Is it time to rethink content strategy?

Jeremy Baldwin, 22 Sep 2009

• Tags:
• content
• social

Fact; clear, concise, compelling content is at the very heart of successful web site design.

So why is it so often seen as the annoying little brother to its better looking and far more interesting information and visual design siblings? The lure of the site map, wireframe and visual  all too quickly leads to the lorem ipsum, ‘video goes here’ trap that renders even the most elegant design compromised in the face of  badly thought out, rushed content. 

Perhaps the accepted web design process is to blame, leading many to question the way we think about the creation, population and management of content. One suggestion is to take a more agile approach to web design, with closer integration of architecture, content, and technology into a fluid and iterative process. The focus is on rapid high and low level prototyping and review using real content, and real code from day one.  Greater collaboration between designers, search specialists, architects, content producers, developers and the client, delivering a far more effective and relevant experience design. Extend this to the analysis of behaviour and site optimisation and the rewards of this approach continue to be felt long after go-live.

The issue is a far bigger consideration than just content on the branded website.  The rise of the social web has brought a new dynamic to content strategy, and given rise to a new generation of content specialist. Well beyond the writing and editing for the web brigade, these are professionals dedicated to monitoring, creating and shaping content about the brand in all its digital guises.

The ‘continual partial attention’ created by grazing the likes of twitter, social commentary and YouTube videos is driving a veracious appetitive for stuff. In turn this drives the need for brands to continually produce attention grabbing bite-size chunks that spark conversation, as well as the deeper, more engaging stories that keeps the conversation alive. Carefully constructed pieces of branded content can, and will be, cut-up, edited, re-used and distributed all over the web. The ubiquitous cry for comments, feedback and opinion has relinquished control of content to consumers shifting the responsibility of the brand from advertiser to brand-led content producer, to editor and host of content about the brand.

Against this backdrop the role of the content specialist extends to monitoring and mapping of all content and comment about the brand online from the social networks to third party niche sites, as well as those owned by the brand. A framework for which of these conversations to participate in who does it and with what, is essential to effective and authentic dialogue. Some have taken the approach of collating this conversational content into a single branded space, best illustrated by taking a look at skittles.com, rather than the more popular distribution and control of content with social profiles and applications. Those that have seen success through the more casual seeding of branded content have shown that brands must do more than simply post the TV ad on YouTube.  Encouraging users to join in this content creation process has seen its fair share of casualties, but where appropriate this advocacy has dramatic and measurable brand benefits,  something Virgin Atlantic has achieved well on facebook.

What is clear is that this is unchartered territory requiring a strategic, long-term, but flexible approach to content strategy. Tactically, brands and agencies must be flexible to produce a variety of content for a number of different purposes. Consideration needs to be given to where the content will live and for how long; how it is best presented; how portable it needs to be across media and devices; who creates it and who can edit or re-use it; and importantly measuring the effect it has.

Brands and their agencies need to pay a little more attention to content strategy, or they’ll wake up one day to find out that the annoying little brother has grown up to be the confident, successful one that gets all the girls.

• Tags:
• content
• social

« Back