Come on over to my new website

Hi all,

I am no longer publishing here. To keep up with my latest thinking about content strategy, social media, digital strategy, etc., please visit my website: http://www.hilarymarsh.com

You can see my latest posts there:
Content strategy: A two-way mirror between you and your audience
Selling content strategy to management, or how content strategy challenges are keeping your CEO up at night
What, exactly, is YOUR content strategy?
How to grow your audience
Content strategy for Twitter

See you there!

I also have a newsletter that you can subscribe to -- the form is on the site.

Are you a content hoarder? Time to declutter! (part 1)

You may watch the reality show "Hoarders" or the news stories about these extreme collectors -- lots of folks do. Many of us have basements or attics with too many mementos or too much stuff, but hoarders take this to the extreme. They can't bear to throw anything away -- even trash -- and their homes become so filled with junk that they can no longer live there comfortably.

Some websites are like those hoarders' homes. We keep content "just in case" -- just in case someone (a staff member or a customer) ever needs it, even though only a handful of people have used it in years. I remember a statistic shared by Gerry McGovern that Microsoft had literally millions of pages on its site that had zero visits in a one-year period, although they have changed their ways in the last few years.

Why do we do this? I think it's because we think there's a valid business or technical reason to keep the information. On a project I worked on for a large association, we had many old pages with low traffic. For a time, we chose to keep those pages for two reasons:

1. If we removed them, we would be breaking any links to them.
2. Even if the information wasn't current or popular, we needed it to capture the organization's history, and there was no other place to put the content so we could link to it when it was necessary.

Eventually, we realized that even if those links were broken, no one was clicking on them, so it wouldn't really matter. We also created an online archive to store historical content.

How hoarding hurts:

• Old content has a negative effect on search, especially on-site search. Unless tweaked, on-site search engines favor legacy content with many inbound links over new information.
• It is a drag on systems. Even though storage is cheap, having too many pages is still eating up too much space. Search engine crawling, communications audits, tagging efforts, etc. take longer if there are more pages, especially ones that the site owners know are no longer needed.
• It poses legal and business risks. If users are acting on last year's information, they may not be aware that the rules may have changed. If they see an outdated price on a product or event, they may demand that it be honored.

So, it's time to declutter!

Stay tuned for part 2, where we'll discuss how to declutter and also how to prevent hoarding from creeping in again in the future.

Which risk is bigger -- communicating, or not communicating?

I was one of 100 people to attend the presentation of the findings from Edelman's 2012 Trust Barometer survey yesterday. This annual global survey takes the pulse of trust in business, institutions, and industries. It was a conversation between Richard Edelman, CEO, and my longtime contact David Armano, who's now Edelman's Executive VP of Digital Innovation.

This year's survey saw drops in trust of the "big boys" -- government officials and CEOs paramount among them.

My takeaways:

• Consumers trust companies that listen to them. This means empowering average employees to share the message and listen, not just senior management.
• Corporate reputation and brand reputation are now intimately linked.
• Younger employees often drive change in organizations, showing their companies how to listen and educating them about digital literacy. 
• Media is more trusted than ever -- both "big" media and social media.
• CEOs: to foster trust, be a real person, tell stories about people. Transparency is key, and give yourself and your employees permission to fail. Why doesn't this happen now? The Edelman folks posited that the higher an employees are within an organization, the more lawyers get involved. At that point, they need to ask themselves a question: Which poses a bigger risk -- communicating, or not communicating?

In my book, and I think the trust survey agrees, it's better to communicate honestly.

To learn more, see the stream of Tweets from this event and similar ones held in other cities across the globe.

(It was also a great event -- wonderful space, good food, and lots of folks to connect/reconnect with. Thanks to Social Media Club for arranging and promoting it!)

Content Strategy for Pinterest

As Pinterest has gotten more media attention over the past several weeks, I've been getting more followers. That's great news for me, but I'd like to put out a handful of do's and don'ts about using it effectively and joining the community.

1. DO decide who you are on Pinterest. Are you getting married, promoting your real estate business, collecting cool things for yourself? That can certainly evolve, but it's a good idea to start somewhere.
   
2. DO start your Pinterest experience by pinning some things -- pictures from newsletters, blogs, websites, or your computer...infographics, photos, recipe images, aspirations, etc. I've found the "Pin it" browser plugin to be really helpful.
   
3. DO explore who's on Pinterest and see what they do and how they use it.
   
4. DON'T follow people before you have some boards set up. I follow people because I like their taste and feel that I can relate to what they put up. If you haven't put anything up, I don't know whether to follow you or not.
   
5. DO add your own comments to things you repin. Your voice is a great asset to you on Pinterest!
   
6. DO comment on what others pin -- also a great way to lead other curious folks to your page. (Another reason to have boards set up and populated -- to inspire people who visit your page to follow you!)

Do you have any others?

The two faces of content strategy

I had a really interesting conversation last week with Tim Frick, owner of Chicago web design firm Mightybyes, about content strategy. Tim had a great perspective about content strategy that really resonated with me, that there are actually two faces of content strategy:

1. The strategic, outward-looking face
   This aspect focuses on what content will help customers, members, and other target audiences of an organization meet their needs and, in doing so, enable an organization achieve its business goals. This involves understanding users and the organization, knowing the terms people use and the channels they frequent, and thinking strategically about online channels. Search engine optimization and analytics are part of this, as are the strategies for using social media. This face of content strategy has become known as content marketing. In fact, there's a content marketing retreat going on as I write this post.
2. The UX, inward-looking face
   This piece involves identifying the specific behaviors of various types of content, determining the fields in the content management system, documenting the dynamic content that will surface for public and logged-in users of a site, creating a metadata strategy, and forming the content buckets that shape the information architecture for the site.

Together, these comprise true content strategy. Both are necessary. We need to identify the details in order for the organization's intellectual property -- what the content is about -- shine. (For more on that, see my previous post.) And we need to spend the time thinking through the details about how the strategy will actually get realized and built, or the content won't have the opportunity to do what it needs to do.

Sometimes, we're talking about one when we mean the other, and sometimes we forget that both need to exist. Is it one person who creates both faces for a website? Is it only content strategists who do this work? The answer depends on the size of the effort, the degree of change needed, and whether it's an internal team or external agency doing the work.

(There's also a huge third piece to content strategy, which is organizational change and workflow -- look for another post on that topic soon.)

I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this topic!

Your content is about who you are, what you think, know, and do

In the dozen years that I've been practicing content strategy -- yep, since 1999 -- I've often asked myself why organizations have been slow to make content strategy a top priority. I think it's the name "content strategy." Even a newer version of the name, "content marketing," really doesn't capture what the effort is about and why it is a critical, essential part of how an organization presents itself online.

Here's the issue: Content is not about itself. "Content" is information about your company. It's your programs, your lines of business, your strategies, your thought leadership, your benefits to customers or members, your offerings. In short, it is you. In particular, online content strategy is you online.

Moreover, it's all the things that your customers/members want from you -- who you are, what you do, what you think, what you know, and what you offer them.

In order for customers/members to really get you, find you, and use you, your online content strategy must be centered on getting the word out in a customer- or member-centered way. If you describe yourself using your terminology and your mental models, they may not find you, or may not really get that when they come across your website or Facebook page, they've found the solution they are looking for.

So, online content strategy really stands for customer-focused, benefits-centric, readable, relevant, useful, and usable

• thought leadership communications strategy
• business communications strategy
• corporate communications strategy
• marketing communications strategy
• program communications strategy

Online content strategy is creating each of these in a customer-centered way -- starting with the understanding of how customers or members see you, what they currently want from you, as well as what they currently want but don't know you offer. And all of this, with the layer of online content best practices: clear, share-friendly headlines; short, scannable paragraphs; and others.

But the writing and online presentation are the packaging -- what the content is ABOUT is at the heart of all of it.

SEO is like the game of jeopardy

(I first wrote about this concept back in 2006, and the notion is even more true now.)

Optimizing your Web site for search engines is just like playing "Jeopardy." 

• What questions do people ask for which your company, your offerings, your information is the answer? 
• Who are those people? 
• What words do they use in asking those questions?

You need to research these questions (a great starting point is Wordtracker.)

Then, you need to make sure that your website answers each of those questions. Be sure to use their terms and phrases in your content. Be sure to address each of the questions on individual, separate pages on your site.

The example I used back in '06 was Web advice for a relative who runs a company that makes the "trees of life" and other products that organizations use as to honor and recognize their donors. 

The issue was that someone on a fundraising committee at that organization probably doesn't know the term "donor recognition." My relative wanted to understand how to improve his conversions -- he has people trickling onto the site, but extremely low numbers who actually contact him.

I told him to keep three things in mind:

• You want to put yourself where your target audience is, online
• You want to describe your offerings in terms your audience uses
• You want to create words and images that will resonate with the people who arrive at your site.

His research showed that people were searching for "plaques," "trees of life," and "donor walls." He learned that they wanted information about their specific type of organization -- healthcare organization, house of worship, charitable institution, etc. -- even though the actual choices are pretty much the same.

The reality is that it's possible for my relative to create almost any kind of recognition product that a client could dream up -- but they weren't on Google searching for "freeform recognition product," so concepts to that effect weren't drawing prospective customers to his site.

After applying the Jeopardy principle to his online presence, his traffic is up and the conversion rate is greatly improved.

Goals Written Are Dreams Achieved

When I'm not thinking about websites or content strategy, I'm usually knitting. In fact, I've just started a knitting blog where I share knitting-related thoughts and patterns.

Today my worlds intersected a bit. I came across a wonderful post entitled "Goals Written Are Dreams Achieved." While I'm not planning to sell my knitted objects on Etsy anytime soon, I thought the post really captured best practices for every association, corporation, nonprofit, or entrepreneur.

The post gave four tips for writing and measuring goals. I've paraphrased them and added a fifth.

1. Write them as positive, declarative sentences.
2. Be detailed.
3. Share your goals with others, maybe in a blog post or on Twitter.
4. Track the progress of your goals.
5. Review and refine them on a regular basis.

 For a website, content strategy is key to enabling your business to meet its goals.

Content strategy -- the who, what, when, where, why, and how of content

People come to your site to learn something or do something, and your content strategy needs to reflect that you know what they come for and know how to help them do it.

Sounds easy...but it's actually not. In fact, often the cleanest, easiest-looking solutions actually were the most challenging to develop. Keep in mind that those challenges are absolutely worth tackling!

The question "what is content strategy" seems to be out there in the ether more than I've ever seen it. My take on it is that content strategy is the who, what, when, where, why, and how of content.

• Who will be creating the content? Do they know how to write effectively for online consumption?
• What content do your site visitors need in order to do what they came for?
• When: How often should you publish new content? How often will you promote a particular piece of content?
• Where should it live? What section of your site houses the information? Where will you promote it -- on your site, on Facebook/Twitter, in your e-newsletters?
• Why: Do the folks responsible for writing and promoting the content understand both the business goals of the content, as well as users' goals?
• How: Do you have a content management system -- both CMS technology and the related business processes -- to to get the information posted online efficiently and effectively? 

So, content strategy involves several different areas of your organization: content creators, communicators, marketing, and technology. All must be aligned in order for the content -- and the effort behind it -- to succeed.

An open letter to mobile sites

Dear mobile site,

Most of the time, frankly, you’re awful. All too often, you don’t let me do what I came to the site to do -- something that your full site lets me do pretty easily. You present a small handful of options, but not the one I’m looking for. And to be honest, you’re ugly. I definitely appreciate good design on a website, so using you is just not a very pleasant experience.

Yesterday, I started the day as I usually do, checking email on my iPhone before getting out of bed. I got an offer from a clothing retailer for 20% off if I shopped during the week. When I clicked on the link, there were choices to see women’s, children’s, or men’s items. I was looking for women’s clothing – but there was some kind of overlay welcoming me to the mobile site, and it blocked my ability to choose women’s clothes (which I strongly suspect is this retailer’s primary line of business). I clicked on the children’s clothing link, and there, all I could do was drill down, not go to women’s clothes. Oh well – I guess they didn’t really want me to shop with them online. Effective mobile experience? I don’t think so!!

Then on my way home from work, I got a weekly update from a nonprofit career site. In order to see the open positions in Illinois, I clicked through to the site and it asked me if I wanted to go to the mobile site. I’ve clicked “no” each time I have visited the site, but apparently it’s too much for this site to remember that option. I got a request to remember my location – why in the world does this site need to know where I am? I clicked “no” once again. And in paging through the openings in Illinois, I had to carefully expand the page so I clicked on the “next” link vs. the one to the mobile site – yet again. There is an option to see all openings from Illinois at once, but it doesn’t work. Major fail!

I don’t mind scrolling around a “real” site on my phone. It’s a mini-computer, after all – not a Blackberry circa 1996. Bandwidth isn’t really an issue, and real sites have information in predictable places, and a real, defined user experience.

So mobile site, don’t get in my way – and give me the option to decline using you, permanently. If you choose to not do that, I will choose not to visit you.

Thanks for listening.

Social media -- can't live without it, can't keep up

My organization is hiring a social media manager. We've decided to truly participate and engage with the people and online conversations related to us and our issues. I've been working on this effort for many months, and have stepped up my efforts to learn what's going on on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ning sites, MyBlogLog, Plaxo, and a myriad of blogs. I avidly use del.icio.us. I haven't yet explored Digg enough. I've hooked the tools together where it makes sense, and I rely on both push and pull methods of knowing what's going on. But it could easily be my full-time job to just read everything -- and keeping up with these discussions and links is not my primary job responsibility, by any means.

We social media-ites are certainly a communicative bunch, and while I am gregarious and extroverted by nature, I sometimes want to ask people to just be quiet for a while and let me catch up!

While that obviously is not going to happen, I just needed to share that.

Finding time to blog

I've found it challenging to make time to post to this blog. What is blog-worthy? What is worth spending the time on? I guess I'll try and think about it more, post more regularly and see what happens.

Stay tuned.....

If you have ideas on how to get inspired to blog, please let me know!

Real estate book created in record time

Yesterday I was introduced to Steve Kantor, who conceived the idea of a book gathering the thoughts of 1,000+ REALTORS® about how to stay successful in a down market. He pulled the book's contents together in five (!) days. The ebook was available for download within one day, and the printed book will be available as of Friday. I commend Steve and his team for the effort, although it remains to be seen whether the information is useful....

Tired in Las Vegas

I've been in Las Vegas since Sunday, primarily for the National Association of REALTORS® conference and also to attend the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Summit (warning -- the WOMMA site talks!).

As we come to the close of Thursday, I'm tired. I've had more drinks than usual, slept fitfully, had 12+ hour days (filled with enjoyable, interesting activities, but long nonetheless), and have hardly breathed outdoor air.

I'll be glad to get home.....

Real Estate BloggerCon tomorrow!

Tomorrow (Nov. 12, 2007) I'll be hosting NAR's first-ever BloggerCon, along with the Center for REALTOR Technology, at NAR's annual conference in Las Vegas.

It will take place from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the Venetian Hotel, in the Bloggers Lounge on Level 4 - Zeno 4605.

If you're a REALTOR® or a REALTOR® association executive and you blog, please come and meet the other bloggers and share your thoughts.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Adding more widgets to the blog

Look at the right column to see what I've been twittering (tweeting?) about, as well as what I'm listening to....in case you're interested. What are you listening to/twittering about, and do you post that information on your blog? I'd love to know your reasons either way.

Web standards and governance

I've convened my team in our DC office for a "content summit," my term for an intensive session to:

• refine our content strategies/standards/guidelines/policies
• standardize the job that our content strategists do between offices and with various departments throughout our association
• position the team to be able to govern the site more effectively. Lisa Welchman will be working with us on this final piece.
  

We'll be posting the site's standards online -- I'll post the link when it's up.

After a glass of wine and a relaxing dinner, I'll be ready for a third day of interesting discussions tomorrow.

CNN.com 2.0

Check out the new CNN.com, just relaunched today! It's "as an enhanced multimedia site - packed with web 2.0 features such as recommendations and user generated content," according to Read/Write Web. Many of the standards and ideas that it implemented are the same ones we are using or planning to use on REALTOR.org, which is validating:

• Streaming video vs. forcing downloads
• Playing streaming video in Flash, vs. Windows Media Player
• "Integrated multimedia storytelling," which we are taking baby steps toward doing

Some of the site's other new features are ones only in our minds at the moment, including Ajax; "we recommend" and "hot topics" dynamically generated for text and video content; and multiple opportunities for readers to engage with articles, video, and categories.

A revolution in corporate communications is coming your way soon

Debbie Weill, in her BlogWrite for CEOs blog, wrote about a phenomenon that I've been watching for quite some time. (I wrote an article about this back in January 2005, "To make your website work, transform your communicators from writers to editors.") The blogosphere and the rise of social media have made this transformation happen faster and more fully than I expected, though!

12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know

Thanks to C. David Gammel, whose High Context Consulting blog is a must-read for association communicators and Web folks, for pointing to this useful post about the legalities of running a blog. The post covers

1. dos and don'ts of paid blog posts (you should disclose them)
2. whether deep linking is legal (it is, as long as it doesn't violate copyright)
3. using images and thumbnails (make sure you don't use images without permission)
4. laws protecting you from stolen content
5. domain name trademark issues
6. handling private data about your readers
7. ownership and rights to user-generated content
8. your responsibility in monitoring comments
9. basic blog-related tax laws
10. limited liability laws and incorporating
11. laws about spam and unsolicited emails
12. bloggers and journalism shield laws