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HI! My Name is Julie. Developing and Optimizing Web Content

Join Julie for an interactive training session on developing and optimizing web content. Learn about content strategy, writing for the web, photo and video best practices, information architecture, and user experience.

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HI! My Name is Julie. Developing and Optimizing Web Content

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  1. HI! My Name is Julie.Developing and Optimizing Web Content Kentucky Community and Technical College System Hazard Community and Technical CollegeTraining June 29, 2017

  2. Areas Covered • Julie & Content Strategy • Writing for the Web • Photo and Video Best Practices • Information Architecture & User Experience • Hands-On Learning Exercises

  3. In This Section • Definition and What Julie Would Do • Content Planning • Who’s job is it?

  4. Meet Julie

  5. Who is Julie?

  6. Julie Video

  7. Julie’s Voice • Approachable • Conversational • Empathetic • Knowledgeable • Authentic

  8. Julie’s Tone • Positive and Polite • Service Oriented • Supportive • Interested • Patient • Respectful

  9. Julie’s Goals • Earn trust with people. • Build people’s confidence in themselves. • Help people, the way she was helped. • See people succeed.

  10. Remember to ask yourself, “What would Julie Say?”

  11. Content Planning

  12. Quotable “Content strategy is the plan for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.” “When we practice content strategy, we ensure that our web content is treated as a valuable business asset, not as an afterthought.” — Kristina Halvorsen, Content Strategy for the Web

  13. Key Questions to Answer • Who is the audience? • How will we create, deliver, and govern the content? • What do they need or what do they want to know? • What is the best content to support the idea?

  14. Audience-Centered Content

  15. “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!” “It’s all about me!”

  16. Who is “me” in higher education?

  17. Prospective students come first…

  18. …because fulfilling our mission depends on recruitment& retention

  19. Prospective students come first, without neglectingcontent for…

  20. ... current students, alumni,faculty & staff,businesses and partners,and community members.

  21. Web Users in General • Web use is mostly introverted (one person per screen) and so most web activity is self-interest. • Users don’t necessarily think like you do. • Users usually visit a site with a specific goal in mind.

  22. Know OurUsers • Who are our users? How would we rank them in order of priority? • What are they coming to our site to learn or do? • What do we want them to do? To know? To think?

  23. What we doknowabout HCTC Users • How many? • Who are our users? • How would we rank them in order of priority? • What are they coming to our site to learn or do? • What do we want them to do? To know? To think?

  24. What we doknowabout HCTC Users • How many: 607,611 • Who are our users: Current Students, Faculty & Staff, Prospective Students • What are they coming to our site/pageto learn or do: Current Students, Employee Information, Academics, Programs of Study, Admissions

  25. Creating-Centered Content

  26. Lessons From the Trenches • The assessment, creation, and approval of content always takes more time than expected. • It is never too early to start thinking about what new content is needed and what existing content needs to be rewritten in the future. • Content management is an ongoing process, not a project. • We should expect 30 - 50 percent of current content to be cut as we evaluate and revise old pages to the new. Less is more. Less to move, less to maintain.

  27. Lessons From the Trenches • Follow an(editorial) plan. Opinions you get from internal stakeholders about copy on the site are typically grounded in their personal preferences. Evaluate the credibility and importance of the feedback against the KCTCS online style guide. • Identify content pools. Repackage and reuse the good content you already have.This could include alumni spotlights, photography from social platforms, print magazine content, etc.

  28. How to Keep Website Content Fresh • Set a schedule for content evaluation: • High-traffic pages such as About, Admissions, and Academics should be reviewed at least once a semester. • Academic department pages should be reviewed at least once a year. • Create a weekly/monthly content/story calendarfor maintaining the website. • Sync up the content with your editorial calendar. • Visual assets like photography can be hard to come by — KCTCS offers professional photographs and the Creative Shop is on the intranet.

  29. Using Editorial Calendars Another way to plan out content is an editorial calendar. Editorial calendars provide the following advantages: Provides an intentional way to hit a broad series of our brand-based themes and messages. Tracks detailed actions that will increase the effectiveness of the content that we publish (promotion on other channels, deadlines, accountable team member). Prevents side-by-side postings that send an unintentional message. Becomes a searchable archive, allowing a look back on activity and a means for reviewing and evaluating the types of content posted over a particular period of time. Allows us to plan across all of our channels and platforms.

  30. Example Editorial Calendar

  31. Content: Who’s job is it?

  32. How to Determine Who Does What? Answer: Use a RACI Matrix What is a RACI? • Responsible means “those who do the work to achieve the task.” • Accountable means “the one individual who must sign off on (approve) work that the responsible individual provides.” • Consulted means “those whose opinions are sought.” • Informed means “those who are kept up-to-date on process.” Rules: • There can only be one person who is accountable for any given task. • More than one person can be responsible, consulted, or informed.

  33. RACI Matrix Benefits • Written record of responsibility that can be referred to later to hold everyone accountable. • Helps us know who to include, when, and how in the content production process.

  34. How to Run Content Writing / Editing Progress Meetings • Start by identifying the piece to be reviewed. • Follow with 10 minutes of silence while everyone consumes the latest copy / discussion and takes their own notes. Simply look at what is in front of you and write your thoughts. No talking! • Cut the chatter and get everyone’s input at the same time. • Open up to discussion afterward.

  35. Exercise 1: Analyzing Content

  36. Exercise 1: Analyzing Content • Read through the writing on the page. • Now, you’ll make a second pass through the content — this time, evaluating it on a number of criteria.

  37. Exercise 1: Analyzing Content Answer the following questions about the page: • Yes or No: We need this page on our website. • Yes or No: The information is current. • Yes or No: The information is accurate.

  38. Exercise 1: Analyzing Content For each of the questions below, you should rank the page from 1 to 3. 1 = Low, 2 = Medium, 3 = High. • How engaging is the content? • How relevant is the content to its intended audience? • What is the overall quality of the content?

  39. Exercise 1: Analyzing Content Now, tally the results. The best possible result is three ‘Yes’ answers and a score of 9. If you answered ‘No’ to any of the three Yes/No questions, then the page should be removed or revised. If your page scored lower than a 5 on the ranking questions, then the page must be heavily revised. If your page scored lower than a 7 on the ranking questions, then the page should be lightly revised. It your page scored an 8 or 9 on the ranking questions, then the page is likely okay to keep as is. How did your page do? Would you recommend a rewrite or not?

  40. Content Strategy Review • What Would Julie Say? • Who is our audience? • Make a plan! • Know who’s job it is.

  41. Additional Resources for Content Strategy Good Content Strategy Blogs • Content strategy posts on the mStoner blog • Meet Content blog Good Posts on Content Strategy Basics • mStoner webinar recording: What’s your strategy for content strategy? • mStoner blog: Content Realism • Harvard Business Review: Journey maps for a better customer experience Great Books on Content Strategy for the Web • Kristina Halvorson: Content Strategy for the Web • Richard Sheffield: The Web Content Strategist's Bible KCTCS Resources • AskJulie@kctcs.edu • KCTCS Creative Shop: Sharepoint under Marketing Peer Team site

  42. 2. Writing for the Web

  43. In This Section • Web Writing Best Practices • Writing for Accessibility • Video & Photography on the Web • Writing for Search

  44. 2.1Web Writing Best Practices

  45. The Inverted Pyramid Who, what, when, where, why, how Interesting facts and colorful stories Least important information

  46. Broad ideas first, specifics to support after. Length of body isabout 200-400 words. Action items arelinked within copy. The tone is conversational and extra words are edited out. Inverted Pyramid: Example wm.edu

  47. Web Writing Best Practices • Consider the primary audience for the page. It isn’t you. • Consider what information the audience needs to get from the page. • Think about the purpose of the content — is it transactional or relationship building? Are you trying to convince someone to do something, or provide the means for them to do it?

  48. Web Writing Best Practices • Avoid insider terminology, particularly acronyms. Visitors likely have no idea what clever program names or department names mean. This is especially true for acronyms. Assume that a visitor is seeing our page for the first time with no background and no history, and try to write for that experience.

  49. Web Writing Best Practices • Use consistent verb tense on a page. An inconsistent verb tense error is one of the most common in writing. There is no need to declare a universal verb tense for the site, but try to stick to a consistent verb tense per page.

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