Content Strategist Kristina Halvorson in an Interactive Session with Foradian

Kristina Halvorson, content strategist and author of the book, ‘Content Strategy for the Web’ and CEO of Brain Traffic shares some important insights on content being the main attraction in a digital marketing strategy. Read on.

Q. Please give a note about yourself to readers.

Kristina: My name is Kristina Halvorson — I’m the CEO of Brain Traffic, a content strategy agency in the USA; the author of Content Strategy for the Web; and the founder of Confab, an international content strategy conference. I live in St. Paul, Minnesota. I like cake, laughing, and making content better.

Q. “Content is king”. Could you please elaborate on this?

Kristina: This phrase actually drives me a little crazy — it has been a rally cry for companies since the Internet was commercialized way back in 1995, and twenty years later, we’re still chanting it as though it’s new. “People come to the Web searching for content!” seems to be a huge realization for many companies … but, what else would people be searching for? A sandwich? A car wash? Anyhow, to a lot of people, I think “content is king” means you have to publish lots of great content. To me, it means that your content must be at the absolute center of any digital strategy: what is your message, who is your audience, where are your digital properties, what technology will manage the content, who in your company will create and care for it. (These are easy questions to list, but difficult to answer.)

Q. What is content strategy? How we can make the content more powerful?

Kristina: Content strategy guides the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content. In product development (e.g. websites, social media properties, mobile applications), it details content requirements and guidelines for content substance and structure, as well as for ongoing content creation and maintenance. At the enterprise level, it informs organizational design, CMS technology requirements, workflow, and governance.

For content to be powerful, it must:

• Fulfill an audience’s top task. Gerry McGovern writes at length about the importance of delivering content that helps your audience act:http://www.customercarewords.com/what-it-is.html
• Be consistent in voice and tone. If your audience perceives disconnects between your content across digital properties, you risk losing their trust or interest.
• Be plain-spoken. Corporate lingo or highly technical terms do not belong in your content. Speak as your audience wants to be spoken to.
• Be findable. Whether people are searching for your information, product, or service on a Web search engine or your site search engine, the content must be structured and created so that it is findable.

I’m sure I could go on and on about this topic in particular! But these are some of the basics.

Q. Please tell us about editorial calendar and how can it works well?

Kristina: One of the major reasons for bad website content is that no one established a plan for what would happen to it after it was published. Once our content finally goes “live” online, we feel we have completed a task and can move on to the next one. However, our content requires that we continually monitor it for accuracy, audience relevance, timeliness, brand consistency, and clarity. Having an editor or team of editors who are working from the same guidelines and editorial calendar to care for content over time is key to ongoing content success.

Q. Please discuss the ways by which we can promote or market the content ?

Kristina: The primary question you need to answer here isn’t, “How can we promote our content?”, but “What are we trying to accomplish for our business, and what do our users want?”

I am deeply concerned by the content marketing trend that insists creating and promoting “high-value content” is key to online success. From what I’ve seen, the more content companies try to create, the worse the content is, or the more cluttered the online experience becomes. It’s not a matter of getting people to pay attention to your content. It’s more a matter of being clear on who your users are, talking to them to understand what they want and need, where they are at each point of the purchase process, then showing up for them in those places.

Promoting content hasn’t changed much over the past years, it’s just that the number of channels have increased. Make sure it’s findable (search optimized, well organized); consider sponsored content (in magazines, newspapers, or online communities); participate in social media, being sure you are always having a two-way conversation; and don’t clutter up your content! You know how it’s harder to find your favorite shirt when your closet is full of clothes you don’t usually wear? Clear it out!

Connect with Kristina:

https://twitter.com/halvorson http://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinahalvorson

Originally published at www.edtechboard.com on November 12, 2013.