CONTENT STRATEGY

Copyright © Joe Gollner 2011

Confab 2012

Joe Gollner, M.Phil.

Gnostyx Research Inc

jag@gnostyx.com

www.gollner.ca

@joegollner

Topics of Inquiry

Three True Stories

Content Strategy

& Psychoanalysis

Perspectives on

Content Strategy

True Story: Twin Portals

The Emergent Role of

the Content Strategist

The Burden of

Content Strategy

True Story: A Sibylline Web Site

Engineering Process Support Site

10,000 pages of guidance material

Bilingual (English / French)

Step One: Analysis

Deep textual analysis (NLP) used

Multiple personalities identified

Step Two: Treatment

Establish intelligent content store

Introduce advanced publishing tools

Step Three: Result

Good technical solution crushed by bureaucratic entropy

True Story: A Political Web

Parliament of Canada Public Access

Large volumes of complex material

Bilingual (English / French)

Step One: Analysis

Complex process & content structures

Opportunities for public engagement

Step Two: Treatment

Internal optimization to speed access

Public engagement avenues explored

Step Three: Result

Politicians wanted to curtail openness…

True Story: MyClassroom Education Portal

K-12 Education Initiative

Curricular & Instructional Material

Multilingual (English, Punjabi,…)

Step One: Analysis

Deep study of content structure

Involvement of user community

Step Two: Treatment

Sophisticated management & publishing environment

Stakeholder participation in design, population & testing

Step Three: Result

Great solution encountered strong union opposition

Bueller…Bueller….

Content & the Unconscious Organization

Accumulating Insight

Organizations primarily driven

by unarticulated impulses

Especially evident in how

technology is deployed

• Automated processes are

• Largely opaque

• Often erroneous

Doubly evident in how content

is presented to the world

• Intense pressure to be accepted

• External forces drive

internal turmoil

Content Strategy & Psychoanalysis

Parallels can be drawn

As a practice

As a discipline

Practice

Establishing a

working balance

between internal

& external forces

Discipline

Establishing the

background & skills

needed by the content strategist

Freud & the Internal World

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Viennese founder of

Psychoanalysis

Highly attuned to the

practical questions of

launching a new professional

discipline

Observation on influence

Introduced a highly influential

model of how internal forces

are repressed & channeled

within observable behaviour

Jung & the External World

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Swiss founder of

Analytical Psychology

Early protégé of Freud

who famously broke away

from Psychoanalysis

Observation on Influence

Very focused on the shared

cultural models historically

used to describe & guide

individual personalities

Myers-Briggs…etc

Content Strategy as a Balancing Act

Proposition:

Content Strategy

entails establishing

a functional balance

between:

• Internal forces

that drive an

organization’s actions

& communications

• External forces

that determine the

environmental context

for those actions

& communications

A Content Strategy balances

What you need to say

What the audience wants to hear

The Intrinsic & Extrinsic Sides of Content

A Moment of Practical Utility

The design of metadata structures for content resources

Distinguish between intrinsic & extrinsic metadata

Intrinsic Metadata

Properties that are innate to

the subject of the content asset

Extrinsic Metadata

Properties that pertain to how the

subject, or the content, will be used

Content Strategy & Organizational Personae

A Content Strategy

Facilitates effective

participation in the world

A persona that can

be sustained

Freud’s Dissection of Psychical Personality Jung’s Model of the Psyche

Ideally – A Content Strategy

Helps internal processes to

strengthen & grow

Helps the organization to

contribute positively to society

Content Strategy awakens Powerful Forces

The Three Cases highlight an important truth

Framing a content strategy will often open many doors

Focusing on how an organization appears can raise

serious questions

Implementing a

content strategy will

open more doors

• Technology players

• Forgotten stakeholders

There can be more

contributions than you

bargained for

True Story: Twin Portals

Discovery Portal

Several Years of

Operation

Challenges with

site quality

raised sensitivities

Data & IT stakeholders

took control to limit

system potential

Discovery Portal

New Initiative led by

business team

Flexible environment

Extensive usability tests

A dialogue on content

An immediate success

IT sought control & failed

Content Strategy: The Rise of a Discipline

Content Strategy

Emerged as a phrase during the late 1990s

Chiefly tied to Web content

A marketing focus

New Directions

Channel diversification

Intensified marketing

pressures

Diversified web

specializations

The need has arisen for

an integrative role

The Emergent Role of the Content Strategist

The Content Strategist

A leadership role within Web teams

Capable of integrating the many Web specializations

Providing a system-view

The Challenge

Becoming a conduit

between Web teams

& corporate strategy

Following where the

content questions lead

• Into the internal domains

where content is forged

The Fundamental Content Archetype

The Core Challenge

facing Content Strategists

Leveraging the basic

distinction between

content & information

Content is

potential information

that needs management

Information is an action

that needs to be effective

Confusing the two is the

source of many troubles

CONTENT

INFORMATION

Visual Credit: oneiromancernjv.deviantart.com

The Burden of Content Strategy

Acknowledgement

Contact

Joe Gollner

jag@gnostyx.com

Gnostyx Research Inc

www.gnostyx.com

Content Philosopher Blog

www.gollner.ca