Content Insights Blog

If you're trying to champion a content initiative, sooner or later you will have to explain the value of content and, in particular, getting strategic about it. Let's take a closer look at two misconceptions you might encounter.

Timely = Fleeting?

If you're dealing with any kind of UX (user experience) or digital product team, you will have to explain the value and relationship to information architecture. This challenge reminds me of Peter Morville's closing keynote at German IA Summit this year, where he reasserted information architecture's relevance. (I dug it, as you can see here.) Peter noted that some sites still use the information architecture he planned for them 10 years ago. A potential misinterpretation for busy people trying to make sense of all this is that architecture work lasts and content work doesn't. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.  Read More >

Can the government do content strategy right? If Peter Lee's efforts are any indication, the answer is a resounding "yes." Peter helmed the recent relaunch of GeorgiaGov, a state government portal that many people visit. Each month, the website gets about 1.3 million page views . This relaunch covered every kind of "re" you can imagine—replatform, redesign, and reimagine content. That relaunch is also garnering accolades, such as a special innovation award from Center for Digital Government.

Peter kindly took some time to  talk with me about his approach to content strategy.  Read More >

If you work in interactive, you might think content strategy isn't your job. Have you ever thought about any questions like these?

• How often should you Tweet?
• What is our message?
• Would a video tell our story more effectively?
• For our redesign, what content should we keep and what content should we delete?
• What voice is best and what tone is appropriate when?
• Which CMS is best for our needs?
• Who is going to update our content and when? 

If so, then I have to break this to you. Content strategy is part of your job. What to do? Read Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. Margot Bloomstein guides us through the lifecycle and mindset for content strategy. The process begins with defining what you really need to say. It ends with a solid plan, and long-term commitment, for maintaining that content. To illustrate this lifecycle, Bloomstein provides not only approaches from her personal experience but also a range of case studies from non-profits, healthcare, auto, apparel, higher education and many more. That’s a wide variety of budgets, team sizes, and goals. Chances are you'll find many instances in this book that make you say, “Their situation is exactly like ours!”  Read More >

A note from Content Science: Colleen Jones first shared this interview on her personal blog, and we've moved it here. We like how this interview sheds some light on the tradeoffs between professional and user generated content. Among the tradeoffs are credibility and quality. As we get ready to release the first results from our Content + Credibility Study, the discussion seems as timely today as it was in 2008.

HowStuffWorks.com started in 1998 as a collection of articles about everything from refrigerators to electromagnets, with each article crafted by North Carolina State University professor Marshall Brain. Today, HowStuffWorks.com is a world-renowned brand and wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications.  Editor-in-Chief Conal Byrne (pictured left) kindly answered questions about the importance of well-crafted content and his effort to lead HowStuffWorks.com into new topics and media.  Read More >

When you tackle content problems, don't make the mistake of turning to shortcuts such as SEO snake oil. Learn why in this article by Colleen Jones for Smashing Magazine.

Read the article >
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