finding your voice: a social media content development workshop
DESCRIPTION
Not sure what to say on Twitter? Looking for a relevant status update? Trying to connect your mission with your audience? In this content development workshop, Cynthia Closkey of Big Big Design helps you develop the social media style of your organization’s mission. The workshop centers on an exercise to determine the voice of your organization. Updating your social media is not only about what to say, but how to say it.TRANSCRIPT
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HandsOn TechApril 17, 2013
Cynthia CloskeyBig Big Design
Finding Your Voice: A Social Media Content Development Workshop
Friday, April 19, 2013
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Most web content sucks
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• Example:
• Photojojo www.photojojo.com
Some content rocks
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The fix for bad web content: Content Strategy
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• “Content strategy is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.”
• Content: text, graphics, video, audio
• Strategy: holistic, well-considered plan for obtaining a specific goal or result
• Via “Content Strategy for the Web,” Kristina Halvorson
Content strategy
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• “A message architecture is an outline or hierarchy of communication goals that reflects a common vocabulary.”
• Helps you think about how to communicate with the target audience
• Not the same as brand values
Message architecture
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• Moo www.moo.com• Message architecture*• Cheeky• Witty and fun• Young without being childish• Customer oriented and responsive• Approachable, friendly, welcoming• Championing and empowering• Helpful• Accessible
• * NOT ACTUAL MESSAGE ARCHITECTURE, but extrapolated from their content by Margot Bloomstein
Example: MOO
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Exercise: Card Sorting
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https://twitter.com/mbloomstein/status/261023217412608000/photo/1
Card sorting to find
message style
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Cardsorting
Step one:
• Who we are
• Who we’d like to be
• Who we are not
Go with your gut for about 20 minutes.
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Cardsorting
Step two:
• Who we are ➜ who we’d like to be
Think aspirational.What needs to change?~15 minutes
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Cardsorting
Step three:
• Form groups: what goes together?
• Prioritize the goals or groups
• Tell the story of those aspirations
~15 minutes
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Why do this?
Gain standards by which to know when we’re communicating well.
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Message architecture
• Now that we know who we are and how we are to be perceived, what does this mean for how we communicate?
• Visual and design implications
• Text implications
• Content type implications
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Message architecture example
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Online strategy
• Objectives for our online presence
• Audiences (prioritized)
• Value proposition
• “Selling” points
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Content audit
• How should our message architecture affect our other communications:
• Social media
• Print media
• Brochures, mailers, advertisements
• Direct communication
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• Who “owns” the content?
• Content generators
• Online editor
• Moderators
• Administrator or webmaster
Online content workflow
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• Workflow tasks
• Creation
• Review/approval
• Measurement and feedback loops
• Presence managementhttp://www.bigbigdesign.com/2009/08/19-presence-management-chores-for-business-you-could-do-every-day/
Online content workflow
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• Do less, not more
• Figure out what you have and where it’s coming from
• Learn how to listen
• Put someone in charge
• Start asking “Why?”
How to have better content
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• Web content is useless unless it does one or both of these:
• Supports a key organizational objective
• Supports a user/customer in completing a task
Do less, not more
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• Less content is:
• Easier to manage
• More user-friendly
• Less expensive to create
Do less, not more
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• Audit current content
• Inventory sources of new content
• Create a plan for content creation
• Develop a message architecture
• Makes it easier to create consistent content
• Shows you what content has greatest value
Figure out what you have and where it’s coming from
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• Figure out how this can work within your organization
• Find out what customers want (not just what you want)
Learn how to listen
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• Too many cooks…
• Set up guidelines and tools
• Establish an editor-in-chief
Put someone in charge
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• Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
• Question assumptions, trends, directives that don’t support a business goal
Start asking “Why?”
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• Write in a style that fits your goals and audience
• Avoid fluff and jargon
• Use the simplest words and sentences you can
• Complement words with other media
• Take advantage of links and visuals
• Recognize it won’t be read in order or completely
• Use headings and bullets
• Put important stuff first (if appropriate…)
• Test your assumptions
Writing for the web
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• Website as hub
• Other online presences
• Social media pages
• Related/subsidiary websites
• Forums and wikis
• Notification mechanisms
• E-newsletters
• Social media
• Offline means
Delivering web content
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Next steps
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Cynthia Closkey, Big Big [email protected]
Content strategy credits: Margot BloomsteinBook: Content Strategy at WorkPresentation: Secrets of a Brand-Driven Content Strategy Workshop
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