#content modeling

I’ve had Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy by Ann Rockley and Charles Cooper on my Capstone source list for quite some time. After reading Enterprise Content Strategy by Kevin P. Nichols, however, I knew I had to read it. I literally lost count at the number of times Nichols references this book in his.

I’m a little over halfway through, and so far, it’s been a very interesting read that could have somewhat of an impact on this project moving forward. At least on some parts of the project.

Content Modeling & Reuse

As the title suggests, this book is all about how to strategize for and manage content at an enterprise level. Unlike the other seven content strategy related books that I have read, however, Rockely and Cooper take a slightly different approach. Most of the other books focus on the stages of strategizing for content (Plan, Assess, Define/Design, Build, Publish, Govern) and the types of activities and deliverables that are expected in each phase.

Instead of focusing on those phases, Rockley and Cooper focus more on the purpose of content, and how to make it has adaptive and reusable as possible. For me, the main takeaway from this book can be summed up in this quote:

Content strategists cannot, and we repeat, cannot, continue to handcraft content for a particular output. If you want your content to be adaptive, you can’t think about how it will look and then tweak and tune the content to get that perfect fit. You can’t design your content strategy around a particular page or layout. You have to create a content strategy that’s only about the content and its purpose, scope, use, and reuse. You need to know what content is required, by whom, when, in what circumstance, and in conjunction with what other content or interactivity (136).

As this quote showcases, Rockley and Cooper’s main argument is that content must be created and crafted outside of the confines of design, with design here meaning website page layout, font size, colors used, etc. In fact, in my view, Rockley and Cooper are pretty much advocating for a template style of writing and content creation, which is emphasized in their chapter “Content Modeling: Adaptive Content Design.” Under this content modeling style, creating content is basically about filling out the right areas on a form.

Moving Forward

For me, this is a new way of thinking about content and strategizing for it, as I usually have content and design wrapped up together in my head. While the idea of content modeling and reuse is very interesting (and at the enterprise level one that is essential), I’m not sure how much it will help for this project. As of right now, the main area where I can see it helping is on product pages. Product page areas of the website would greatly benefit from a template style of writing. I’m not sure about other areas, however. 

When you’re working with custom post types, sometimes the post title isn’t a title. It might be a person’s name, a building number, or a course code (just to take a few examples from universities). So it’s great that WordPress has a simple filter that makes it easy to customize the “Enter title here” placeholder text to make it fit your content:

Handing wireframes and a content model to designers and telling them, “Just put lipstick on this,” strips away their creativity and prevents them from giving valuable input.

Instead, says content wrangler Steve Fisher, put a designer on your content modeling team from the start, or at the very least, bring one in periodically to give input and have a say in the decision making.

There’s a lot of freedom and possibility when you first start sketching. Having designers there at the beginning allows them to unleash their creativity and use their design thinking before you’ve finalized the UI and limited their ability to contribute meaningfully.

Content Strategy for WordPress is available for… Kindle | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Smashwords

At long last, Content Strategy for WordPress is available everywhere! This is a relatively short book—less than half as long as WordPress for Web Developerswas—and it’s aimed at a more general audience. Paradoxically, I’ve been working on it twice as long as on either of the long developer books. I’m…