content news

Content News Issue 2 , May 2003

Welcome to the May 2003 issue of Content News. Many of you found out about this newsletter via our white paper, "The Top 25 Things Every Content Management Vendor Should Know About What Their Customers Want." If you haven't downloaded it, please feel free to download it now. Feel free to send the URL for the white paper to anyone you know who is choosing a content management system, thinking about implementing content management in their organization or developing a content management system. Also, I welcome your feedback on the white paper, this newsletter or my site -- send it to feedback@contentcompany.biz.

Best,

Hilary Marsh
Editor, Content News
President, Content Company

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Feature Article: Create a Smart Publishing Process for your Website

Note 1. Upcoming Net Content/Chicago meetings

Note 2. Recent updates to the Content Company website

FEATURE ARTICLE: Create a Smart Publishing Process for your Website

by Hilary Marsh, President, Content Company
originally published in May 2003 Content News, the monthly newsletter from Content Company

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "PUBLISHING PROCESS"?

Content doesn't just appear on a site by magic. At a minimum, it has to be written and it has to be posted. Between those two steps, it is usually checked for its writing quality and correctness. Legal and compliance may need to review it. And ideally, it will be reviewed by a high-level editor or editorial board to make sure that it is consistent in style and fact with other information on the site.

WHAT DO YOU GAIN BY HAVING A CENTRALIZED SET OF PROCESSES?

1. 1. Accuracy. Only by making sure that all content goes through similar steps -- and, often, a small set of people -- can you make sure that all information on your site says the same things.
2. 2. Brand consistency. Every interaction you have with current or potential customers, investors or employees adds to the impression of your brand. And you want to make sure that those interactions give a positive impression of your company.
   
   Some real-life examples of inconsistent brand identity:
   • Print materials from one business unit’s brochure (created in 1999 but still distributed) show an old logo and say that you’ve been in business for 75 years and have 5,000 employees and your website says that you have more than 3,500 employees and were founded in 1938.
   • The product instructions on your site are different from what the customer service department says, because they were produced by a different department.
   • Employees in one business unit get regular updates about the company’s performance and strategies, but those in another unit get none.
3. The opportunity to share knowledge among people producing and reading your content.

ASSESS YOUR CURRENT PROCESSES

There may be multiple processes, or there may be none at all. In your quest to develop smart processes, you’ll need to

• find all the people who currently create content for your external and internal websites
• work with them, probably in person individually, to identify their approval and publishing processes
• validate these processes with all the people in the publishing chain, to see if their experience of the process matches that of the content creators

In addition, gather information on the publishing processes your organization uses for print. In this more established medium, you are likely to have more quality checks and formal sign-offs.

DEVELOP A SET OF BEST PRACTICES

Once you have gathered information about the processes you currently use, you’ll probably have a patchwork of different individuals, departments and numbers of steps used to publish information.

Gather your web editorial board or your communications group and look at these processes as a group. Ask questions: why is legal involved for print communications but not Web? Why does Business A run their press releases by corporate communications but Business B does not (and how does that affect whether Business A’s releases get posted on the corporate site more often than Business B’s)?

Start with the communication goals for each type of content and each medium, and see whose information is likeliest to meet those goals. Then assess what they are doing right. Do they have a regular publishing schedule? Do they allow enough time for reviews? Follow these examples for all of your content.

AUTOMATE YOUR PROCESS

If you have a content management system, these publishing processes can be set to happen automatically. A CMS can ensure that each press release goes through its originating business unit, including a writer and a manager, and then be approved by corporate communications and legal. Most CMSs can notify people via email that they have content waiting to be reviewed, and many can allow them to review and approve, edit or reject content directly from the email.

If you do not have a content management system, you may want to appoint someone as the central contact point for all content. This contact point will track the status of content manually and ensure that every piece goes through the appropriate steps.

If your organization would benefit from a smart publishing process, contact Content Company at info@contentcompany.biz.

NOTE 1: UPCOMING NET CONTENT/CHICAGO MEETINGS

Tuesday, June 17: Spotlight on Healthcare

Tuesday, July 15: How Content People Can Work with Information Architects

no meeting in August

Tuesday, September 16: Measuring the Value of Online Content

Net Content/Chicago is a network of diverse content professionals. We host monthly events covering topical issues for the online content industry. Net Content/Chicago is a SIG of the Association for Multimedia Communications.

NOTE 2: RECENT UPDATES TO THE CONTENT COMPANY WEBSITE

RESOURCES

I have checked and done some initial organizing of the links on all of my resources pages. Feel free to check them out -- let me know if you have additional resources I should add!

CASE STUDIES

The next case study, of the American Hospital Association content management/portal project, is up.

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ABOUT CONTENT NEWS

Content News is the monthly newsletter from Content Company where we share our learnings about and insights into content management and other issues related to content, lists our latest projects and reports on other tidbits.

ABOUT CONTENT COMPANY

Content Company provides a variety of content services, from content management strategy to content development. Content Company helps organizations achieve dual goals: to fulfill their business goals and help their audiences (employees, customers, partners, etc.) meet their needs.

Our clients are corporations, associations and nonprofit organizations. Our projects have included intranets, public websites, newsletters and video scripts. If you are interested in disucssing how we can work with your organization, please feel free to contact Hilary Marsh, Content Company president, at hilary@contentcompany.biz

Content News, May 2003, No. 2, copyright © 2003 Content Company, Inc. You are welcome to pass along this newsletter, as long as you do not change the content, you keep the opening and this closing material, and you notify Hilary Marsh at hilary@contentcompany.biz. Hilary Marsh retains copyright of this material.

This newsletter was originally sent to 280 subscribers on Friday, May 23, 2003.

Read other issues of Content News
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
June 2003
April 2003

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