Jane Greenstein Content Strategy & UX February, 2016

Content  Who I am and why I’m here  What is Content Strategy  Responsibilities of Content Strategist  How Content Strategy & UX Work Together  Content Strategy Deliverables  Becoming a Content Strategist 2

Who I am  Lead Content Strategist at Team One, part of the Digital Strategy team Based in Playa Vista, Team One has over 400 employees in Los Angeles We produce a wide variety of media, including TV commercials, websites and apps Main client is Lexus  Worked both client and agency side  Background in journalism  Worked as a writer, editor and project manager  Earned masters in Library Science 3

Why I’m here  Many digital agencies have content strategists or need them  UX designers work closely with CS and other teams (developers, strategists)  Few disciplines are as intertwined as CS and UX are (akin to copywriter and art director symbiosis)  Many UX designers haven’t had exposure to or full understanding of our skills  Explain what CS is 4

55 WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY?

6 “Planning for the creation, delivery and governance of useful, usable content.” - Kristina Halverson, Brain Traffic CONTENT STRATEGY

7 “Deals with the planning aspects of managing content throughout its lifecycle, and includes aligning content to business goals, analysis, and modeling, and influences the development, production, presentation, evaluation, measurement, and sunsetting of content, including governance” Rahel Bailie, coauthor of Content Strategy: Connecting the dots between business, brand, and benefits and principal of Intentional Design CONTENT STRATEGY (LONG)

What is Content?  Basically, everything 8

Which means… Content Strategy is Everything Source:

10 WHAT WE DO

Responsibilities of the Content Strategist Deliverables vary per project based on timeline and scope Discovery  Audit – what exists, where it comes from, how it’s being consumed  Analyze – what gaps exist that need to be filled (what have, what is needed) Define  Strategize – content strategy defines what is needed and what structure it needs to conform to (structure, taxonomy, sources, etc.) and how it fits into the big picture  Governance – guidelines to maintain structure, branding, context and consistency Operational  Delivery – workflow for new content creation, editorial calendar, ownership and roles  Maintenance – plan for reviewing, evaluating and improving existing and new content (optimization)

Type of Client Deliverables Audit (Scoring & Evaluation) Content Sources Content Scoring Recommendations Editorial Guidelines

Content Source Analysis 13

Content Audit 14

Content Scoring Breakdown 15

Content Recommendation: Visual Story Telling  Use visual storytelling with small amounts of text 16 Needs improvementFits strategy

Content Rules 17 Create rules that dictate content placement, refreshing and other usage rules

Recommendation: Personalize by Lifecycle  Align content to different stages of the customer’s lifecycle using personalization 18

Messaging Document RECOMMENDATION: Add brief text in the ‘Welcome Message’ section on dealer home page that notes dealer’s participation in Lexus Plus. -This will be generic messaging as each dealer has a different welcome message -Sample text: “As a Lexus Plus dealership, [Dealer name] offers transparent pricing and a single point of contact throughout the sales process.”

20 How Do CS and UX work together?

Content Strategy  Evaluate metrics  Analyze existing content and recommending new  Developing content requirements per page  Content Mapping (existing to new)  Content Groupings/ Information hierarchy  Taxonomy  What stories are we telling UX  Prototypes  Information hierarchy  Site Map  Wireframes  Taxonomy/Nomenclature  User stories and user journeys  Functional Requirements Map out Information Organization and Stories

Content First Approach  Evaluation of content allows for related disciplines (design, tech and UX) to do their jobs  UX team needs content requirements, otherwise designing without knowledge of style or volume of content 22

23 HOW IS CS DIFFERENT FROM UX?

24 Or…I feel like I aleady do all these things, am I a Content Strategist?

Overlapping but Distinct Skills  Editorial background (writing and editing)  Messaging including voice, tone and style, catering content to audience  Planning and Strategic Thinking (big picture)  Organization and Detail  Knowledge of marketing and production (project management) 25

What does it take to be a Content Strategist?  Start writing a blog or articles for publication (or a deck)  Organize a set of content into a methodical system (indexing)  Demonstrate problem solving skills  Show how your UX skills translate  Network! Network! Network!  Internships/apprenticeships  Volunteer work: Taproot Foundation ( 26

Education  Library science for both UX and CS IA, Web Design, IS, organizational thinking  Conferences: Content Strategy Innovation Summit, September 27

CS Resources: Read Everything  Gathercontent.com  Smashing Magazine  Contently  Think With Google  Alertbox  Search Engine Watch  The Content Standard  Team One website:  My website: JaneGreenstein.com 28

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