TAKE BACK TO WORK TOOLKIT

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Melanie Smith
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1 TAKE BACK TO WORK TOOLKIT 1

2 Welcome to your Content Strategy Toolkit! This resource is meant to help you apply your newly garnered skills from this, the second Content Strategy MOOC, to help propel your professional career forward. Please feel free to share this resource with the people across your organization. John Lavine Professor & Director, Media Management Center The Toolkit is a quick-reference resource for you to use when you are back at work. It provides quick tips and tricks for many of the topics addressed in the MOOC. You can find a listing of all the topics in the Table of Contents on the next page. Thank you for participating in the MOOC and for downloading this resource! 2

3 Table of Contents [5] John Lavine: a) Put Strategy in Your Content Strategy [6-7] Candy Lee: a) Content Curation b) A/B Testing c) Professor Lee s Trendy Content Checklist [8-9] Randy Hlavac: a) Social Networks b) The ROI in Social [10-11] Emily Withrow: a) Tips for Designing with Interaction in Mind b) Two Opportunities to Build Interactive Story 3

4 Table of Contents Continued [12-13] Zach Wise: a) Gestalt Theory b) Tips for Shooting Great Photos and Video [14-15] Randy Hlavac: a) Types of Social Communities b) Methodologies to Engage a Community [16-18] Rich Gordon: a) Why it s Important to Measure b) Tracking Engagement 4

5 Strategy Strategy is a plan to achieve an organization's goals, usually over a period of time. What strategy does is say, if we're going to succeed at the organizational level, at the division, at the department, at the team, or even the personal level within it, everyone has got to be working towards common goals. John Lavine Professor & Director, Media Management Center You must communicate in a prioritized way, what are the two, or three most important things I'm going to communicate from my role in this organization that will contribute to that strategy. Have deep knowledge of your audiences both internal and external and deliver your content to them in a way that they want to receive it. Convenience is key for getting and keeping their attention. 5

6 Utilizing Content Trends in Your Organization The Trend: Content Curation How to Apply It? Curate Content from a number of different sources across the web that relate to a topic important to your audience. Caution: This may drive traffic away from your site. Find a balance between curated content and other types. Candy Lee Professor, Medill The Trend: A/B Testing How to Apply It? Testing in the digital space is just as important as testing in analog. Apply A/B Testing to random sampling for headlines, subject lines and social messages. Caution: Only test one variable at a time. 6

7 Professor Lee s Trendy Content Checklist Design with links Utilizing Content Trends in Your Organization Add multi-media (video and photography) Ask questions; encourage dialog Use badging and leaderboards to reward user generated comments Feature popular content Feature shared content 7

8 Social Networks We need content strategies which cut through the clutter to our desired audiences to engage them in a long-term dialog. An effective content strategy answers these 3 questions for a defined audience: 1. How will we create value? 2. How will we deliver value? 3. How will we capture value? Randy Hlavac Lecturer, Medill Knowledge of our audience defines the value they will receive: 1. Identify topics the audience discusses. 2. Connect with the influencers. 3. Use advanced social monitoring tools to deeply understand them. 8

9 Where is the ROI in Social? Social Networks 1. Login Logins allow you to track behaviors on your private social site. links to your sales and marketing system. 2. Profile Profiles allow people to tell you more about their needs, wants and desires. It lets them tell community members, too. Many uses for your organization. 3. Remember Engagement is multimedia! Don t focus on specific media or media defined roles. Think about the mission you will play with the audience. 9

10 Interactivity and Gamification Interactivity (n): An exchange between two things that influence each other between you and a device, person, or brand. Tips for Designing with Interaction in Mind: Emily Withrow Assistant Professor, Medill Design for mobile first, and then scale up. Don t place unnecessary barriers between your audience and your content. Don t hide information from your audience. If it s essential, give it top billing. Create an experience that s squarely centered on the individual connecting with your brand. 10

11 Two Opportunities to Build Interactive Story Interactivity and Gamification 1. Building user information into the story itself Lean-back experience: Users are ready for you to guide the experience, and be hands off. 2. Having users drive the narrative experience Lean-forward experience: Users are engaged in the material, primed for interaction with content. Keep in Mind: Tailor content to the individual. Demonstrate relevance. Choose a platform that makes sense for your audience. Know your audience and meet them where they are. 11

12 Visual Communication Visual messages become a language when read in the mind. For pictures and words it is clear that the medium and the message form one symbolic statement. Zach Wise Associate Professor, Medill According to Gestalt Theory, visual perception is a result of organizing sensory elements or forms into various groups: Objects that look similar will be automatically grouped together by the brain. When we are made to look at something unfamiliar, especially if it is a designed page, figure ground relationship clues determine the success of our experience. A distinct shape and color palette can help us immediately perceive information. On the web, impression is reinforced by user experience: similar elements should have a consistent behavior when a cursor hovers over them. 12

13 Tips for Shooting Great Photos and Video Great photos use at least one, if not more, creative devices such as silhouette, juxtaposition, or selective focus. Visual Communication Hierarchy of good photography: Informational Graphically appealing Emotional Intimate When shooting video: Shoot sequences think of shooting video as a patchwork quilt that has many different pieces of tiny fabric. Vary your focal length , keep it short, keep it tight. Lock it down, keep it steady. When framing subjects, use the Rule of Thirds. 13

14 Social Engagement Consumers seek communities for two reasons: 1. Passions Passion communities address topics we personally care about. Passion seekers want to hear the newest from the influencers. They also want to engage with peers to discuss their opinions and input on community subjects. Randy Hlavac Lecturer, Medill 2. Trigger Events Life stage changes drive us to seek communities which can help us address them. In a trigger event relationship, we want guidance from experts NOT from our peers. Trigger event communities have a start and a finish to the relationship. 14

15 Methodology to Engage a Community (with thanks to Stanford Smith) Social Engagement For your first community content, use the experts to help you establish your expertise. Build on their expertise to establish yours: Find two articles by experts. Can be complementary or opposing. Summarize the articles for the readers. Develop three action items for the articles. 15

16 Measuring Your Content Why it s important to measure: Richard Gordon Professor, Medill Every organization is now a publisher media companies of course, but also businesses, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Only way to tell if content is working is to measure engagement. The internet is the most measurable medium ever. You can find out: How often content is viewed. How many people were exposed. How much of a video or text article was consumed. Whether users come back for more. Remember In every category of content, only 1-2 big winners in the competition for attention. You d think that audience attention would be dispersed more widely but it s not! 16

17 Track Engagement: Keep a Spreadsheet for Key Performance Indicators Measuring Your Content For each DAY, a site manager should keep track of: Time spent Visitors Pageviews For different areas of the site Pageviews generated by search engines Pageviews and visits from different devices iphones, Android phones, tablets, etc. For each MONTH, a site manager should keep track of: Visitors Visits Visits per visitor Pages per visit Mobile vs. desktop visits Visits for different types of devices Then these metrics can be totaled up annually to compare them over multiple years. 17

18 Example Spreadsheet Measuring Your Content 18

Kegler Brown Website: 2013 Your Honor Award Submission

Kegler Brown Website: 2013 Your Honor Award Submission Below is the application submitted by Kegler Brown for a 2014 Your Honor Award. The website received honorable mention in the category of Total Website Redesign. Great Jakes Marketing Company was responsible