Lead With the Message, Not the Format

Format matters. As a record collector and content strategist, I say that with passion. But it's not the most important concern. Content creators of the universe, please heed this advice: Lead with the message, not the format.

Why you are creating content in that format?

You’ve probably heard the request: "We need to create (video / gifs / animations / infographics) because everyone else is doing it / leadership wants it / I read an article about it." Content is created. Then, the content disappoints. It doesn't have to be this way.

We have reasons for creating content. Some good, some bad. Some of these things are out of our control, no doubt. However, even the most vocal advocates of the format-of-the-day will see the light when we start to talk about costs, benefits, and realities of content creation. No one wants crappy content, after all.

"Don't value your content over the job you need your content to do," said John Lane, Vice President at Centerline Digital in his presentation, "Content Marketing Art of War." Don't fall in love with a format because of its format-ness. Or its current popularity, for that matter. Formats carry the weight of our message. But they do not determine the message.

Avoid the published-equals-success scenario.

We cannot communicate an idea without a format. The ideal situation is “we chose this format because it was best-suited to communicate our idea.” One serves the next. We are communicating ideas first.

Leading the content creation workflow with the format instead of the message is a flawed approach for most organizations. Success becomes "we completed and published" rather than "we conveyed the message and the user completed an action." It's a tactical rather than strategic act. Busywork, even.

Measures of wrongly-formatted content often devolve into page/video views or downloads, rather than the more valuable and considered metrics of conversion and task completion. Without knowing what you want the content to do, outside of existing, measurement turns into the binary situation of yes we have a video/no we do not.

And sometimes, the finished asset completely misses the mark. It kills the message. Videos end up rambling, and infographics bloat out of control. Organizations still publish it, even if they don’t like it, due to perceived sunk costs. THIS IS AN UNPLEASANT SITUATION.

Create with the message first, format second.

Content creation plans MUST include a discussion of format. It should come early in the conversation. But only after you know your message, that thing you hope to convey.

Each format choice has pros and cons, bonuses and baggage. Video assets are tough to get right. Editing octopus-like infographics quickly changes their overall message and composition. Governance becomes a greater issue. Our choice can influence how the audience receives each message.

Production values and capabilities vary from org to org. That's perfectly fine. My concern is less about the sheen of the finished product. I start a-fretting when form takes precedent over function. Basic messaging elements (i.e. focus, clarity, brevity) often suffer while superficial items such as logo treatments, music beds, and transitions see flawless execution.

Right, then. What to do? Create it as a video? An animation? A .gif? An infographic? Good old sentences? How does a content strategist approach content creation and formatting decisions?

• State the message you hope to convey, and what you wish folks to do next.
• Ask yourself, “Why are we doing this?” Write this down. Restate it. Say it out loud.
• Articulate HOW this serves business goals, even if only as an exercise. 
• Carefully detail the workflow to show how the content will take shape. All of it.
• Consider the capacity of your content creator(s). Do they have the skill set to tackle more sophisticated content? Or the time?

Know your audience: their habits, their abilities, their devices, their needs, their expectations, and their contexts. The counterpart of this is knowing yourself (or organization, actually): your production capabilities, your business goals, your larger content strategy. Each one of these has a bearing on which format you chose to deliver your message.

Publish (or choose not to) with confidence.

"Does the content you contribute shine through or does it distract through glitter?" asks content strategist and writer James C. Gunter in his article, "2014: The Year the Internet Finally Grows Up?" It's is a fine question to ask and ask again throughout the content creation workflow.

Finally, don't be afraid to kill the content before it kills your message. Each item you place online is an opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition. People (and more and more, search engines) are developing smarter content radars, and will go elsewhere when crappy content rears its ugly head. If the content isn't great, wipe the slate. (Sorry.)

Instead of looking at completed-but-unpublished content as a sunk cost, consider a halted content endeavor a non-public failure and learning experience. Failing is fine; acknowledging it is the key. Apply your lessons to the next effort. It'll thank you for it.
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Five Ways to Save Your Video Content from Devouring Itself

Video content poses unique challenges to content marketers, content managers, and content strategists. Especially since it is often hosted on constantly evolving, proprietary platforms. The incorporation of outside links in YouTube videos is a fine, current example.

Search and content have a long, dysfunctional history. Search algorithms change to address unsavory content practices. New unsavory content practices pop up to exploit newfound vulnerabilities. This cycle continues, and will, for the foreseeable future.

These algorithm adjustments also apply to video content. I happened upon an article on ReelSEO, written by Chris Atkinson, detailing the introduction of including outside links on YouTube videos, and its potential search and content implications.

(These platform-specific announcements are especially important to we content folks, as they often have a direct impact on the whats and hows of our content delivery.)

Link to anything you fancy

Link placement within videos has been an option for years. Up to this point, YouTube has limited the nature of those links to other YouTube videos, YouTube channels, or fundraising appeals. Most recently, they added "merch" as an option for channel owners to link to YouTube-approved retail sites like iTunes, GooglePlay, etc.

Now, the floodgates are open. Links to any site are now allowed on any YouTube video. Gone are the days of only placing a link in the video description area. CUE THE PARTY HORNS. Sort of.

Some video content creators will abuse this. I guarantee it. Others will link to too many things in a video, causing confusion. We'll see videos so laden with links, calls-to-action, and more that your old GeoCities page will seem like a serene utopia in comparison. Link to the Facebook page! Visit this microsite! Fill out this email signup form! LINKS!11

Start by creating great video content

The best case scenario here sees content creators using the in-video link option to focus their channel-specific video messaging even further. We want to provide the best content experience possible, links clicked, Watch Time, and otherwise. How do we do that with video?

1. Create content that people want to watch. Think palatable, not gimmicky. Effective and straightforward trumps trying-to-be-funny or attempted-edgy on most occasions.

2. Make content clear and concise. Make your point in as few seconds as possible. Be direct helpful. PEOPLE LOVE THAT. A shorter video makes the link placement have less of an SEO impact. It's easier to watch a shorter video, from a life-expectancy point-of-view, too.

3. Focus on a single topic, concept, or task. The linear presentation of a video and its (new) links precludes an easy message hierarchy. Stick to a single message, and don't try to do to many things at once. Otherwise, you're likely lose your audience on all of the things in frustration and confusion. 

4. Give it context. Resist the urge to start off videos with a Ken Burns-style mini-documentary about the company. Instead, give them the background they need to make use of the rest of the video. If your messaging is consistent, this context should flow easily from one platform to the next.

5. Tell the story. Use a video's linear constraints as a force for good. Take advantage of it with an equally-linear storyline. Beginning, middle, end. Even if it is a :30 second piece. To quote Steve Martin's character Neil Paige from the holiday travel film, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles": "When you are telling these little stories, here's a good idea: Have a point."

Place the link carefully

The ReelSEO article touched on another important part of this equation: inclusion of a "Watch Time" variable as a metric used in SEO. In other words, the longer a viewer watches your video, the better your stature in search results.

The Watch Time metric will be a considerable challenge for some. It's not exactly new; YouTube has been doing this since March 2012. This is fine for short videos with a quick and concise close.

However, longer videos were often published with the optimistic mindset of "viewers can watch a little, or they can watch all 18 or 32 minutes." The impact was the same. Now, the opposite is true. Watching a portion of a video to the end, once started, now has a potentially detrimental effect on the placement of the video within search results.

Atkinson notes that this presents a paradox of sorts. Ideal link placement within the video becomes a Schrödinger's content cat situation:

• Place the link at the beginning, where more people will see it? (Assuming more people will start your video than watch it to the end.) 
• At the end, to receive more SEO mojo? (At the risk of fewer people actually seeing and clicking on said link.)
• In the middle, to strike a perilous balance?

Link to appropriate web pages from your video (And vice veresa.) Strive for a seamless experience across platforms with branding, messaging, and tone & voice. Great content makes it all a more satisfying endeavor, all around.

More content tips from Neil Paige:

(Top image adapted from "Skip containing discarded VHS tapes" by Flickr user Rob Pearce.)

An Intoxicating Tale of Content Strategy

An effective content strategy bridges the critical gap between online and offline worlds, and the gaps between departments. When a content strategy is put in place, business goals will be met more easily, and people’s expectations with the brand will be fulfilled. I’ll drink to that.

A new product, a new opportunity

There it sat, on the shelf in the liquor store. An unfamiliar whisky housed in one of those fancy, boutique-style bottles. It wore an already-iconic label. I was intrigued.

This distilling company put some careful thought into this whisky. They even created some delightful point-of-purchase pricing signs echoing that label design. The text at the top of those tiny pricing signs reads “Just Released”–an announcement to the world, proud and urgent.

They want people to know about the whisky. They want people to buy it. But, as of this writing, THAT’S THE END OF IT.

The portable web changes everything

Like any other whisky nerd, I searched the web from my smartphone for any mentions or reviews of this whisky. To my surprise, there was only one relevant listing. And it wasn’t a helpful listing, either: an online retailer that offered only a price and size of the bottle.

The label on this bottle includes the company’s website. Unfortunately, it, too, was unhelpful. The whisky was not listed anywhere on the site. Searching for the whisky’s brand name on the company site brought up a page full of PHP errors. (That’s another matter altogether.)

Lots of whisky enthusiasts would have stopped right there. Despite the lack of information, I purchased a bottle.

(I shan’t mention the company name, lest this post become the only thing about this whisky on the all of the Internet.)

The gap between online and offline strategy appears

Time and money were spent on the product design and retail accoutrements, but the online presence? NOT A DROP. A chasm between the distillery’s new product strategy and the online strategy quickly became apparent.

This distillery has a product, a niche whisky. They want to sell it. Lucky for them, people want to buy distinctive whiskies. But they don’t buy them blindly. They want to know all kinds of things before making that purchase: age, blend, whose grandpa distilled it in the hills 100 years ago, etc.

If that information is not presented at the point of purchase or on the item itself, they’ll seek it out online. Possibly right there on the spot.

When companies present anything less than a complete and unified presence online and offline, people notice. Really, they do. Those people may shrug their shoulders and carry on with their tasks on your site (albeit with less satisfaction and ease.) Or, in the absence of any info online, they may give up and go to a competitor.

Each item and brand, especially in a retail environment, should have a corresponding presence online. That presence needs a solid strategy to inform its messaging, target audience, distribution, workflow, and maintenance.

Instill your projects with content strategy

I’ve heard online content strategy described, at its most basic, as the alignment of business goals and user expectations:

• Company provides a product or service
• People complete tasks related to that product or service (e.g. learning, purchasing)

The closer we align the meeting point(s) of those business goals and the user expectations, the better. Both sides need to be addressed. The one-way, broadcast model the distillery put in place, either actively or by omission, will no longer cut it. They missed the mark entirely in this case. No pun intended.

A toast to your future content projects

Part of the burden (or joy, I mean) of content strategists is keeping up with an organization’s new initiatives and changes to ongoing efforts. The launch of this whisky is a fine example.

To avoid a similar situation, get a seat at the table early in the process to engage with all staff involved on a project:

• Ask lots of questions
• Consider the implications of new company endeavors in the short and long term
• Filter each and every situation through your core online content strategy
• Be ready for changes that will inevitably come up along the way
• Make sure that new efforts are sustainable

Content strategists can have a great impact, but they are not a cure-all. Some projects may suffer from scalability issues, unwise decisions, or legacy organizational baggage.

What content strategists can do, however, is follow the standards for making great online experiences. They can ensure that the right audiences are addressed in the most effective way. And, they can guide the process with an overall strategic vision in place.

When your project is (hopefully) successful and all things are operating in sync, I have but one more bit of advice: pour yourself a glass of whisky.

This material first appeared on a post I contributed to the Follow the UX Leader blog. (Minus the Muddy Waters tune.)

You May Ask Yourself These Five Simple Content Strategy Questions

1. What am I trying to accomplish? Determine your core strategy, your unifying principles to follow. This is more critical than it might appear. Are you selling albums to adults? Soliciting donations for Dalmatians? With an honest evaluation of what you are trying to accomplish, only then should you begin down the path of content creation, delivery, and marketing.

2. What are my competitors doing? Or not doing? Put on your detective hat and figure out where you stand in the marketplace. Though you shouldn’t necessarily copy what they are doing (or not), observing your peers / competitors will give you a benchmark of current market and user expectations.

3. What do I already have? Complete an audit of your content. Audits uncover what you have, and what shape it is in. (Is it up-to-date? Accurate? Trivial?) Due to silo-filled work environments, many organizations are unaware of the value already in-house. The unrealized potential of ongoing initiatives may give you a head start on upcoming content marketing plans.

4. Do I have the capacity to create content sustainably? Honestly evaluate your organization’s human resource capacity and budget for content creation. Many plans look great on paper. At the start, enthusiasm is high. As campaigns and initiatives wear on, it becomes clear that they are unsustainable. Any content marketing plan should be based on an organization’s true ability to sustain it.

5. How will the content be cared for throughout its lifecycle? To remain effective, content needs to be maintained. Rather than implementing the “set it and forget it” mentality, content should enjoy regular, scheduled check-ups to ensure that it is still relevant, accurate, and supports the organization’s core strategy.

This material first appeared on a post I co-authored on the Coherent Social Media blog. (Minus the Talkiing Heads video.)

Online Content Readability Tests: Content Strategists Beware

Old-fashioned readability scores and indices don't account for some of the most critical elements of online content presentation. Avoid using them as the only measure of the true readability of online content. 

The story of a story

"Go Dogs. Go!" I love this book. Well, a version of this book. (The small one.)

Several popular children's books from publisher Random House are available in two physical formats: the standard hardcover book and the board book. Each format has its pros and cons.

• Hardcover book. More, thinner pages for more content. But, thinner pages tear easier.
• Board book. Fewer, thicker pages means less content. Super durable.

The more / less content situation wouldn't be an issue if you were writing a book from scratch.

Instead, publishers are most likely taking their more popular, large-format titles through an editing and re-versioning process. In the end, they can introduce a more durable version to another audience: page-chewing babies.

Getting to the point

This content editing process HAS to be complicated, from an editorial point-of-view. Imagine the task of conveying the familiar storyline in one-sixth the number of words.

In the case of "Go, Dog. Go!", the longer, hardcover version was trimmed from 528 words to only 70 words in the shorter, board book version. Each one of those 70 words matters, believe me. (I've read it hundreds of times.)

Sure, there are fewer words. But, fewer words doesn't always make a message or story clearer and easier to read.

Testing the readability of "Go, Dog. Go!"

Readability tests are equations using syllables, word counts, sentence counts, and familiar-word lists. Most often, they produce a number that corresponds with a grade level.

From a readability metric standpoint, you might think that such a dramatic reduction in content (the 528 versus 70 words) would make the story easier to digest. Based on five of the major readability tests, results were mixed.

Two tests showed improvements in readability in the shorter version, one saw no change, and two others came back with less favorable scores:

While the goal of the publisher, editor, and author is fitting the same, beloved storyline into fewer pages, another, more-interesting thing starts to happen: a brutal distillation. Only the essential remains.

The shorter version  of "Go, Dog. Go!" sheds some of the more superfluous elements of the story. Gone are the hat-disapproving dog, unrelated sub-plots, and unnecessary filler. What we are left with is pure magic. Seriously, you need to read this short version. I still love reading it.

Why we test content readability

Some of us might test content JUST FOR FUN. Others are tasked with the duty of measuring how consumable the content is by some score or index. The duty of measuring readabilty does not end there.  We want to:

• Determine if current content meets existing standards
• Establish a baseline readability score
• Set goals and standards for future content production
• Measure edited, re-vamped, and re-organized versions of the same content

How we've tested content readability in the past

The major readability tests were constructed in the 1940s to deal with printed texts. These equation-based systems improved the texts of the day: newspapers, books, etc. Familiar-word lists were refined, and other adjustments were made. Things were set for some time.

Research completed in the following decades took into account one of the foundational concepts for clear and concise online writing: structure. However, it proved impossible to fold structure-based variables into a traditional readability equation. Text needs are much more complex than could have ever been anticipated.

Today, a quick search online will produce several sites that offer options to measure content via cut-and-paste or by entering a page URL. Simple, quick, and easy. Right? NOT SO FAST.

This has an impact on online content

As we approach online content itself from a messaging and editorial standpoint, we encounter similar issues as seen in the children's book example. Adjusting text content can have a positive or negative impact, depending on the test. The worst-case scenario has people adjusting text to game the tests into delivering favorable scores.

No current readability test accounts for the hallmarks of easily-consumed online content:

• Concise sentences free of filler words 
• Bullets 
• Subheads 
• Emphasis (bold, H1, H2, etc.)
• Shorter, easily-read paragraphs

Add a few more variables into the equation by considering responsive design implications, device capabilities, and context, and soon the notion of an agreed-upon readability score is RIGHT OUT.

We are creating content destined for literally thousands of different environments. Even if we had a measure that took into account how that content was displayed now, it would by out of date in a week.

Don't measure readability only with a number

Content strategists are often asked how we might measure the effectiveness of our efforts. Sometimes we can point to cost savings, favorable return on key performance indicators, or other data-based measures.

Other times, our value is best presented in refinements to the overall user experience. Which can be tough to measure with a series of numbers.

It's hard to resist. You might be begging for an easy, scalable, plug-and-play solution for your online content readability measurement needs. Instead, you might wish to make a checklist of sorts, from a messaging point-of-view:

• Does this page/element stick to a single message overall?
• Does the content avoid jargon and language inappropriate to the audience ?
• Are the ideas presented in a clear, logical fashion from a user perspective?
• Does the page have a clear objective (and call-to-action, if appropriate)?
• Can users scan and quickly understand what they will get from the page?

Readability scores are not completely without merit. I still use them for passages and paragraphs, when appropriate. But they simply cannot be used for measuring an entire page's readability.

In the meantime, go find the board book version of "Go, Dog. Go!" at your library. (I didn't even let any story spoilers slip. The ending is AWESOME.)

Content Strategy and the Birth of the Cool (or Fabulous Business Blog)

Should you go forth and publish content before launch? Not to fill up the buckets on the site, but to determine the viability of newly-established editorial calendars and workflows? PERHAPS.

Birth of the Cool

Many of us have been lucky enough to witness the birth of something new. Like babies. Or cool. As in Miles Davis’ classic album “Birth of the Cool.” Or even, perhaps, a company blog.

Blogs, like babies and classic jazz albums, are each special in their own way. Unlike most babies or classic jazz albums, blogs ushered in a revolution in online publishing. Waves of that revolution are still having an impact in the business world as many are still launching their first forays into the blog world.

Usually, blogs have their chronological bits intact. Posts are dated, and listed in reverse publish order.  With those dates, you can tell how much time has passed between posts. That can be a good thing. Visitors will have an idea how often you are publishing new content.

Can we actually do this?

However, the blog format also puts forth the expectation that more content will be coming. That can be a daunting thing to a time- and resource-crunched team.

Fortunately, the launch of every company blog is accompanied by a robust and thorough content strategy. RIGHT? For now, let’s assume that it is. All of those classic, core, content strategy questions have been answered:

• Why are we doing this?
• Who are we speaking to?
• What are we going to say? And how?
• Who played alto sax on Birth of the Cool?

If things have gone well up to this point, these things will have been hammered out, too:

• Publish frequency
• Content ownership
• Content workflow from ideas to archive/sunset
• Editorial calendar for the blog that ties in with other company endeavors

Who is going to raise this thing?

The discussion that follows a decision to undertake blogging for a business brings up questions: who will write it, publish it, manage the calendar and comments, etc.

What is left is the world of planning, creating, and publishing the content. You know, ACTUALLY DOING THE THING.

Often, closer to launch, the discussion turns from horror (OMG, we don’t have any content) to that of shame (OMG, we need to compensate for a lack of content.)

Sowing the seeds of content

Many new blog owners seed their shiny new blogs with a few extra posts, a fine idea. Any artifice is quickly outweighed by the depth and context that a few extra posts bring to a blog. It might even change a one-time visit to a subscription (or other conversion).

Lucky for those managing a new blog, they are about to enjoy two opportunities. (I say that with a bit of sarcasm, because they are probably freaking out at the prospect of launching a completely empty blog.) Those opportunities?

1. Testing the viability of the editorial calendar
2. Testing the workflow under real conditions

These two things are ever so intertwined. An editorial calendar cannot be used without a workflow, and a content creation workflow needs the fodder of an editorial calendar.

Keep an eye on that (editorial) calendar

The success of an editorial calendar depends upon its honesty. Failed calendars are full of good intentions, but leave out important considerations like:

• Will our subject matter experts contribute?
• What if the contributions are of hopelessly bad quality?
• Can we sustain our proposed content production schedule?

Be as realistic as possible, and build in some extra time. If things are moving along ahead of schedule, note it, and keep going.

It’s gonna be work

The workflow test will very quickly surface any bottlenecks or pain points in the content planning and creation phases. Testing the workflow might seem awkward, but it will pay off quickly as the blog starts regular content production.

Keep things real at this stage. A certain amount of artifice will be apparent at this point, and that’s fine. You’ll want it to be the well-rehearsed fire drill that precedes the real burning building of content creation. Some tips:

• Carefully outline the steps in the workflow
• Communicate roles and expectations early on
• Track progress throughout testing
• Note any major issues along the way
• Adjust the workflows accordingly

Congratulations, it’s a blog

With these steps, you, too, can become the proud parents of a bouncing baby blog. A blog that is effective, meets business needs and user expectations, and is generally delightful.

Sure, there are lots of trying times ahead. But, by following the steps above, you’ll be able to avoid many of the headaches and late nights that other blog parents have endured.

Station Wagons and the Content Audit

A content audit will reveal many things about the state of your online content. That audit must be used wisely. Decisions must be made to keep, discard, modify, or acquire content based on an audit's results. DO SO WITH CAUTION.

Recently, there have been a good number of articles written about the content audit. Abby Gilmore wrote a great post about a content audit's assembly and importance.

The decision to create content should always be approached with reverence. It should carefully informed and considered in the light of your larger business goals. And the the most base level, it should be A GOOD IDEA.

Automobiles, viability, and the content audit

Auto makers have wrestled with the concept of the content audit ever since Henry Ford decided to make something other than the Model T.

To their credit, the car giants examined their "content audits" with an eye on efficiencies. In this case, the content audit would inventory the parts, assemblies, and processes available for making other cars.

If they could make a 1956 Ford sedan, they could make a 1956 station wagon with many of the same parts. Efficiency!

Boy, they made beautiful wagons. (See above image.) Keep in mind that this was a golden era for the station wagon. The post-war baby boom created a need for cars that could hold the growing American family. The station wagon became an art form. So much so, books about "Station Wagon Living" were written, even.


Auto makers saw a need not met fully anywhere else. Their then-current sedan platform and common selection of parts made the station wagon's manufacture relatively simple. And, the designers knew the medium. Magnificent vehicles were created.

In 1966, Ford was presented with the idea of making that rambunctious, sporty Mustang into a STATION WAGON. Really. After all, station wagons had been selling. So had the Mustang.

Luckily, they passed on the idea. Sure, a few would have sold, but at what expense to the brand? They realized that it would have been a ridiculous idea. (See for yourself, in the image at right.)

Accelerate to 1996. An ugly station wagon came on the market. Saturn foisted the abomination of the model SW1 station wagon onto the innocent buying public during the height of the station-wagon-shunning SUV boom of the mid 1990s.

Sure, ugly station wagons had appeared before. The 70s saw the Pacer and Gremlin station wagons, after all.

But, Saturn wanted a part of the market. They saw things in the same way as Ford did in 1956, but without the demand of the marketplace or the design sensibility. And this is what happened:

Ugh. Enough said.

It looked as though they had, at the last minute, carelessly grafted the bits of a station wagon on the back of their sedan.  Despite Saturn's marketing claims of being a "different car company," they delivered a turd.

Website content, viability, and the content audit

Many of us have personally witnessed online content audits that highlight poor content quality, inaccuracy, and a considerable disregard for sustainability. Those findings are often ignored. More content with those same attributes finds itself on websites.

The content audit can make the task of determining what stays online and what gets dismissed a much easier and presentable endeavor.

Hard questions will get asked in the audit process. Basic business principles will get called into question. Someone might say, "This sounds like a bad idea on par with making the classic Mustang into a station wagon."

It may be difficult, but that is part of what makes the content audit such an effective tool. Nothing else lays bare, in black and white, these things:

• What is being done internally (workflow, ownership, governance)
• What content is being presented to the public
• What constitutes the public image of the company

On the other hand, audits also present some gaps, some opportunities, that might seem like good ideas. Some will be. Those revelations should be tempered by examining them through the lens of your overall content strategy.

Many of those ideas won't fare as well. Though bright and shiny on the surface, they will ultimately prove unsustainable, unwanted, and unwise. Like that appalling Saturn station wagon.

The content audit has a great deal of power. USE IT WISELY.

Here is an advert that shows the marketing behind that beautiful 1956 Ford station wagon:

Questionable Business Goals and Bad User Experience

What happens when a content strategy is based upon a suspect business concept? The user experience will become the first casualty.

It has been a long time since AOL's CD-ROMs were as ubiquitous as today's Facebook comments. AOL is foisting ubiquity of another sort upon us in the form of dubious content.

Business Insider just posted a leaked 58-page guide AOL provides to their editorial staff. Titled somewhat ominously "The AOL Way," the guide resembles a proper content strategy in many ways, replete with a very basic wireframe, a page table, some content production workflows, audience info, and more.

Yes, content strategy is the way

There has been quite a bit of discussion around The AOL Way document leak. Much of it points to the abhorrent content-farm practices at the core of their business strategy.

Regardless if one agrees with the content farm method or not, (and I do not), this leak points out that AOL has a thoroughly considered content strategy. The goals in the document are a stretch. The means of getting the content created are dubious and unsavory. But, this fact remains: they have done their homework.

But, you have to start with a sound premise

This raises the larger, more frightening question: What happens when a client’s business practices, aims and goals are suspect? How does a content strategist resolve the cognitive dissonance that this brings about?

The first reaction is to question a business' decision makers and stakeholders in the project. But, often the business aims, goals, and directives will come from much higher in an organization. Legacy mindsets and practices hold firm. Shareholders and boards must be appeased. A certain strata within the company may want change, but others do not.

Ultimatum situations of "change this or I am leaving with my principles" may be too scary for most employees to consider. Those charged with creating a content strategy in a situation like this will follow Theodore Roosevelt's maxim of "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Improvise. Make do.

Could this have happened at AOL? If it did happen, what's next?

Bad content = bad user experience

A few years ago. I had a need for a clock radio. I went to the store and bought one. It was cheap. It didn’t hold a radio station in tune. The buttons were SERIOUSLY fragile. Some didn't work at all. One day later, I returned it, and vowed to stay away from this clock radio brand for life.

It seems that AOL is doing the same thing as this shameful clock radio manufacturer:

That clock radio maker tried to fill an unmet need. They designed and manufactured something that was technically a clock radio. There was a fancy, full color box. The chrome buttons were shiny. It was sold where clock radios were sold. On the shelf, it sat right next to others that were more expensive and more substantial. A clock radio that does not work does not meet a user need.

A portion of AOL's plan uses the content farm production method. As The AOL Way guide shows, vast amounts of this low-quality content will be produced. (See a "farmed" example below.) It will be written in a way that games search engine algorithms, launching it to top spots in searches. This content will clog search engines, crowding out other, more viable content. Just like that clock radio.

Content creators and publishers need content to fill a business need. That content must be useful and usable. A business' reckless disregard for the end user or the end product will invariably create a poor user experience. No matter how carefully they craft the content strategy.

Perhaps the new head of content at AOL, Arianna Huffington, will make some changes for the better. Let's hope so, anyway.

For an example of questionable content as produced by a content farm, see this video tutorial on how to use the Caps Lock and Shift buttons on a keyboard:

("aol free time" image from Flickr user dehub (cc: by-nc-sa 2.0))

Own your content. And keep grizzly bears at bay.

(Dramatization.)

The best way to properly take care of your content is to give it an owner. With ownership comes responsibility. With responsibility comes reward. That reward? Content that helps you achieve your business goals.

An example of ownership: my dad’s truck

My dad takes meticulous care of his truck. He changes the oil on a regular basis and performs regular tune-ups.  He keeps an ear out for funny sounds that the engine might be making. He washes it. All of the time. 

He needs to do this because he depends on it. It does the work he asks it to do—hauling things, towing things, etc.

It’s also a source of leisure for him. Every fall, he puts a truck camper on the back and goes far out West for a couple of weeks with my mom.

Not only is this truck getting them from one place to another, but it’s also serving as their lodging whilst in the mountains where the deer and antelope play.

If he were to neglect that truck, ignore regular servicing, and pay no mind to its proper operation, he and Mom may end up stranded on some mountain pass with a wild grizzly bear. (See dramatization in photo above.)
His mindful ownership minimizes that risk.

Content needs ownership

Now, keep in mind, things can be owned—and not cared for. This often leads to less-than-stellar (or even catastrophic) results. I’ve seen it happen with trucks. We sometimes see it with content.

Organizations are beginning to recognize the need for useful, usable content that will help them accomplish their business goals.

But, what they often fail to recognize is the need for staff resources and processes, which are required for the responsible ownership of that content. Or, they assign ownership to the content, but don’t tie ownership to website goals.

These organizations don’t look beyond that very instant the “publish” button is pushed. They might even think (and say) things like:

• “The web is like a filing cabinet that never gets full.”
• “Someone might look for that content, so keep it on the site.”
• “Just get the content up there, we’ll deal with it later.”
• “We’ll have an intern keep an eye on the content.”
• “We haven’t touched it since 1999.”

Without ownership, and the maintenance and monitoring that go with it, content suffers. Goals become much harder to accomplish. Which puts us perilously close to having our content stranded on a proverbial mountain pass, with the grizzly bear of ineptitude pacing outside.

Have your content serviced every 3,000 miles

The best content owners do far more than just ensuring content makes it to the website. Regular service intervals apply to both Dad’s truck AND effective content.

Mindful content owners make a regularly scheduled habit of:

• Monitoring content performance against goals and benchmarks
• Ensuring ongoing relevance of content to business goals
• Verifying  the accuracy of content
• Maintaining usefulness and usability of content for those using it

Content (or truck) owners acting as good stewards will be able to use their content (or trucks) to do what their goals demand. People visiting their websites will be instructed and entertained, and they will accomplish tasks. Or take vacations with truck campers. Without fear of grizzly bears.

(This post originally appeared on the Brain Traffic blog.)

(Truck image from Dad, incorporating bear image from Flickr user tiredofh2o (CC: by-nc-sa 2.0))

Publishers, Know Thy Content

Having someone in the content publishing process or workflow familiar with the content itself is more important than many realize.

Content Creation: Roles to Fill

Lots of roles need to be filled to create useful, usable content. Business and customer needs must be assessed. An audit of current content should be completed to avoid unnecessary duplication. Capacities and resources need to be gauged. Firm decisions are required on questions like:

• Do we need to outsource its creation? 
• Who will review it?
• Who will format and publish it? 
• Who will look after it once it has been published?

This list is far from comprehensive. But, a gap in any one of these can have catastrophic effects. Redundancies. Overstretched budgets and staff. Ultimately, poor quality content.

One question in the process often gets overlooked: Are there people that know the content filling roles in the content creation workflow? Or are are they merely capable of completing the physical tasks of publishing?

This became abundantly clear to me just the other day.

Drumroll Please: An Example

I recently purchased a CD [yes, I am still buying CDs] by the jazz tenor sax titan Sonny Rollins, titled "The Freedom Suite."

This is an important, landmark album.

In the late 00s, the company that owns the rights to "The Freedom Suite" changed hands again.  As is often the case, new ownership brings new strategy.  The new company decided to re-master and re-release the 1958 masterpiece.

Some new packaging was created, and it was unleashed onto the marketplace. I bought it. For full retail price. In 2010.

I was excited, until I saw this:



WHAT? Max Roach on TRUMPET? Oh no you didn't.

I don't wish bore you with hyperbole, but Max Roach was only one of the most important drummers of the 20th century.

The company with the business rights to sell the recording did not put a person familiar with the content in their content workflow.

The Aftermath

A misspelling of Max Roach's name might be a more pardonable crime.  But playing the trumpet? The product has become the laughing stock of the community that purchases the product. And, the company has lost credibility and consumer confidence as a result.

Oversights with online content are just as easy, if not easier to make. Your content is important. Treat it with care. Give it priority. At the very least, doing so will help you avoid turning into the laughing stock of the community you serve.

Oh, and here is a clip of Max Roach TOTALLY NOT PLAYING THE TRUMPET:

Maintaining Your Non-Text Content

I'm all for enhancing the user experience with non-text content, but only if it makes strategic sense. And only if there’s a solid maintenance plan in place. Because publishing non-text content comes with a set of unique challenges.

Be proactive about non-text content maintenance

In an ideal world, all website maintenance decisions happen as a result of your own company’s preferences, and on a reasonable timeline. But even if you’re not living in that ideal world you can still protect yourself. Here’s how:

• Retain source and working files from content partners
• Consider hosting options carefully, and make a contingency plan
• Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows

Retain source and working files from content partners

Anyone with a computer can edit a text file, regardless of its source. By contrast, editing audio, video, and Flash-based elements requires access to the original files and the sophisticated software used to create them.

It’s harder to guarantee that access if you’ve outsourced the content. Unless you make sure to get a complete handoff of all original source files you can get stuck editing these elements in other programs, to the detriment of file quality. (For example, video and graphics are best edited at the highest resolution, then rendered/exported/converted to the resolution at which people will ultimately use it.)

Consider hosting options carefully and make a contingency plan

To complicate matters, content producers often choose to host their content on third-party platforms. Third-party video hosting services (e.g., YouTube) attract content producers by offering APIs, advanced embedding features, HD quality, and free bandwidth.

Using such providers may streamline your process initially, but also requires handing over a certain amount of control. (Companies get acquired, business plans evolve, etc.) If a change is made to the initial agreement, the API, or even the display/delivery of your content, you may be forced to take your content elsewhere.

Disruptions resulting from external partners take time and resources away from your day-to-day business functions. They also affect the user experience. (Think of a video-centric page missing its videos. Yikes!)

Concerns about hosting problems can be easily mitigated by retaining those high-resolution versions and their attendant metadata. With those in hand, upload to other suitable hosting services will be a snap.

Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows

Content workflows need to take into account the complexities of editing non-text content.  This flowchart illustrates the steps involved in successfully making both pre- and post-publishing changes to non-text content:

(click to enlarge)

Incorporating these guidelines into your site maintenance plan will help ensure your non-text content is working as hard as it can to keep users engaged and coming back for more.

(This post originally appeared on the Brain Traffic blog)

Prince, The Internets, and Content Strategy

Last week, the Artist Formerly Known as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince made some provocative and telling statements in an interview with “The Mirror” in the UK.

 "The internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it.

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

"They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."

Much has changed in the past few years in the music industry.  New avenues of digital distribution have popped up, physical music sales overall have fallen to dismal levels, and an entire generation is living music-filled lives without buying a single CD, cassette, or LP.

Prince still wants people to hear his music.  He is simply unwilling to give it to them in the way that they devour it.  That is Prince’s strategy.  He is an artist, and he can do as he pleases, however ill-advised it may be.

The reality of Prince's strategy

Based on his statements, here is a rough distillation of Prince's strategy:

Who: Prince
What: Releasing music
When: Whenever, suckers
Where: Where he deems suitable, rather than where people already are
How: Not on the internet, as it is "completely over"
Why: The internet and digital gadgets are no good

And, in direct conflict, the reality of the situation:

Who: Prince fans
What: They want to buy the latest album
When: ASAP
Where: From the comforts of their keyboards
How: Digitally, in a space they trust, like iTunes
Why: This is how they buy and listen to all of their music

What is wrong with this picture?  Looks more like a contrary strategy than a content strategy.

Success, reality, and a content strategy

Prince has always been a bit of a populist, looking to get his music in the hands of as many folks as possible. Hi newest album, "20TEN", was available for free with the purchase of a newspaper, "The Mirror," in the UK. When I saw him in concert a few years ago, he handed out free CDs of his most recent album to each ticket holder.  It is clear that he wants people to hear his music.

Prince is an established artist, and his past successes grant him the freedom to engage in contrary behavior.  What if that attitude were not from Prince but from an incorporated business?  What would stakeholders say if they were to examine a similar content strategy:

• Don't sell our product where millions and millions of products have been sold (iTunes)
• Avoid the largest communication phenomenon of the last 25 years (the internet)
• Give the product away with another, masking any true measure of performance
• Proclaim that the newest product will be in a format on the decline stuffed in another format in decline (CDs in newspapers)

Content strategy has been described as "the planning, creation, delivery and governance of useful, usable content" by Kristina Halvorson.  That is quite the opposite of the above strategy on nearly every point.

Prince has his Prince-osity to get him by.  Businesses do not.  Focus on what sets you apart, craft it sustainably with realistic goals, and measure to gauge success.  Do that, and you shan't have a need for Purple Superpowers.




For more on Prince's technological confusion, watch for his phrase at 4:48 into the "Batdance" video:

Hey Duckie
Let's Stick the 7" in the computer
Ha ha ha ha ha ha

(The 7" refers to the old 45rpm record singles, of course. You can 't put those into computers.Silly Prince.)

["Prince @ Coachella 2008" image courtesy of Flickr user Mick 0 (cc: by-nc)]

Content Strategy, or, Let’s Make a Mixtape

While digging through my box of cassettes the other day, I had a minor epiphany. Content strategy and the creation of mixtapes are shockingly similar.

As it has been said, content strategy plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. For a website, certainly. But for the creation of a mixtape?
For those unfamiliar, a mixtape:

• Is a compilation of songs (just as websites are collections of content)
• Created for a specific someone (consider your audience)
• Communicates a specific message (in service of business objectives)
• Should elicit a particular response (meet user needs/assist in task completion)

Although they can now be a collection of downloads, “mixtape” is a throwback to their heyday in the 1980s when they were cassettes. Later, they took the form of burned CDs, then mp3 playlists.
For those unfamiliar, a review of some basic tenets of content strategy:

• Analysis: Objectives defined, assumptions and risks noted, success metrics established. Account for internal and external forces that might influence them.
• Audit: A quantitative or qualitative review of your current content landscape.
• Strategy: Actionable, achievable recommendations. Includes editorial workflows, calendars, messaging hierarchy, content types, formats, plus much more!

First is analysis. "What do I want to do with this website (or mixtape)?" Surely you've a recipient in mind. Otherwise, you wouldn't be making a website (or mixtape), right? This goes hand in hand with the objectives and message. All websites (and mixtapes) need clear objectives. They can both do many, many things, but a focused approach will make their creation and delivery much easier.

The objective of creating a mixtape might be to musically convince the recipient that you are indeed cool, or in love, or sorry, or over them (or in rare cases, all of the above). Focus on a theme and/or purpose for the mixtape, give it a title, and dig in.

To put together a website (or mixtape), you'll need source content (songs, in this case). Now would be a good time to perform a qualitative content audit. The audit should note what content (here, your music collection) is currently available, and if it is usable.

Websites brimming with content that is redundant, outdated, and trivial are frustrating and often impossible to use. Broken links, five year old “news” articles, and duplicative pages get in the way of achieving objectives. An audit helps to determine what can stay and what gets the boot.

The same applies for the content for your mixtape. For example, your Bee Gees 8-tracks won't make it onto a mixtape if you don't have an 8-track player. Is that vinyl LP copy of "Thriller" too scratched to use? Did the tape deck in your friend's Camaro eat your copy of Bon Jovi's "Slippery When Wet," rendering "Wanted Dead or Alive" more dead than alive? Perhaps your computer hard drive crashed, corrupting all of your Justin Bieber downloads.

On this mixtape, you might choose to include some content (songs) you don’t actually have in your collection. How will you decide where to get it? The provider of that content will be selected on the basis of what best suits your needs. For instance, you may already have an ongoing relationship with a content provider. Is it the funny-smelling record store down the street? Amazon.com or iTunes? You might also pick a place all your friends are raving about. Or you might avoid one your parents happen to frequent.

With source content in hand, selecting the songs from the pool begins the mixtape editorial workflow. These questions will help you get started:

• Does this content (or song) support the overall message?
• Does it make sense in this context? (Not everyone will “get” your raga references.)
• Does its place next to other selections make for a pleasing experience?
• Will it fit in the remaining time on side B of the cassette?

Make sure that the content (song selection) is relevant to the lucky recipient/user. Putting punk songs and opera and hip-hop tracks one right after the next might be jarring for some, but not for others.
Remember: Stay true to the focus of the theme, consider the recipient, and assert your coolness.
A few additional tips:

• Create your mix with the end user in mind (be aware of their pop culture knowledge).
• Clearly state the title.
• Write the title and track list in a language they can read (as opposed to Esperanto. Or Klingon.)
• If you are making a cassette, make sure they have a cassette player.

The associated “metadata” (in this case, title, track list, and any totally sweet, custom artwork) completes the package. The tone and voice of the title and artwork are all additional opportunities to continue the theme and message of the mixtape. The track list rounds out the experience by providing a reference to the greatness you've compiled. If you follow these important rules, your final product will be so much more than the consumable tape or CD alone.

Just like creating a mixtape is more than slapping a couple of songs together haphazardly on a cassette, creating websites with useful, usable content is more than just slapping words on a page. Taking the time and effort to carefully go through these processes will produce an end result that will make your website users happy (or your mixtape listeners happy).

This post originally appeared on the Brain Traffic blog.

["media" image from Flickr user zendritic (cc: by-nc-sa)]

Content, Scalability, and Making More Pie

In the world of content, as in pies, more isn't always better.

My mother is a good example of this; she is often charged with the task of making food for church events.  This works well, as she is fond of cooking and baking.  However, when the situation calls for 40 pounds of potato salad or pies baked at a two-per-week pace, things start to suffer.  She begins to enjoy it less than cooking for family.  She cuts some corners by buying pre-made pie crusts from the store just to keep up.  Both the process and end result are affected.

What was once sustainable in pie-making becomes unmanageable as the environment changes.  The same happens with the making of content.  In a terrific blog post titled, "Content Strategy Is About Publishing," Erin Kissane writes:

"...the internet is made of publishing, and its new and often anarchic publishing models are messing with older models in all kinds of ways."

This became clear in the content strategies of two major content producers: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

The BBC announced last week some significant budget cuts; the web budget would be cut by 25%.  As a part of this, "The Guardian" reports "The BBC's internet operation will see the number of web pages it publishes halve by 2013." (emphasis mine)

Cutting back on projects/initiatives is something that the BBC has done many times in the past. In 2001, they ceased shortwave broadcasts to North America and Australasia.  They trimmed or cut entirely some of their language services in certain markets/regions later in the same decade.

The budget cuts will mean changes in the web staffing and managerial structure of the BBC.  It also means that there will be considerable changes in their content strategy in the next few years.

For a bit of history:  broadcasters once enjoyed the luxury of creating content in an environment that had great built-in features.  Content could be created in a much different way. This is no longer the case.  It is almost hard to image now:

• Little or no public facing archive
• Automatic context provided via linear broadcast timeline
• Massive reach in an uncrowded landscape

Capacity to produce raw content is only one part of the equation.  To be successful, the rest of the editorial workflow must be given the proper attention.  Getting the story on-air is no longer the sole aim. Editors, publishers, and those governing the long-term life cycle of the content share an equal seat at the table.  These positions need not be separate people, but each duty requires time, resources, and diligence.

As newsrooms and broadcasters look to make their content available on all platforms, additional hours are required (once people are trained) to translate the content into appropriate formats.  Translation in this case means that some things will need to be added or subtracted from the formerly-finished product in order to remain in-context and relevant to its surroundings:

• Text version of audio content
• Video to accompany audio content
• Images to populate slideshows
• Text transcripts of video content
• Interactive/casual gaming features
• Platform-specific metadata
• Branding, rights management, and editing all of the above

Online video, for example, has been viable and mainstream for years.  Many content producers are only now beginning to incorporate it into their content production and editorial workflows.  The chorus has often been "all content to all platforms."  The CBC recently stated this on their "Inside the CBC" blog post titled "The CBC's Digital Content Strategy."

“We don’t know what will work,” (Richard Stursberg, the executive vice president of English programming) said, “One of the big outstanding questions is how long content will live on various platforms.” But he reiterated his commitment to pushing content onto new platforms regardless, “We’re gonna have to absolutely be there,” he said, if we don’t move to these new platforms, “we just lost all our viewers.”

This brings about a question that the BBC may have asked themselves: If it takes longer to create content that is viable on a multitude of platforms, could the current page counts on the web be unsustainable?  The answer was a budget cut and subsequent planned page count reduction.

Is publishing a story in audio form, with an image slideshow and text version plus an interactive/gaming feature causing a change in focus?  Are the raw number of pages published no longer the benchmark?

A change of this magnitude allows for an alternative to the "content farm" model by offering an in-depth, robust slate of content--neither the BBC nor the CBC are strangers to that.  As Erin Kissane writes, creation of content that fits the new modes of consumption is "...largely made up of new applications for old skills."  That is good news for the news.  What is left is this: content producers must now reconcile the amount of time and resources required with changes in output volume.

If it means baking fewer (but better) pies (or content), then I am all for it.

["Pie Chart" image via Flickr user net_efekt (cc: by)]