
| | 03:30 | downloaded and viewed offline, which
makes the Portable Document Format a
| | 03:34 | popular choice for interactive ebooks,
annual reports, sales materials, and any
| | 03:40 | other content you want to
distribute beyond the pages of your website.
| | 03:45 | In general, PDFs are best used when
you want to preserve complex formatting,
| | 03:50 | especially in a document that's likely
to be printed; if you want to present a
| | 03:54 | document exactly as it was originally
designed, because of legal issues or
| | 03:58 | liability; if you are sharing large
documents such as eBooks or annual reports;
| | 04:04 | if you want to create an
interactive, self-contained file that can be
| | 04:08 | downloaded and viewed offline, which
is great for sales presentations and
| | 04:12 | marketing materials as well
| | 04:13 | when you have hundreds or thousands
of pages and using PDF is the most
| | 04:18 | cost-effective or time-saving option.
| | 04:20 | And in the next video, we'll explore
how you can use PDFs to create interactive
| | 04:25 | forms or to preserve the
formatting in a complex form
| | 04:29 | you want somebody to print and fill out offline.
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| Using interactive forms| 00:00 | On a website you can use forms for
everything from gathering basic feedback to
| | 00:05 | conducting surveys and polls, to the
search field that lets someone searched
| | 00:09 | through your website.
| | 00:10 | There are a lot of different
ways and reasons to create forms.
| | 00:14 | The basic HTML needed to
create a form is relatively simple.
| | 00:18 | But because forms generally require a
script on the server to process their
| | 00:22 | contents, creating interactive forms is
more complex than many people expect.
| | 00:27 | That complexity is compounded by the
fact that many commercial web hosting
| | 00:31 | services, or ISPs, put safeguards in
place to prevent anyone from using their
| | 00:36 | servers to send spam.
| | 00:38 | And those safeguards can make it
tricky to set up the permissions you need to
| | 00:42 | create even a simple web form.
| | 00:45 | As a result, many people use an online
form service such as EMailMeForm or Adobe
| | 00:51 | FormsCentral, two of the most popular options.
| | 00:54 | In addition to all of the ways you can
use the Portable Document Format that we
| | 00:58 | covered in the last video,
| | 01:00 | you can also use PDFs designed
interactive forms, or to preserve the complex
| | 01:05 | formatting of a form that you want
someone to print, fill out, and sign offline.
| | 01:10 | For example, W-9 Forms and other tax
related documents are often saved as static PDFs.
| | 01:17 | But you can also use the Portable
Document Format to create interactive forms
| | 01:21 | that can be filled out and submitted online.
| | 01:24 | And making it easy to fill out and
submit a form makes it a lot more likely that
| | 01:28 | someone will take the time to do so.
| | 01:31 | If you use the online service at
Adobe FormsCentral, you have the option of
| | 01:35 | creating an HTML form or a PDF form.
| | 01:37 | So what's the advantage of
creating a form as an interactive PDF?
| | 01:42 | It's kind of a best-of-both-worlds solution.
| | 01:45 | You can fill it out on the computer,
but you don't necessarily have to be
| | 01:49 | connected to the website to do so.
| | 01:51 | That means you can save your work
and finish filling out a form later.
| | 01:54 | So you don't have to an all in one
setting, which is especially useful when
| | 01:58 | you're dealing with very long or complex forms.
| | 02:01 | If you work for a large company or
organization, you should start by finding out
| | 02:05 | how your system is set up to create
online forms, and you may have a team of
| | 02:10 | programmers who can help you, but be
prepare to revisit whatever system they may
| | 02:14 | be using, especially if they've been
using the same system for long time.
| | 02:19 | The technology we use to create and
process form data has evolved dramatically
| | 02:24 | over the years, and as part of your
content assessment you may want to review the
| | 02:28 | best way to collect and
store information using forms.
| | 02:32 | Another thing to consider about forms
is how you use them on contact pages.
| | 02:37 | Many web designers try and hide their
email addresses by using a form so that
| | 02:41 | scrapers used by spammers can't just
pick their email addresses up off the web.
| | 02:46 | Now, I hate spam as much as the next person,
but I think that's what spam filters are for.
| | 02:51 | Enforcing a visitor to your site to fill
out a form just so they can contact you
| | 02:56 | reduces the number of responses you'll
get, because so many people hate filling
| | 03:00 | out a form just to send you an email.
| | 03:03 | If the main goal of your website, like
the goal of our Wisdom Pet site, is to get
| | 03:07 | visitors to contact you,
you want to make it as easy as possible.
| | 03:10 | So let me conclude this lesson with a
quick review of the contact page on the
| | 03:14 | Wisdom Pet site, and a few best practices.
| | 03:17 | First, notice that we've provided a
variety of ways that visitors can reach
| | 03:21 | us, starting with our phone number
at the top, and our email address
| | 03:24 | prominently displayed.
| | 03:26 | I've also included links to our social
media sites, because more and more users
| | 03:30 | like to connect with you on social media.
| | 03:33 | I have used a form here when
people want to become a volunteer.
| | 03:37 | But in this case I used the form
because I want to prescreen people.
| | 03:42 | I want to ask them some specific questions,
| | 03:45 | like what kind of volunteer
work they might want to do.
| | 03:48 | And that is a great use for a form.
| | 03:51 | Also notice that I'm giving them the
choice of filling out that form as an
| | 03:54 | HTML form or printing out the PDF, filling it out
at home, and bringing in into the office later.
| | 04:01 | Giving people multiple
options is always a good idea.
| | 04:05 | Finally, at the bottom of this page,
you'll see that we have a sign-up for our
| | 04:09 | monthly tips newsletter and a form
that has just one field asking only for
| | 04:14 | their email address.
| | 04:15 | It's the simplest way to capture emails
and the most common way to get people to
| | 04:21 | sign up for an email newsletter.
| | 04:23 | You may choose to include more fields and
collect more information about new subscribers.
| | 04:28 | But no matter how complicated you get
with your form, I strongly suggest you
| | 04:31 | consider using one of the bulk email
services such as MailChimp, which I'm using here.
| | 04:37 | We'll look at several other popular
email services in the later video on
| | 04:41 | email and blogging,
| | 04:42 | but the main thing to know about
email is that in order to comply with
| | 04:46 | anti-spam regulations you have to be
very careful anytime you're sending out
| | 04:50 | many email messages at once.
| | 04:53 | In general, interactive forms are best
used when you want to collect information
| | 04:58 | and save it into a database, when you
want to prescreen visitors by asking
| | 05:01 | specific questions, when you're
asking people to fill out an application or
| | 05:06 | collecting lots of detailed information,
and when you're asking people to sign
| | 05:10 | up for an email and need to
comply with anti-spam laws.
| | 05:13 | The main thing to take away from this
video is that there are almost as many
| | 05:17 | different reasons to use forms as
there are different ways to create them.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Managing Publishing OptionsKeeping up with blogs and newsletters| 00:00 | One of the best ways to keep your
audience up to date and keep them coming
| | 00:04 | back to your website is by regularly posting
to a blog or sending out an email newsletter.
| | 00:09 | If you are working on a small site,
you may find it efficient to set up your blog
| | 00:13 | so that each post also gets
sent out to subscribers via email.
| | 00:16 | If you are working for a bigger company,
combining a blog and newsletter may
| | 00:19 | not be such a good idea, because blogs
and newsletters typically serve very
| | 00:24 | different purposes.
| | 00:25 | Before I get into any of my content
tips, I'd be remiss here if I don't at least
| | 00:30 | warn you that one of the most important
things about email newsletters is that
| | 00:34 | anytime you send email to more than
a few people you need to comply with
| | 00:38 | strict anti-spam laws.
| | 00:40 | That's why I showed you MailChimp in
the last video, and why I am showing you
| | 00:44 | AWeber and other sites like Constant Contact.
| | 00:48 | There are a variety of bulk email
services on the web, and they all serve similar
| | 00:53 | purposes, so find the one
that works best for you.
| | 00:56 | But one of the things that many of them
have is a collection of templates like
| | 01:00 | this that you can use to start the
design of your newsletter. Just scrolling
| | 01:04 | through these can be a great way to get ideas.
| | 01:07 | In larger organizations, email
newsletters are often used as a marketing tool, a
| | 01:12 | way to stay in touch with customers,
offer discounts on products, and share
| | 01:16 | timely information and updates.
| | 01:18 | But even then, you don't want to be
too overt with the sales message.
| | 01:22 | Email newsletters often work best when
you set them up as a series that starts
| | 01:26 | with offering valuable content and
builds to a sales message over time.
| | 01:30 | If you like the idea of a series, consider this:
| | 01:33 | when someone first subscribes to your
email newsletter, start with a welcome
| | 01:37 | message, thanking them, letting them
know what to expect, and offering them
| | 01:41 | something of value right away--a tip
or some kind of helpful information.
| | 01:45 | Then follow that with another useful tip,
and after that, may be a valuable insight.
| | 01:50 | And wait until the third or even the
fourth message before you suggest your
| | 01:55 | subscribers take action, by
buying something or using your service.
| | 01:59 | And ideally, offer them a
discount or another incentive.
| | 02:03 | Using a series of email messages like
this helps you build connection with your
| | 02:07 | audience before you hit them with
the sales message or a call to action.
| | 02:12 | Here are a few more tips about newsletters.
| | 02:15 | Keep it short, limit the number of
graphics--remember, these are going to be
| | 02:19 | read in an email program not
in a sophisticated web browser.
| | 02:23 | For the same reason, you want to keep
the design very simple, offer something of
| | 02:27 | value: tips, insights, educational information.
| | 02:30 | Include a call to action;
| | 02:32 | one of the main reasons to have a
newsletter is to remind people of your website
| | 02:36 | and to encourage them to
continue to buy your product or service.
| | 02:40 | Personalize the emails as much as possible.
| | 02:43 | You can automate the process
of replacing people's names.
| | 02:46 | There are many ways to make an email
feel more personal. And remember, reading
| | 02:51 | email is itself a
relatively personal experience.
| | 02:55 | And perhaps the most important
thing: write a killer subject line.
| | 02:59 | Studies show that writing a compelling
subject line is the single most important
| | 03:04 | thing when it comes to getting people
to open your email in the first place.
| | 03:08 | So here are a few suggestions
for writing killer subject lines.
| | 03:14 | The obvious: don't use the same generic
subject every time, but I can't tell you
| | 03:18 | how many email newsletters I've
subscribed to and the subject line every week,
| | 03:22 | every month is simply
the name of the newsletter.
| | 03:25 | That's a wasted opportunity.
| | 03:27 | Replace the name of your newsletter
with something specific to the contents of
| | 03:30 | the email every time.
| | 03:32 | Write a subject line like you write a
headline: short, compelling and with an
| | 03:37 | invitation that makes me
want to read what's inside.
| | 03:41 | Limit it to 50 characters or less.
Never use the word free. That may
| | 03:46 | seem counterintuitive,
| | 03:47 | but again, studies show that when you see
the word free you often associate no value.
| | 03:54 | And if there is no value why am I going
to waste my time reading your newsletter?
| | 03:59 | And finally, don't use all caps.
| | 04:02 | As you may know already, using
caps in email sounds like shouting.
| | 04:06 | In contrast to email newsletters,
blogs can have a very different style.
| | 04:10 | In the blog on our Wisdom Pet site we've
mostly posted educational information,
| | 04:15 | like the story about how a cuttlebone
makes a good toy for a pet, but you can
| | 04:19 | also use them to keep their beaks
healthy, or cat scratch fever, about the value
| | 04:23 | of providing scratching posts for your animals.
| | 04:26 | If we sold cuttlebones or cat
scratchers, we might want to add a link to where
| | 04:31 | you can purchase one of these products.
| | 04:32 | But I still wouldn't recommend that you
use your blog only to announce that you
| | 04:37 | are having a sale on your site
or that products are available.
| | 04:40 | Most people expect to get some value,
insight, or entertainment from a blog post,
| | 04:45 | not just sales pitch.
| | 04:47 | Blogs are great when you want to
publish things frequently and make
| | 04:50 | regular updates. It's often easier
to post things to a blog than other
| | 04:54 | parts of the website.
| | 04:55 | They are a great place to express
opinions, and many sites use blogs as a way
| | 05:00 | to separate content that's more editorial
from content that's more opinion-oriented.
| | 05:06 | You can write in a more casual style;
in fact, blogs are almost expected to be
| | 05:10 | written in a more casual style.
| | 05:13 | And blogs are a great place to provide
insight, explore trends, even kind of
| | 05:18 | think about the future and test new ideas.
| | 05:21 | Because blogs usually have comments,
they are great place to foster conversations
| | 05:26 | with site visitors and even with other bloggers.
| | 05:29 | It often works well to combine a blog and
a website as we have here on Wisdom Pets.
| | 05:35 | On many sites you find that the content
is more formal and authoritative in the
| | 05:38 | main pages of the site and then
more casual in some of the blog posts.
| | 05:43 | But at the end of the day, blogs are
really just another type of website with a
| | 05:48 | few special features, like the ability
for visitors to leave comments, which
| | 05:51 | tends to make them more conversational.
| | 05:54 | But the big takeaway from all this is
that as you plan the content strategy for
| | 05:58 | your website keep in mind that you may
need to create different kinds of content
| | 06:03 | for different publishing channels:
| | 06:05 | one message for your web pages, a
different one for your newsletter, yet another
| | 06:09 | one for a blog post.
| | 06:10 | And don't forget that you
can use one to promote another.
| | 06:14 | So for example if one of your
veterinarians writes a great post about why
| | 06:18 | you should be fair to fish, you may
want to promote that post in your next newsletter.
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| Doing content marketing on social media| 00:00 | An increasingly important part of any
good content strategy is how to leverage
| | 00:04 | your best content on social media sites.
| | 00:07 | From Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest
and beyond, social media has become an
| | 00:11 | important place to promote
any business or organization.
| | 00:14 | Whether you create a profile on every
social media site out there or you focus
| | 00:18 | your efforts on one or two, it's never
too early to start thinking about how to
| | 00:23 | share your best content across social media.
| | 00:26 | If you're working on a large website,
you may just be giving content ideas to
| | 00:29 | the social media team.
| | 00:31 | On a smaller project you
may have to do it yourself.
| | 00:34 | Either way, here are a few
general suggestions to get you started.
| | 00:38 | The first step is to identify which
social media sites you should target.
| | 00:42 | Not all of them may be appropriate to you.
| | 00:44 | Choose the content and write the
copy for each site, and remember that
| | 00:48 | each site's different.
| | 00:49 | I'll show you some examples in a moment.
| | 00:51 | Think about how and when to publish
on each site and ultimately, include
| | 00:56 | social media in your content matrix,
your calendar, and any other planning
| | 01:01 | documents you're creating.
| | 01:02 | Rinse, review, repeat.
| | 01:04 | This should be an ongoing part
of any good content strategy.
| | 01:07 | Let me show you a couple of
examples of that with our Wisdom Pet site.
| | 01:12 | Blog posts are particularly great
content to promote on social media.
| | 01:16 | So we have this post about tooth-
friendly toys and treats for dogs.
| | 01:19 | It's got a great photo and it's kind of playful.
| | 01:22 | That all lends itself pretty well to Facebook.
| | 01:26 | So let's assume that I have generated this post.
| | 01:29 | The wrong chew toys can hurt your dog.
| | 01:31 | Find out which treats will make your pets
happy and keep them away from the furniture.
| | 01:36 | You want to think about how do you
distinctly summarize that blog post to put it
| | 01:40 | on a social media site like this?
| | 01:42 | But we also want to include a URL.
| | 01:44 | Now, the URL here isn't a too long, but I
still recommend that you use tools like bitly.
| | 01:50 | bitly is a URL shortener.
| | 01:52 | So when I type that URL in there and
hit Shorten, you'll see that it's now
| | 01:56 | giving me a shortened version, and I
can copy that and paste it into Facebook.
| | 02:01 | When I do that notice that Facebook is
going to go and actually retrieve the
| | 02:05 | first part of my post and that adorable photo.
| | 02:09 | If there are multiple photos on the page,
you should have a choice about which
| | 02:12 | ones you post, and you want make sure
that you're using the photo that's most
| | 02:16 | attention-getting that's going to
best promote this piece of content.
| | 02:20 | So we've promoted our blog post on
Facebook. What's another good piece of
| | 02:24 | content we might want to share?
| | 02:26 | Well, we put a lot of time into this timeline.
| | 02:28 | Anytime you're looking at something
like rich media content, you're probably
| | 02:32 | looking at an opportunity
to promote on social media.
| | 02:35 | So again, I'm going to
shorten this URL using bitly.
| | 02:39 | This is especially important when
you're thinking about Twitter, because on
| | 02:42 | Twitter you're limited to only 140 characters.
| | 02:46 | So here you see I'm promoting
| | 02:49 | Are your pet vaccinations up to date?
| | 02:51 | Find out with our interactive
vaccination timeline. And here's my bitly URL.
| | 02:56 | If I try to put that entire URL in here
I'd be using a lot more characters than
| | 03:00 | I need to, and that's
especially important on Twitter.
| | 03:04 | Twitter is also a great place to give
people calls to action and things that are
| | 03:07 | especially informative.
| | 03:10 | In the interest of showing you the range of
options, on Pinterest you want to think visually.
| | 03:16 | Pinterest is all about pictures,
| | 03:17 | so it's a great place to post some of those
wonderful photos submitted by our customers.
| | 03:22 | But as I'll discuss in the video on
user-generated content, make sure you have
| | 03:26 | permission before you post anyone's
photos on a place like Pinterest.
| | 03:30 | Assuming that you do, a cute little
caption and then information about who took
| | 03:36 | the photo, if you want to give them
credit, and ultimately a mention of your
| | 03:39 | own business, can help make this a
great way to promote your site and show off
| | 03:44 | your best customers.
| | 03:47 | After you pin something to Pinterest,
you can always edit it and add a URL.
| | 03:51 | So again, we can go back and just get the URL.
| | 03:55 | In this case, because I'm only going
to put the top-level URL here, I probably
| | 03:59 | don't even need bitly.
| | 04:02 | Understanding the differences among
different social media sites can help you
| | 04:06 | choose the best content and the
best way to promote it to each of their
| | 04:10 | respective audiences.
| | 04:11 | As you sign up with each social media
site, spend some time listening, watching,
| | 04:16 | and learning what's appropriate on
the site before you start posting.
| | 04:20 | To help make sure you're using all the
best sites consider using a service like
| | 04:24 | Namecheck, where you can actually
search to see if your name is available.
| | 04:30 | So not only can I test now whether the
domain is available, but I can look at
| | 04:34 | social media usernames.
| | 04:37 | Even if I'm not planning to use all of
the social media sites today, it's not a
| | 04:41 | bad idea to get those reserved in advance.
| | 04:44 | As I scroll down the page and this
completes the search, you'll see that it's
| | 04:48 | checking domain registration,
top-level domains, and it's also looking to see
| | 04:52 | where names are available on social media.
| | 04:55 | Now, if you want to do a fair test,
you want to make sure that you're actually
| | 04:59 | testing the specific name that you're using.
| | 05:02 | So if I'm using wisdompets on my
social media sites and my URL is wisdompets
| | 05:07 | then you want to make sure
you're typing in exactly that name.
| | 05:11 | And now you'll see that I've got the
URLs and down here I've already registered
| | 05:16 | wisdompets on these social media sites.
| | 05:19 | But maybe I want to think about
registering it on these other sites, if nothing
| | 05:24 | else just to protect it for the future.
| | 05:26 | There are entire courses dedicated to
social media marketing and you'll find
| | 05:30 | some great ones here at lynda.com.
| | 05:32 | My best advice to you in this
course is that you start thinking about
| | 05:35 | promoting your content on social media
from the very beginning of the content
| | 05:39 | review process, and that you make
content promotion a regular part of any good
| | 05:45 | content strategy.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing user-generated content| 00:00 | It's hard enough to manage the
development, production, and curation of the
| | 00:03 | content when you're working
with a team of professionals.
| | 00:06 | But when you open the doors of your
website and invite your audience to
| | 00:09 | contribute, anything is possible.
| | 00:12 | In this video we'll explore best
practices for managing user-generated content,
| | 00:17 | things like photos you
invite your users to send in.
| | 00:20 | And we'll review some of the common
problems you should watch out for and
| | 00:23 | explore why it's important to be clear
with all your contributors about exactly
| | 00:29 | what you expect from them and
what they can expect from you.
| | 00:32 | There are many ways to
invite contributions like this.
| | 00:37 | You can specifically ask for photos.
| | 00:39 | You can invite comments on your blog.
| | 00:41 | In the Wisdom Pet Medicine site that's
exactly what we do, and you might think
| | 00:45 | those are relatively safe
types of content to ask for.
| | 00:49 | But when you're dealing with the
public, always expect surprises.
| | 00:53 | Here are a few rules to guide you as
you create any instructions you might have
| | 00:58 | for how users should submit content.
| | 01:01 | First, give them recommendations.
| | 01:03 | Don't just ask for photos;
| | 01:05 | make suggestions about
what kinds of photos are best.
| | 01:07 | Two, clearly express any requirements.
| | 01:12 | If you want to set any restrictions
to the formats you accept, the file
| | 01:16 | sizes, or any other requirements, explain
those very carefully and in detail on your site.
| | 01:22 | Restrictions.
| | 01:23 | If there's anything you don't accept,
such as pets dressed in silly clothes
| | 01:27 | or humans wearing pet costumes, make sure
you clearly state that in your guidelines.
| | 01:32 | Finally, reproduction.
| | 01:34 | It's also very important that you're
clear about what you'll do with your user's
| | 01:38 | content after they submit it.
| | 01:40 | So if you're thinking already that
you're going to want to promote your photos
| | 01:43 | on social media, make sure you've
clearly told your visitors that if they send
| | 01:47 | you photos they may show up on Facebook.
| | 01:50 | When we created the Wisdom Pet site
and we started inviting people to send
| | 01:54 | photos, we created a page
of instructions like this.
| | 01:57 | Just a simple clearly stated set of
guidelines is really all you need for most
| | 02:03 | user-generated content.
| | 02:05 | That I suggest you then link to a
privacy policy and terms of use.
| | 02:10 | Now we've created fake privacy
policy and terms of use here.
| | 02:13 | I suggest you consult an attorney
about how to do that best, or look at some
| | 02:17 | other guides to creating
privacy policies and terms of use.
| | 02:21 | But again you want to be very, very
clear with your audience anytime you're
| | 02:25 | asking for user-generated content.
| | 02:27 | Another thing you should know is that
if you're inviting comments, say on a blog
| | 02:31 | or in a discussion forum, there are
almost always a number of settings in the
| | 02:36 | tools you use to control
how those things get posted.
| | 02:40 | So here in WordPress, if I go into the
backend here in the Dashboard settings,
| | 02:45 | you'll see, under Settings, in
Discussion there a number of options about how
| | 02:50 | users can comment on things like blog posts,
| | 02:53 | whether those comments are
automatically posted to the site or whether they're
| | 02:57 | held for review and must be
approved by an administrator.
| | 03:01 | You can also control whether somebody
has to log in and be registered or whether
| | 03:06 | people can comment anonymously.
| | 03:08 | Most discussion forums and blogs
include these kinds of settings.
| | 03:12 | And I highly encourage you to get
familiar with the options and to think
| | 03:15 | carefully about how you want to
manage discussion on your site.
| | 03:19 | Although the biggest concern I hear
from people is that they're worried about
| | 03:23 | comments or users putting
things that are inappropriate,
| | 03:26 | the reality is the more common problem
is that nobody posts comments at all.
| | 03:31 | Taking a few steps to invite
participation can make a big difference in
| | 03:35 | user-generated content.
| | 03:37 | Here is something that's very simple to
do that we've added to the end of each
| | 03:41 | of these blog posts to help invite comments.
| | 03:46 | At the bottom of each post
we've added a very simple question.
| | 03:50 | Here: How do you keep your kitty
from clawing the place to pieces?
| | 03:55 | We're inviting users to submit their
best tips, but we're also giving them
| | 03:58 | permission to comment.
| | 04:01 | Most Internet users are lurkers.
| | 04:03 | Based on several studies, only about one in
every 1,000 people actually leaves a comment.
| | 04:08 | People are much more likely to
participate if you invite them with a question,
| | 04:12 | especially one that's provocative or playful.
| | 04:15 | So as you can see, at the end of each of
these posts we've invited that kind of
| | 04:20 | participation with questions like,
"What does your dog love to chew on?"
| | 04:24 | Here are a few best practices to
keep in mind when it comes to managing
| | 04:28 | user-generated content.
| | 04:30 | Post clear guidelines about
how content should be submitted.
| | 04:34 | Post clear messages about how that
content may then be used by you and others.
| | 04:40 | Make someone responsible for
moderating comments or posts.
| | 04:43 | It's very easy to set up a comment
section and never look at it yourself.
| | 04:47 | That's a potentially dangerous thing to do.
| | 04:49 | In fact, not only can you prevent bad
comments by having it moderated, you can
| | 04:53 | encourage better comments if somebody on
your team is actively participating and
| | 04:59 | making sure good discussion is happening.
| | 05:01 | If you want more civil
conversations, require registration.
| | 05:05 | Clearly, and over and over, in many places
where I have seen discussions happening
| | 05:09 | on the web, the more you require people
to register and the more information you
| | 05:13 | collect when you do, the more
civil the conversations are.
| | 05:17 | If you really want the most responses on a
controversial topic, the opposite is true.
| | 05:21 | If you let people post
anonymously, you will get a free-for-all.
| | 05:26 | If you really want to control the
conversation then you want to actually hold
| | 05:29 | those comments for approval.
| | 05:31 | As you saw on those settings in
WordPress and as you'll find, like I said, in
| | 05:34 | almost any of these discussion or blog
programs, there is an option to either
| | 05:38 | let post go automatically to the site
or to hold them and review them first.
| | 05:42 | One more great place to learn about
managing communities and a company that's
| | 05:47 | had a lot of experience with this as CNN.
| | 05:49 | If you've never been to the CNN
iReport, I highly recommend, check their
| | 05:53 | community guidelines, check some of the
other instructions they have on that site.
| | 05:57 | They've spent a lot of time thinking
about this and they're a great place
| | 06:00 | to learn more.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Optimizing content for mobile devices| 00:00 | Designing for mobile is not just about
creating websites that look good on small screens;
| | 00:05 | it's about carefully stripping down a
site to just the content that's most
| | 00:09 | important to a mobile user.
| | 00:11 | I designed the Wisdom Pet Site to
respond to different screen sizes.
| | 00:15 | I'll talk more about that in a moment.
| | 00:17 | But like many things I've covered in
this course, you don't have to be an expert
| | 00:21 | in mobile design to be a
great content strategist.
| | 00:25 | You just need to know that mobile is
increasingly important and that you
| | 00:29 | should factor in content for mobile devices
from the very beginning of your content strategy.
| | 00:34 | When it comes to content for mobile
devices, don't overlook the obvious.
| | 00:38 | If someone is searching for your
website on a mobile phone, there is a pretty
| | 00:46 | good chance they're
looking for your phone number.
| | 00:49 | That's part of why I like to include
the phone number prominently throughout a
| | 00:53 | site and make sure it's
displayed at the bottom of every page.
| | 00:57 | Simply making sure your phone number
is easy to find and making sure it's
| | 01:02 | formatted in text and HTML can
dramatically improve the usability of your
| | 01:06 | site on mobile devices.
| | 01:08 | Similarly, many people use
mobile websites because they are lost.
| | 01:12 | If you have a physical location,
make sure you include your address,
| | 01:16 | directions, and links to a map.
| | 01:19 | When it comes to mobile design today,
you should know that there are two
| | 01:22 | distinct approaches.
| | 01:23 | Most people are using either
responsive design, which is what I use for
| | 01:27 | the Wisdom Pet Site.
| | 01:28 | Responsive design uses CSS media queries
and it takes one HTML page and makes it
| | 01:34 | respond to different screen sizes.
| | 01:37 | That's why you saw the change in that
design in real time when I changed the
| | 01:41 | width of the browser.
| | 01:42 | But that means I only have one HTML page,
so that one set of content has to work
| | 01:48 | for all devices, and you need to be
thinking about things like making the phone
| | 01:52 | number prominent and the
address prominent from the start.
| | 01:55 | The second approach can be far more complicated.
| | 01:58 | Adaptive design requires creating two or
more distinct versions of your website,
| | 02:03 | and then using an auto-detection
script on the server to identify each device
| | 02:08 | and deliver the best version to each visitor.
| | 02:10 | That's the approach taken by companies
like American Airlines, where you have to
| | 02:15 | reach a broad audience with
a highly interactive site.
| | 02:19 | If you're working for a company this big,
as a content strategist your challenge
| | 02:23 | will be making sure that the best,
most relevant content is presented as
| | 02:27 | concisely as possible in the
limited space on a mobile screen.
| | 02:32 | Another concept to be aware of when it
comes to mobile web design is mobile first.
| | 02:36 | The idea behind mobile first is that
it's easier to design a simple mobile
| | 02:41 | version of a site first and then add
additional content as you create a desktop
| | 02:46 | version of your site.
| | 02:47 | You may not have this luxury if
you're working on a site that already has a
| | 02:51 | complicated desktop version.
| | 02:53 | But if you're creating a new site from
scratch, definitely consider creating the
| | 02:57 | mobile version and then adding
on to create the desktop version.
| | 03:02 | Here are a few other things to
think about in mobile design.
| | 03:05 | First of all--and maybe this is obvious--
but the screen size is really limited,
| | 03:10 | and that means you generally have
to limit your design to one column.
| | 03:14 | So you're not going to be able to
have sidebars and all of that secondary
| | 03:18 | information you may be
using on a desktop screen.
| | 03:20 | Second, most cellphone users suffer from
what we call fat-finger syndrome, which
| | 03:26 | means you want to make your links
really big and easy to click on, but it also
| | 03:30 | means that the text that goes on those
links may have to be even more concise.
| | 03:35 | Three, think visually.
| | 03:38 | It works really well to use icons in
place of text when you have very small space.
| | 03:44 | And four, limit multimedia.
| | 03:46 | Audio, video, and large images
take up a lot of bandwidth, and that's
| | 03:51 | problematic on mobile devices.
| | 03:53 | You may need to cut out some of the
things that you use on your main site or
| | 03:57 | even provide a text-only version.
| | 04:00 | If you do include multimedia on a
mobile site, it's even more important to
| | 04:04 | include short text descriptions
first and give visitors the option of
| | 04:09 | downloading that multimedia content
only if they have the bandwidth to justify
| | 04:13 | it and they're really interested.
| | 04:15 | In the last few years I've written
entire books on mobile web design and I've
| | 04:19 | watched the technology change
dramatically, so I can't cover everything here,
| | 04:23 | but I want to leave you with this:
| | 04:25 | the hardest part of most good mobile web
strategies is creating very concise content.
| | 04:32 | When you're limited by such a tiny screen,
you have to be ruthless about the words you use.
| | 04:38 | If you've already mastered the
process of prioritizing and writing as
| | 04:41 | concisely as possible, you're well on
your way to managing the content for a
| | 04:46 | good mobile website.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Gathering FeedbackCreating surveys and polls| 00:00 | Sometimes the best way to find out what
content you should add to your website
| | 00:04 | is to ask your audience.
| | 00:06 | In the next video we'll explore how
to use testing and analytics to study
| | 00:10 | user behavior, but before we get
into all of that, let's start by simply
| | 00:14 | asking them what they want.
| | 00:16 | Like so many aspects of web
development, there are a number of tools on the
| | 00:20 | market you can use to create polls and surveys.
| | 00:23 | To keep things simple and
reasonably priced, in this video I'll use
| | 00:27 | SurveyMonkey, a free online tool that's
easy to use and will help me demonstrate
| | 00:32 | how you can create a survey for your own site.
| | 00:34 | Here's a survey I created using
the free tools at SurveyMonkey.
| | 00:39 | Notice how they have a number of
options that make it possible to add bulleted
| | 00:42 | lists and questions with fields.
| | 00:45 | And here's a tip: when you're
offering a list of options like this, always
| | 00:49 | include an other option.
| | 00:51 | Not only will that help you get more
specific answers if you forget to ask
| | 00:54 | something, it will help make sure that
your users don't feel left out if they
| | 00:58 | don't have an option on the list.
| | 01:00 | Of course we ask some
specific questions about content:
| | 01:05 | What are you interested in learning about,
are you interested in videos, things like that.
| | 01:10 | But sometimes the most valuable
questions are the wildcard questions.
| | 01:14 | Notice here up at the top where I ask,
Do you buy a birthday present for your
| | 01:19 | pets? That may seem like a random
question, but if you buy birthday presents for
| | 01:24 | your pets, I probably can assume
you're going to be a better customer of my
| | 01:28 | veterinary clinic than someone who
just changed their dog in the backyard.
| | 01:32 | Similarly, if you're a mechanic and you
work on cars, you might ask a question
| | 01:38 | like do you name your car?
| | 01:39 | Think about your own industry and a
provocative, playful question like this that
| | 01:45 | might help you separate your most
fanatic users from the more casual ones.
| | 01:50 | One last thing to keep in mind
when you do a survey: keep them short.
| | 01:55 | Any more than a few questions and the
number of people who respond drops off quickly.
| | 02:00 | So if your goal is just to get a
little information, keep it short, keep it
| | 02:04 | sweet, and let them get
out of the survey quickly.
| | 02:07 | And here's another tip: surveys like
this often get better results when you
| | 02:12 | offer visitors to your site
an incentive for participating.
| | 02:15 | Just be careful that the incentive
itself is not so valuable or so unrelated to
| | 02:20 | what you do that people are only
answering the question to get the prize.
| | 02:25 | If you run a health spa or a pet clinic,
a 10% discount on your services is a
| | 02:30 | great incentive to get user feedback,
but a free iPad or a new car might attract
| | 02:36 | people who don't really care
about your services at all.
| | 02:38 | After you create a survey like this,
you'll probably want to add a little
| | 02:42 | content to your website to promote it.
| | 02:44 | Think of a good place that people
will see easily and regularly, and don't
| | 02:49 | forget, you can also post it on social
media sites like Facebook and Pinterest.
| | 02:54 | Similar to survey programs, you'll find
a number of plug-ins and software tools
| | 02:58 | on the market that you can
use to add polls like this one.
| | 03:02 | In this case I'm using a WordPress plug-in.
| | 03:04 | In contrast to surveys, polls are
generally much simpler and limited to one or
| | 03:09 | two questions, but they can still be very
useful for thinking about new kinds of content.
| | 03:14 | You might, for example, run a poll on
your site that asks a question like this
| | 03:18 | one: Have you ever hired a pet
sitter to care for your pets?
| | 03:21 | I'm asking a simple yes or no question,
but if enough people answer yes, I might
| | 03:26 | decide that that's a good topic for a
blog post, or that I should write an
| | 03:30 | article on how to hire and
manage a good pet sitter.
| | 03:33 | No matter what you choose to ask,
remember that surveys and polls are not only
| | 03:37 | great ways to learn more about what
our audience is interested in and what
| | 03:41 | content you should create,
| | 03:42 | they can also become valuable
pieces of content in and of themselves.
| | 03:46 | Some people really love taking polls
and really enjoy seeing the results.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using A/B and multivariate testing and analytics| 00:00 | The first thing to know about
multivariate and A/B testing is that despite the
| | 00:04 | scientific-sounding names the
basic concept is pretty simple:
| | 00:08 | you create different versions of your
content, show them to people, and see
| | 00:11 | which version works better.
| | 00:13 | A/B testing generally involves creating two
versions of a piece of content or a page design:
| | 00:18 | version A, version B, although some
people create multiple versions and still
| | 00:23 | call it A/B testing.
| | 00:24 | Don't be confused by the number
of tests that may be conducted.
| | 00:28 | What's consistent in most A/B testing
is that you're only testing one variable.
| | 00:33 | In contrast, multivariate testing
involves testing many things at once.
| | 00:39 | Multivariate testing, sometimes
called bucket testing, can get far more
| | 00:43 | complicated than A/B testing, but it
can also lead to more interesting and
| | 00:47 | often unexpected results.
| | 00:49 | A/B testing is often used to test ad copy.
| | 00:53 | If you're running a Google AdWords
campaign, for example, and you're limited to
| | 00:56 | just a few words of copy, it's good
practice to create at least two versions of
| | 01:01 | each ad, run them both through
Google's Ad Network, associated with the same
| | 01:05 | keyword, and see which one gets
more clicks, which one generates more
| | 01:09 | transactions, and
ultimately, which one works better.
| | 01:12 | Similarly, you can use A/B testing to
compare the effectiveness of different
| | 01:16 | landing pages on your website.
| | 01:18 | In that case you might run the exact
same ad copy but link half your leads to
| | 01:23 | one page and half of them to another to
see which page on your site works better
| | 01:28 | at converting those leads
once the new visitors arrive.
| | 01:32 | You can also use A/B testing to
look at specific changes within a page,
| | 01:36 | like whether adding questions to the
end of your blog post entices users to
| | 01:41 | leave more comments.
| | 01:43 | As a content strategist, you'll often have
to make a case for why it's worth putting
| | 01:47 | a little more effort into developing
content, and conducting these kinds of tests
| | 01:52 | can help you prove your theories.
| | 01:53 | You may assume that adding a simple
question like this to the end--what does
| | 01:58 | your dog love to chew on?--will increase
the number of comments on your blog, and
| | 02:02 | you're probably right. But if you want
to see how much of a difference adding
| | 02:06 | questions makes, consider creating
two pages with the same blog post--
| | 02:11 | one with the question, one without--and
then split your visitors between the two pages.
| | 02:17 | If you can then show, for example,
that adding questions to all your posts
| | 02:21 | increases comments by 25%, you can make
a much stronger case for why it's worth
| | 02:26 | investing the extra effort to add
those questions in the first place.
| | 02:31 | Google offers a lot of help when it
comes to conducting A/B and multivariate
| | 02:35 | testing, and you can learn a lot
just by reading through the different
| | 02:38 | sections at Google.com.
| | 02:40 | Another popular testing tool is
Adobe's Test & Target service.
| | 02:44 | Tools like this can really help,
especially when you're doing
| | 02:47 | multivariate testing.
| | 02:48 | Things can get a lot more complex when
you're testing multiple variables at once.
| | 02:52 | For example, if your tests involve
creating multiple landing pages and changing
| | 02:57 | the calls to action, the headlines, the
color schemes, the images, even adding
| | 03:02 | or not adding multimedia.
| | 03:04 | If you're looking at all of those
different variables at once, you're going to
| | 03:08 | need all the help you can get
to make sense of the results.
| | 03:11 | One other note on multivariate testing:
| | 03:13 | if you're experimenting that much,
you probably don't want to split your traffic in half.
| | 03:18 | In general, with multivariate testing,
especially on a relatively large site,
| | 03:22 | you never want to divert more than
about 5% of your traffic when you're testing
| | 03:27 | that many variables at once.
| | 03:29 | At the high end, conducting advanced
multivariate tests require sophisticated
| | 03:33 | software tools that can range from $99
a month to nearly $400,000 a year and
| | 03:38 | take an entire team to run effectively.
| | 03:41 | If you're interested in comparing
high-end testing solutions, this comparison
| | 03:45 | chart at WhichMVT.com can really
help you sort through the options.
| | 03:50 | If you don't have the resources to do
that kind of high-end testing, you can
| | 03:53 | still measure the effectiveness of your
content on a smaller scale with Google Analytics.
| | 03:58 | If you use Google Analytics and you
want to get more formal about testing,
| | 04:02 | consider using Google's new
Content Experiments Interface.
| | 04:06 | No matter how big or small your
content strategy, I recommend that you test
| | 04:10 | the success of all your content by regularly
reviewing analytics reports for your website.
| | 04:15 | If you're in a big company, you may be
using proprietary analytics solutions
| | 04:19 | and you may need to work with the technical or
marketing teams to get access to the reports.
| | 04:23 | But make sure you get those traffic
reports, study them, and use them to test
| | 04:28 | your theories about content strategy,
so you can make the best case for why
| | 04:32 | investing in good content can pay off.
| | 04:35 | Another simple tool that I find useful
for A/B testing is the link shortener bitly.
| | 04:41 | Not only is bitly great for helping
you make the most of every character on
| | 04:44 | Twitter, by shortening long URLs, but if
you take the time to set up an account
| | 04:48 | on bitly, you can use the site to track
how many people actually click on each
| | 04:53 | of the links you post.
| | 04:55 | Here's an example of the
kind of data you get from bitly.
| | 04:58 | Notice that one of the things you can
learn here is how many people clicked on a
| | 05:02 | link from Facebook versus how many
people clicked on the link from Twitter.
| | 05:06 | That t.co down there is short for
Twitter, and here you see Facebook.
| | 05:11 | Also notice that bitly pulls mobile traffic,
the m.facebook.com, out as a separate number.
| | 05:17 | That can help you test for mobile
content and justify investments in mobile.
| | 05:22 | Like many elements of content strategy,
a big part of your job is determining
| | 05:26 | how much of your time and budget you
can afford to spend on testing, but
| | 05:29 | remember, this kind of testing may also
be the best way to justify the time and
| | 05:34 | budget you need to develop
new content in the first place.
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ConclusionNext steps| 00:00 | Developing an effective content strategy
is not a task you do once and call complete.
| | 00:05 | The best content strategies are living
breathing project plans that are almost
| | 00:09 | constantly being revised and updated.
| | 00:12 | Although you may do one grand content
assessment and develop a content matrix
| | 00:16 | with a clear set of deadlines,
| | 00:18 | your ultimate goal should be to develop
a content strategy designed to keep the
| | 00:22 | content fresh, up to date, and
relevant, on an ongoing basis.
| | 00:26 | Let me leave you with a few tips and
suggestions for where you can learn more.
| | 00:31 | First, study the analytics of your own website.
| | 00:35 | The best place to learn about what's
working on your site is from the reports
| | 00:38 | about how people are actually using it.
| | 00:41 | You'll find great courses on Google
Analytics here at lynda.com, and you can
| | 00:45 | learn loads more on the
Google Analytics website.
| | 00:48 | Test, test, and test some more.
Continue to test your theories and assumptions
| | 00:53 | and use the results to guide your
development as well as make a case for
| | 00:57 | investing more time and money in great content.
| | 01:00 | Revisit content policies and
style guides to keep up with new terms,
| | 01:04 | regulations, and any user feedback or
complaints that may warrant adjusting
| | 01:09 | the way you do things.
| | 01:11 | Seek out content strategy groups.
| | 01:13 | You'll find them on LinkedIn, MeetUp,
and other places in your community, and
| | 01:17 | consider joining user experience or
UX groups where you are likely to find
| | 01:21 | like-minded professionals with
similar job responsibilities.
| | 01:25 | One of the best ways to learn, network,
and job hunt is with other people who are
| | 01:30 | doing what you do in the real
world. And finally, keep in touch.
| | 01:35 | One of the reasons I love teaching
content strategy and teaching web design is
| | 01:39 | that it's so much fun to see
what my students create on the web.
| | 01:43 | Please feel free to drop me an email
when you have questions, or just to show
| | 01:47 | off what you've accomplished.
| | 01:48 | You can always learn more about me,
my books, and videos, on my websites at
| | 01:52 | janinewarner.com and digitalfamily.com.
| | 01:55 | Thank you for joining me!
| | 01:57 | Never forget, technology is important,
but the best websites make content
| | 02:02 | strategy a high priority.
| | 02:03 | So get out there and make sure
your website tells a great story.
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