The Content Conundrum: Redefining Content Strategy

I was thrilled to have my first editorial published by CMS Wire in mid September. Many thanks to those who have commented and and tweeted. It's led to some very interesting conversations - feel free to reach out to me if you have a comment. You can read the original article here  
--------------------------

What Does Content Strategy Mean to You

Welcome to the Content era. It’s here, it’s now and it’s changed the game. Stemming from the rise of data during the Y2K scare, to the subsequent explosion of information that followed, we’ve drowned in data, been overwhelmed with information and now face a new realm that’s been characterized as Content Chaos. (AIIM, 2010). Regaining and establishing order requires a Content Strategy. Let me ask you first, what does ‘content strategy’ mean to you?

1. Isn’t that what marketing does when they print brochures?
2. It is the creation, delivery and disposition of web content.
3. SharePoint
4. It is the creation, publishing, distribution and governance of content in support of corporate goals.

Wikipedia defines ‘Content Strategy’ as, “the practice of planning for content creation, delivery, and governance” in the context of being "a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project."

While this served well for Web Content Management, the definition is too myopic for the new content-driven paradigm. Content is pervasive and proliferating throughout every functional group across a company or government organization and extending beyond the firewall to partners and customers. Meanwhile the unrelenting volume of user-generated content, rich media and social objects compounds daily as the tribes, crowds, communities and countless (millions!) of internet users continuously create, collaborate, publish, distribute, access, stream, download and view content online — and now on their mobile device.

Applying a Content Strategy

Web content management is a valuable discipline and requires a content strategy. So does email, contracts, invoices, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, engineering diagrams — even Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, managing content is very different than applying content. Managing content can help bring order to content chaos; you may even reduce costs, meet compliance regulations and generate efficiencies from process automation and knowledge-sharing.

Applying a Content Strategy not only brings order to content chaos, it prescriptively orchestrates through the clutter to realize new sources of value. For that reason, the best answer above that defines Content Strategy is ‘D’
How do you apply a content strategy against corporate goals? Therein lays the conundrum. Here are a few examples that illustrate the risk of not applying and the potential rewards:
 Scenario  Conundrum                           Recommendation             Validation

Do I need a mobile app for that?	Content Strategy includes ECM and WCM and now mobile content and mobile content management completes the trinity.	The content strategy supports the business objectives. If revenue is a top priority then monetizing content via mobile applications might be the focus.	Mobile content revenues will grow from $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014 (eMarketer) NBC Olympics Mobile platforms (Mobile Web Site and iTunes App), amassed 87.1 million page views during the 17 days of the Vancouver Winter Olympics (NBC 01/03/10)
Who stole my brand?	User-generated content, micro-blogging and viral distribution has shift the balance of power from the Establishment to end-user	Embrace the users – and gain their support. Ignoring them won’t make it go away.	Parody BP Twitter site usurped the official BP page in less than a week. BP, an enterprise conglomerate, applied a full court PR press and tweeted over 2,000 times to amass 18,632 Twitter followers. The parody accrued 190,206 with less than 500 tweets.
Hell hath no furry….	Instant and viral distribution of content or social objects: Word of Mouth rules. A poor experience, delayed response won’t encourage customers to say nice things.	A content strategy is more than monetizing assets. The experience is equally important to ensure a repeat customer. And one that tells their friends, and their friends….	According to a survey of US mom Internet users, Consumer reviews are significantly more trusted- nearly 12 times more- than descriptions that come from manufacturers, (eMarketer, February 2010).

Content is a Valuable Asset

Organizations spend millions on data and information management infrastructure, systems and technology. They invest millions in storage, security, business intelligence and other applications to reduce risk, be compliant and analyze corporate performance. Sadly, in their efforts to achieve business goals: reducing costs, improving operational efficiencies and uncovering new sources of value, they fail to apply one of their most valuable assets: content.

The Content era is a new world with new rules and a new realm of players. To prosper, you need a game plan — a content strategy, and it must align with business goals. Sitting on the sidelines isn’t being cautious; it’s conceding to the market, your customers, your competition. A prescriptive and pragmatic content strategy will help navigate this new world and support value creation.

Got Content? My home (content) improvement project

Saturday 1:20pm
Consolidate & move all media files to iMac.
Hmmm, how do I find and get rid of duplicates?


Do I really have a terabyte of music, videos and who knows what else?


1:45
Okay, this sucks – maybe I really do have a terabyte. I’ll just move it all and figure it out later.


2:00pm
I need an external drive – with at least a terabyte of space.


2:15
Arrive at Staples.


2:35
Am tempted to use the store PA system as I still can't find a store clerk and the cashiers are deeply involved in some sort of boyfriend crisis to notice that I've been standing in front of the Customer Service counter for 7 minutes... not that I was counting. Because if I was, I would have specified 7 minutes and 23 seconds...


2:36 
I'm advised that the phone system is not for public use. However, I'm able to quickly get a few questions answered and procure a Western Digital external drive that will work on both PC and Mac.


3:00pm
Back at home office and moving files to new drive. Okay, now – where was I? Right – media files. Move them all and I’ll deal with the duplicates once I have all media in a single location.


3:20
While media files are moving, I’ll go through temp and download folders to move or delete files …or did I already do that? Am I moving the same files again – but potentially to different folders and I’ll have multiple copies? How do I check that?


3:30
Search on a few files to see if I’ve already moved them, and if so – where? One Mac has 150 files and the other has less than 30. Who calls a file 154987_345_21456.pdf? Or 3398531745_5a8c79f42_z.jpg. Honestly?! That’s just cold.


I’m going to have to open all the files with a cryptic file name and see what it is, if I want to keep it, and if so, rename it and move it.


4:15
Cryptic file names suck. Clearly there must be an easier and faster way to do this?


5:00
Media files still copying. 180 files from download folder have been moved or deleted (feeling like Rock star. Not quite Gwen Stefani but better than Taylor Swift at last year’s MTV awards show. )


Open email with visions of grandeur to deal with the 2922 unread messages. On the bright side, that’s 4,000 less than what’s piling in my yahoo account. [Who’s sending me this stuff anyway??!]


5:10
Surely I must have a bottle of wine in the house somewhere….


5:12
Nope. Bummer


5:13
Back to email. This sucks. I’ve only conquered A-D.


5:47
Who are these people? I don’t want a Rolex, I’m not interested in marrying a self proclaimed super sexy single from overseas, I’m not suffering from ED… woah - DSW has free shipping this weekend??!


Deep breath - stay on target. Focus.
Media is still copying over to external – how long is this going to take??
Back to email... I can do this!


6:00
I wonder if DSW has these Fendi patent peep toe platform heels in size 8.5? Step away from the computer.




Play with cat.


6:05
Remove fruit fly catcher sticky tape from cat’s tail. Hope the hair loss isn’t going to be permanent.


I should organize my Documents folder
I need to organize my Documents folder
I will organize my Documents folder


6:12
Okay, here goes: Documents folder.
Why are there two folders with the same name on the same machine? Oh wait, there’s a third if I include my MacBook . Super. Just super. I’ll consolidate and organize. Hmmm, not enough memory to do that. On any of my machines. Right – I have to delete the media files that I copied over to the new drive.


6:25
Deleting dilemma… what if something goes wrong on new drive and the files don’t move properly? What if the new drive crashes and I lose everything because I deleted the source files from my machines? 27,654 songs now in my iTunes library. Hmmm, seems excessive. That’s a project for another weekend.


6:30
Find 500gig external drive to consolidate and move My Documents folders to single location. WHAT? “Destination folder is not large enough”… come’on!


6:45
Find second external drive – 320 gigs. I now have the terabyte drive for my media files, 500 gig for Documents folder and a third 320 gig for overflow. With keyboard, external speakers and printer already taking most of the USB ports, I have to find a second USB extension ‘thingy’ (note to self: a tradeshow trinket that is actually useful) to connect the third drive.




7:30
Wonder if Sharam or GlamScum have released new podcasts I can download…


8:00
My stomach advises that I’m hungry. Apparently the cat has forgiven me and also wants dinner.


8:10
Cat is fed. Corinne has ordered Thai food.


8:12
Copying is all-complete.
Now what?


I'm exhausted. Over 7 hours invested into managing my home computer(s) content. I need a content strategy. How does one person have nearly 2 terabytes of data and not really know what it all is?


7 hours just to organize my files and I still have to review it to see what I can get rid of, what I can archive and what I’m going to keep. How do companies approach this? If I’m using close to $600 of external storage and spent 7 hours just to move the information- not even organize it yet – how do companies manage this for hundreds…1000s…of employees? Do they have a content strategy? Can I borrow it?


No wonder there’s content chaos. I can’t even get my home content under control. I'm sure there's more efficient and technically superior way to have accomplished this - and YES! I'd love to hear how. Especially if it doesn't require me to invest in additional hardware. This home project is far from done and it's about as exciting as peeling fruit fly tape from my cat's tail.


Luckily - Thai food has just arrived! To be continued….

Death, Porn and Digital Legacy

That's right - I said it.

That nasty little word that is riddled with emotion and sometimes wrought with controversy: death. It was the focus of Adele McAlear’s session, “Death and Digital Legacy”, at the Mesh Conference today in Toronto. I’ll be honest; when she dropped the ‘p’ word, stating that everyone needs a “porn buddy”, that's when her session came to life. In that dreaded post-lunch time slot, no one was dozing - she had everyone’s undivided attention.

Porn buddy? Really?

The context is an old school, pre-internet reference: if something (god forbid) were to happen to you – such as death or debilitation – that you had a buddy who would take care of your porn stash before your parents found it. Hence, porn buddy.

Fast-forward to this digital era characterized with social media and the pervasive distribution of user-generated content. The concept of your porn stash has evolved and is now online, shared, linked, and exponentially growing with each subsequent Tweet, Status update, Wall post and photo upload. There’s the usual suspects - your website and various social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blog sites, etc. What about Paypal, eBay, Flikr, Picasso, Google, Yahoo, MSN, YouTube, and the magnitude of others….? What happens to these accounts and the associated stash of content if something happens to you? Do you have a designated porn buddy tasked with taking care of your online presence?

I don’t know anyone who tracks his or her various accounts and passwords, let alone in one consolidated place. Or who even tells someone about it all. Adele makes a good point: if a death occurs, who is the designated digital porn buddy – what she calls a ‘Digital Executor’ – who will take care of the content, assets, artifacts and accounts?

I am far from an online e-lebrity nor have a significant following on Twitter, but some of you do. I don’t have an eBay store or generate revenue using PayPal – you might. I also don’t have the next Pulitzer Prize winning manuscript, World of Warcraft Hack or other content that would be deemed invaluable to some. You might. So who is your digital executor, what are your final wishes for these digital assets/accounts and where do you document and store this information?

Take this a step further into the workplace. Many corporations set up Slideshare, Scribd, Facebook, Twitter and the countless online accounts where employees register using their corporate email address. Let’s not be dramatic and say these employees die; simply that they’re no longer with the company. Who is the porn - ahem - I mean Digital Executor when he/she is no longer with the company? Where is this account information? What happens to the related content assets and artifacts when they leave? Who even knows the extent of all the accounts that employees have associated with their corporate email address? Just because you’ve turned off their network access and disabled their email account doesn’t mean that these social sites terminated them as well. And while we hope that people exercise good judgment and don’t go off on some social slander campaign using a corporate ID account – as the old adage says, hope is not a strategy.

What does this strategy even look like? A corporate social media and blogging policy is a good start - does yours include more than the obligatory guidelines covering etiquette and not dropping the eff-bomb? If it doesn't - it should. Does it state that corporate domain accounts need to be discontinued once the employee leaves the company? Does an employee need to log or register the accounts that are based on a corporate ID?

Policies are nice in theory but the devil is in the details: how can a company track this? Who is responsible for auditing and monitoring any of this and the magnitude of content generated from it? What does enforcement entail? Can it be enforced? Who is the corporate digital executor once they are gone?

Thanks Adele for discussing death, porn and digital legacy. It certainly provoked me into thinking beyond our personal need for a Digital Executor and questioning how the corporate world will approach this. I'm not proclaiming to have answers and for those of you reading this - I’m interested to hear your thoughts and how you plan to personally - or from a business perspective - address these questions.


Sources:
Adele McAlear: http://www.adelemcalear.com
Mesh Conference: http://www.meshconference.com/

Social Networking: Bringing Back Old School

Little did I know as I crushed my thumb in the wooden slats of the garage door (who knew it could move so fast!? ) that this moment would shift my perspective on Social networking.

I’m a knowledge worker (a fancy term for someone who works on a computer all day) and I rely on my computer and Blackberry to do my job. With my right hand firmly immobilized in a brace, I faced a significant limitation: the keyboard was impossible. How was I going to type, or have any semblance of productivity, with one hand?

As my email inbox climbed steadily, instant messages popped up and TweetDeck taunted me with endless Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn updates, I wondered when had we become so dependent – addicted -to these social programs that were meant to be enablers, not the ‘fix’?

I was socially cut-off and this intervention was staged by a most unusual suspect - my keyboard. I didn’t realize the power this seemingly innocuous input device had over us knowledge workers: it is our lifeline. What options did I have without it? It was an epiphany moment of Jerry Maguire proportions when an instant message suddenly appeared. It came from the person in the office next door.

I took a deep breath.
I got up and walked over to the office next to me.
That’s when the unthinkable happened.

We talked.
.....As in face-to-face.
It was just like instant messaging: in real-time.
We collaborated and communicated without a 140-character limitation.
The best part: it didn’t require a keyboard. It was ‘old school’ social networking.

I have to ask: is social networking making us socially lazy? Have we lost perspective of what “social” is - human-to-human interaction? Are we becoming less social as we increasingly – and so readily, adopt social tools that replace human-to-human interaction? I’m not saying that social media and networking don’t have their place and benefits, but it appears we’ve lost our way when we instant message the person at workstation 10 feet away. What about those war and peace emails with the thread of painstakingly detailed replies? How many of these could have more efficiently and effectively handled in person, or over the phone?

Social computing is just that – it is computing. People are not computers. And computers are not social. People are social. And while the almighty keyboard is our conduit that links these two worlds, let’s not forget that the keyboard is a just an input device and enabler.

And while it took crushing my thumb in a garage door to realize the painfully obvious, sometimes we all need a little reminder to keep it real...and to bring it back old school style.