Adventures in Content Strategy
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Benjamin Franklin
Telling Strategic Stories, by Brittney Dunkins When someone says “we need stories” they might mean a blog post. They might mean a user story. They might mean social media. They might mean an app. But often people attach a format and channel to the concept of storytelling before they figure out what they’re trying to…
Combining Expertise to Rebuild Customer Trust, by Gerry McGovern Does microcopy matter? It can build trust. “Tell me what happened” vs “Tell me what’s happened” made a 9 second difference in getting help to people with heart attacks. That’s life or death for a heart attack. Trust is Decreasing Edelmen does a study every year…
Microcopy, as defined by Nick Babich of UX Planet, “is the term for the small bits of copy on a apps’s interface that help users do ‘stuff’.” Microcopy is the same as copy. However, it is differentiated from long-form because too often it is overlooked. What not many people recognize is that microcopy does more…
Ironically, Rand leaving Moz has gotten me into watching his Whiteboard Fridays – a collection of 10-20 minute videos about SEO. I’ve said before that content strategy and SEO need to work hand in hand. Listening to Rand reinforces that need. Rand does a fantastic job of connecting SEO to its goals of inbound marketing and…
Picture this: you’ve hired a design team. You come to a meeting, ready to see the latest designs. But when they’re presented, you start noticing typos… things you asked to be changed last time you saw them… small problems, but problems nonetheless. You’re frustrated and lose confidence in the designer. Now picture this: you’re a…
Yoast and I are in a fight. It began this morning, when I began using the Yoast SEO plugin in WordPress for a new client’s site. Our conversation went something like this: Me: Hi Yoast! Yoast: Hi! You should add a focus keyword for this page. Me: Great idea. I’ll add the keyword I think…
This weekend I took a quick trip to Philly to attend and speak at Conduit 2018, hosted by the Society of Technical Communications Philadelphia Metro Chapter. The main takeaway? Collaboration is key. I’m consistently impressed by the quality of talks at STC conferences. At some of the larger conferences we hear mostly from agencies and freelancers….
The content strategy world is a welcoming one. I’ve been grateful to benefit from articles that share advice and best practices. There’s Jonathon Colman’s 2013 (but often updated) Epic List of Content Strategy Resources, one-off articles like WebpageFX’s Information Architecture 101, and my own list of copywriting resources, to name a few. It’s harder to…
Today I had an interesting question from a client, concerned about people leaving their site. “Most of our users visit a site multiple times before they’re ready to purchase. But all of the wireframes and user flows you’ve shown us direct people to call us or purchase. What do we do about people who aren’t…
While there are more and more UX and content strategy courses available, there are few better ways to learn about specific topics and improve skills than attending conferences. But conferences take time to attend, and for many people conferences are overwhelming, overstimulating, and not worth the time and money. How can you make sure your next conference…