By Kevin P. Nichols

(This is part of a series of articles highlighting the templates from Content Strategy Alliance Tools & Templates: A Best Practices Handbook.)

In the book, The Language of Content Strategy, Cleve Gibbon defines a content model as “a formal representation of structured content as a collection of content types and their interrelationships.” That is exactly what a content model is, a list of content types used within a content experience, such as a website, and the rules for those content types and the content within them.

In my book, Enterprise Content Strategy: A Project Guide, I note the importance of a content type, and I aver, “All content experiences start with a content type!” And a content model starts with a list of content types within an experience.

There are different levels of content model fidelity, some more conceptual and some more specific to every piece of content within an experience. This post features the detailed or what we call the ‘final content model.’ This content model starts as a more conceptual model and evolves into a comprehensive detailed blueprint for a content experience.

A content model is a powerful tool, and in addition to listing the content types within an experience, it helps with any type of component-based content management system, documenting the rules for each component within a content type, any intelligent content rules, personalization rules, and any other types of business logic in how content surfaces. It can also capture metrics and metadata, and information such as character lengths for fields such as a header or sub-header areas.

So a content model is a tool that captures a series of decisions made concerning content types, the modules or components that comprise each content type, and any special rules for each. Often, this document lives in a spreadsheet and is created by a content strategist with possible inputs from a business analyst and used by a technology team to implement within a platform, such as a content management system.

For Content Strategy Alliance Tools & Templates: A Best Practices Handbook, Jacqueline McAndrew and I worked together to create the structure for this content model; she then iterated upon it to create what you see today on the site. She then created the content model example, so that you can see how it appears populated. I believe this version of a content model is a strong example and is useful for many types of projects rolling out new content experiences.

I hope you find this tool useful and I welcome any feedback on how you have used it or how you think we could improve it!

Khaled A.B. Aly, Technical Author and Analyst

The CSA “Best Practices Handbook” primary concern is to streamline the lifecycle management of large corporate sites and intranets from inception through planning, assessment, analysis, design, and maintenance phases. Typical web content would be generated by a CMS (like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal …) to HTML5/CSS, supported by web scripting languages (JavaScript and PHP) and a suitable metadata standard (e.g. Dublin Core, schema.org …). The CMS development work is to a large extent invisible to the content strategist.

On another hand, it is now widely agreed that the OASIS standard DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), is the XML language of choice for structured documentation and e-learning source content (with over 400 element types). The standard expands as driven by market merit to cover other content types that may take advantage of its principal feature, that is: separating content, style, and publishing format. The open DITA standard and toolkit allow the enterprise to produce and setup own specialized vocabularies to cover specific domains such as heavy industry, hardware and semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and others with merit for structured source. Following is a summary of the most basically distinguished features:

  • Topic-orientation & strong semantic typing: Content is contained within typed topics that in-turn contain typed elements (corresponding to HTML layout tags), with much attention to modularity and minimalist authoring. Topics are hierarchically arranged within maps that allow as well building relation tables among topics and their content elements to support navigation.
  • Multi-channel publishing (aka single-sourcing): The same DITA source markup could be published to formats meant to deliver print (e.g. PDF), HTML websites and other derivatives such as WebHelp, e-book HTML-based EPUB, and SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model; the XML e-learning standard), as well as any XML-based format. Publishing to each medium is established through specialized transformation processors that take into consideration the respective style of source content to be rendered.
  • Conditional publishing: Special DITA filtering attributes flag transformation engines of conditional inclusion, exclusion, or differentiated styling of any chunk of DITA content at any level: from a single phrase to a complete topic.

The CSA Handbook mainly pertains to Web content from a high-level content management perspective, regardless of how it had been developed. Structured DITA strategy and best practices are concerned with unprocessed, semantically typed, content that may be transformed to HTML (mainly to a WebHelp format that best supports documentation, but could be as well to a generic website template), and/or other forms. DITA content strategy best practices actually precede these supporting the finished site or publication (as would strategies for CMS-based site development), since DITA markup is source content that is yet to be transformed to a displayable form. This article explores a suitable compilation of strategic DITA-to-HTML best practices, for the three highest merit publishable forms: HTML website (template), WebHelp, and EPUB, as illustrated in the schematic below.

schematic

The following high-level categories are identified. [1], [2], [3]

  • Content Modeling: content domain, specialization merit, choice of topic and element types
  • Content Design: minimalist writing practices, reuse levels strategy, linking strategy
  • Content Findability: taxonomy and metadata (DITA, Dublin Core, schema.org)
  • Content Publishing: output formats, conditional publishing, transformation scenarios
  • Content Management: workflow (process), change management, metrics, overall governance

 

References

  1. Laura Bellamy, Michelle Carey and Jenifer Schlotfeldtm, “DITA Best Practices: A Roadmap for Writing, Editing, and Architecting in DITA,” IBM Press, September, 2011
  2. Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper, “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy,” New Riders, February, 2012
  3. Mark Lewis, DITA Metrics 101: The Business Case for Intelligent Content, Rockley Publications, January, 2013

 

 

(Updated 5-31-19)

A number of courses in content strategy have sprung up. Below is our list – anyone have anything to add? Write to us.

UNIVERSITIES

  1. McGill University, Content Management and Architecture; Steven Grindlay, Instructor
  2. University of California (UCR) Extension, Professional Studies; Content Strategy
  3. Langara College, British Columbia; Content Strategy, Usability and Information Architecture; Melissa Breker, Instructor
  4. University of British Columbia; Social Media, Content Marketing; Melissa Breker, Instructor
  5. University of Washington iSchool – Content Strategy and Information Architecture; Misty Weaver; Instructor
  6. University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education; Certificate in Storytelling and Content Strategy; Tizzy Asher, Peter Luyckx – Instructors
  7. Kent State – Master of Science in Information Architecture and Knowledge Management with a concentration in User Experience Design (UXD) at Kent State University; ; Hilary MarshContent Strategy 1 & II, Instructor
  8. Centennial College. Toronto, Canada – Interactive Media Management Program at Centennial College; Pamela Kostur, Program Coordinator
  9. FH Joanneum, University of Applied Sciences; Graz, Austria; Masters of Arts in Social Sciences, Content Strategy at Department of Media & Design; Kickoff Workshop: What is Content Strategy; Content Modelling and Style Guides; Heinz Wittenbrink, Program Director; Rahel Baillie, Doris Eichemeier, Lisa Moore,Ursula Krenenberger, Sascha StoltenowMargot Bloomstein, Instructors
  10. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Design & Strategy; Content Strategy specialization; Advanced Writing Workshop, Social Media and Content Curation, and Persuasion
  11. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, Free online content strategy course; Candy Lee and John Lavine, Instructors
  12. Syracuse UniversityOnline Content Strategy & Application; Kelly Lux, Jenn Pedde, Instructors
  13. University of WashingtonContent Strategy for the Web; Andrea Zeller, Instructor
  14. Full Sail University, Winter Park, FL; Internet Marketing, Bachelor of Science, Content Strategy, Development and Marketing
  15. The University of Kansas, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication is launching its first online master’s program in Digital Content Strategy and students will be able to earn certificates in data interpretation and social media strategy, beginning in August 2016. Learn more at its
  16. Columbia University, New York, NY, School of Professional Studies, Strategic Communications, Master of Science; Content Strategy: Achieving   Business Goals Through Content; Content Strategy: Fundamentals, Techniques, and Tools; Margot Bloomstein and Christopher Collette, Instructors
  17. Royal Roads University, Garth von Buchholz, Instructor; Social Content Strategy: Getting the Right Content to the Right People at the Right Time; Social Content Strategy for Environmental Professionals; and Search Engine Mechanics: Google Basics for Social Content
  18. University of Wisconsin, School of Continuing Education, Building an Integrated Digital Content Strategy

OTHER COURSES/WORKSHOPS

  1. MediaBistro, Digital Content Strategy http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/digital-content-strategy/new-york/8956/; Jess Adamiak, Instructor
  2. School of Visual Concepts, Seattle WA; Content Strategy for the Web, Paula Land, Instructor
  3. ADMCI – Applied Content Strategy, Rebecca Steurer, Instructor
  4. Content Marketing Institute – offers courses on content strategy tasks such as creating personas, finding keywords, etc.
  5. The Publishing Training CenterContent Strategy for the Web, Sue Davis, Instructor
  6. Firehead Introduction to Content Strategy
  7. Digital Content Academy; Content Strategy 2 Day Intensive; Rahel Baillie
  8. NN/g Nielsen Norman GroupContent Strategy Full Day training course,New York, NY; Catherine Toole, Instructor; September 15, 2016. London, England: November 09, 2016; Omnichannel Journeys and Customer Experience – Full Day training course; Kim Flaherty, Instructor; Toronto: July 15, 2016; New York, NY: September 16, 2016; London, England: November 10, 2016
  9. EConsultancy Digital Content Strategy Training; Tim Fidgeon, Instructor; London, England: August 11, 2016
  10. Emarketeers – Digital Content Strategy Training; Anne Caborn, Instructor; Clerkenwell, London: September 16, 2016; November 2, 2016; and December 14, 2016
  11. Webcredible Training Academy – Online Content Strategy Training; Felice Hawley, Instructor
  12. Isentia, Australia; Digital Content Strategy
  13. Certificate in Online Business, LTD (COB); Content Strategy: Content and Customer Experience Training
  14. Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA)  – Planning a Content Strategy (Online Module) 
  15. Meritus Media; content strategy training for businesses 
  16. QA, Berkshire, London – Digital Content Strategy (One-day classroom course)
  17. Coursehorse, New York, NY – Digital Content Strategy
  18. Imparture – Social Media Content Strategy
  19. Knowledge Engineers – Content Strategy and Distribution Course (One day)
  20. George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario – Digital Content Strategy (Continuing Education Certification)
  21. Divvy HQ – On-site Content Strategy Workshop (Two Day)– (for those using Divvy HQ software)
  22. Content Strategy Workshops – Eileen Webb, Lisa Marie Martin and Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Instructors
  23. Content Academy; courses include Applied Content Strategy
  24. General AssemblyIntroduction to Content Strategy: What to Create, Why to Create it, And How to Show It to the World

Past Courses/Not Currently Being Taught

  1. University of Strasbourg at CAWEB – Master’s Program, Web Content Strategy; Destry Wion, Guest Lecturer
  2. AgencysideContent Strategy: The Critical Link for Digital Success; Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Instructor
  3. University of TorontoTreating Content as an Organizational Resource

laura_creekmore_3

 

By Melissa Eggleston

“Content people hate to talk about money,” stated Laura Creekmore (pictured above),  a content strategist out of Nashville, Tennessee. “It is an unpopular opinion to say that content work isn’t art, but you need to expect that your work will be judged in concrete and objective terms.”

On January 23 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Creekmore gave a talk titled Content 3.0 Making Great Decisions at the TinyGiant UX conference. The audience included UX designers, content strategists and others working in digital media.

Her talk focused on three “lenses” through which we need to view our content work – money, message and mechanics. I suspect the money lens may be the most challenging to conventional thinking in our industry, so let’s consider Creekmore’s ideas about it here.

She mentioned that before beginning a content project, essential questions to consider that impact the bottom line include:

  • How many people will this content take to make?
  • What skillsets and expertise do you need?
  • What kind of training is going to be needed?
  • Do you need other professionals integrated with your team? Whose budget does that expense come out of?
  • How will the data interact with the content management system?
  • What assets and technology do you need for content specific work?
  • How will all the parts fit together to achieve the goal?

Creekmore also noted that a big part of the complexity—and therefore cost—of content is its maintenance and updating, so that cost needs to be added into the equation as well.

Considering the above aspects of a content project will help get you to the “expense side” of the ledger, Creekmore explains. She notes that most of us certainly do tally up the cost to develop content. But we must go further, she insists.

“If you want to make things more complex or better or take more time, you might need to justify this to the business side of the house,” Creekmore explained. “These folks aren’t going to get that adding a new section of the website might mean you need a new staffer. They don’t understand these things, you have to translate for them.”

Creekmore strongly recommends that you don’t fall back on a common argument in our industry. She advises:

“Do not, do not, do not make the argument that your content is valuable because ‘It’s engaging!’”

From her nearly 20 years of experience in digital media, Creekmore knows that the engagement argument isn’t strong enough.

“You never win, it’s not quantifiable,” she explained. “You need to think – how do I turn it into dollars and cents?”

According to Creekmore, a content strategist needs to answer this question:

What is the return on investment (ROI) for this content?

“What is the value that content brings to the enterprise?” she asks. “You’ve got to be able to sell the value of what you are doing first – before you talk about the expenses.”

Creekmore suggests content strategists get very specific on the value content brings to the enterprise or product.

She suggested the book “How to Measure Anything: How to Find the Value of Intangibles in Business” by Doug Hubbard as a resource to determine measures for content. Hubbard asserts that anything can be measured and that your professional life may be greatly harmed by a lack of measurement.

“This book can help you turn something that feels like art into a spreadsheet,” she explained. This may help you sell the value of content to other stakeholders in the enterprise.

At the Content Strategy Alliance, we have been working on a handbook with templates that include recommended metrics to help you show the value of content to others. This resource should be available in a couple of months.

Creekmore’s message may not be popular yet, but from a business perspective, it ‘s right on the money. Literally.

Learn more about Laura Creekmore.