Digital Content & Avatars

People are natural storytellers, and as interaction designers, it’s our job to navigate the relationship between people and the objects they use every day. Is there a story that is unfolding between people and their products? Are stories organic? How do they emerge? Do interfaces tell a story? Should we be designing with a narrative in mind? Join us to hear short lectures from four very different perspectives on the story and our role in it.

HootSuite is a Twitter toolbox with which you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success. 

HootSuite is a simple web-based application for managing single or multiple Twitter profiles through one interface. But it does more than just tweeting. HootSuite enables to manage profiles with multiple editors on each profile (if more than one), schedule tweets, track stats, RSS their content to submit into blogs and websites. 

1. Who's my readership? (Refers to your persona - user profiles)
2. What is the intent of this information product? "Informational", "Promotional" "Conversational" or ?
3. How will I measure the efficiency of it? 
4. What are my main communication goals with this information product?
5. What are the existing / new metadata for this information product?
6. What are my readership's "carewords" (as McGovern would call their keywords) for this information product?
7. Is there already a template for this type of information product? Do I have to create a new one? Are there other people involved in the design process?
8. What type of "content elements" do I need ? Title, lead paragraph, subtitles, bulleted lists, anchors, related documents and / or links ? 
9. Should there be graphic / audio / video elements associated to this product information ? Do they already exist ? Do we have the copyright on them ?
10. Who are the other "actors" engaged in the production? Who's the editor ? What are his/her availabilities ? Do I/they need validation?

About my poll titled Content Strategy & Editorial Strategy, two different names for a same goal? , @wion asked me on Twitter:

"In France (Europe?) this may seem/be true, but I think what is meant by "Editorial" needs to be defined first because I'm suspecting (not saying with 100% certainty) that is what would distinguish if the scope is different".

And he's right. I'll try to spot what could make the phrase "stratégie éditoriale" so "Frenchy".  And try to answer to the question why in French we use both or even preferably "editorial strategy" instead of "content strategy". But let us see how "editorial" and "editor" are perceived an defined in English.

(download)

Click here to download:

Editor_-_Editorial_-_first_ste.zip (196 KB)

Efficient editorial content creates unique user experience, drives traffic to related content and promotes conversion; influences user behaviour & forms a bond; generates credibility & visibility. The tools the on line communication team can use and give to all the authors, editors & other stakeholders are:

• A Style Guide
• Editorial Guidelines
• A Critical Mass Strategy Report (including incentives for the contibutors, subscribers, and moderator)
• The Communication Strategy Paper
  
• Target User Profiles (Personas)
• User Testing Guidelines & Results
• Stakeholder Profiles
• A Benchmarking Analysis and a SWOT Analysis
• Content requirements (volume, frequency, tone of voice, key messages)
• Author/Editor Service Guidelines
• UGC Management Guidelines
• A Measurement/Analytics Report

Some of these tools can also be interesting for those who manage the content strategy. But this part of the project also has specific tools. We'll sum them up in a later post.

Do you see any other tool ? Do you think some of these are not relevant in an on line editorial strategy? 

SWOT analysis is more a useful reviewing method than an application tool, and it has its own weaknesses. For example, if you want to know how important it is to realize your objectives, or which opportunity or threat should be tackled in prior, you won't find the perfect answer in a SWOT analysis. Nevertheless, a SWOT analysis assembles key pieces of information, and make it possible to classify the source & destination of the cirtical factors that have to be dealt with. 

There are 2 main categories of review factors, and within those 2 categories, we use 2 types of evaluation items:

Internal factors – The strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization.

External factors – The opportunities and threats presented by the external environment to the organization.

In regards with Content & Editorial Strategy, A SWOT analysis - when SWOTs are correctly identified - can be usefull to brainstorm possible tracks and steps ion how to tackle with the on line data & information management. Stakeholders will be able to determine objectives, check if they are attainable, or adapt them if they are not. If the objectives seem attainable, the SWOTs will help to set up an practical roadmap. In other words, at each step of the strategical process, the team members will have to ask themselves the following 4 questions:

• How can we use each Strength?
• How can we stop each Weakness?
• How can we exploit each Opportunity?
• How can we defend against each Threat?

Of course, a SWOT analysis is not another one. Each review has to be customized to the concerned organization and strategy.

Interested in our SWOT Template applied to Content & Editorial Strategy? Just e-mail us

Effective Content Strategy is a guarantee to produce findable and legible contents, but also efficient: hyperlinks do their job, pdfs are downloadable, forms are usable. A goog content strategy determines user experience and promotes reassurance ; it also enhances and harmonizes the workflows.