Hi all - happy Friday.
We're in a similar situation to both Alison and Paul in that the creation of
a University Web Team (including a Web Editor) and the adoption of a CMS
have enabled us to migrate/build sites with departments across the
University and work with them on the content as we go, and then set out
content plans for them going forwards. This is a big change for us, and
possibly a lot of Universities, who have had very devolved web activity.
This still exists in some areas but the Web Team are keen to work with
everyone who is creating or developing websites to ensure that their key
messages are coming through and that the content they include will help them
achieve their objectives, against their business plan and the University
Corporate Plan, rather than just be what people have rattling around in
their brains.
The CMS has also enabled us to add workflow and sign-off (double checking!)
where before this simply wasn't the case.
We are developing a University style guide for all channels of communication
and this will be rolled out in the Autumn, and used during the Writing for
the Web courses, and circulated to anyone with a CMS account.
We also talk about site 'personality' at the start of a web project, as a
site for a Research and Knowledge Transfer Centre will have a very different
voice/tone than that for the Sports Centre - and yet the University's key
messages and values need to come out through both.
Interesting times!
Cheers
C.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Claire Gibbons | Web Manager | Marketing and Communications
Next Open Day: http://www.bradford.ac.uk/openday
University of Bradford | BD7 1DP | E: [log in to unmask] | T: 01274 236529
W: http://www.bradford.ac.uk
~~ Think of the trees - do you need to print? ~~
Ecoversity: http://www.bradford.ac.uk/ecoversity
-----Original Message-----
From: Managing institutional Web services
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Kelly
Sent: 09 April 2010 10:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Content Strategy
From Alison's email it sounds like we're in a similar position to
Bath's current one.
At York the majority of content authoring is devolved to departments and
administrative offices. The number of authors per department can vary
considerably depending on their size (ranging from one person to
dozens). The amount of web experience that authors have varies too -
some departments have full time web posts, while for many others it's
one of the many jobs that administrators do.
We've recently invested in a content management system (our first) and
have spent the last year and half migrating sites into it. We work
fairly closely with departments during the migration process, advising
on content issues, and only making a site live once both the web team
and the department are happy with it. We're a lot less involved once a
site goes live though, and at that point we often see a lot more
variation in quality of content.
We run a writing for the web course, but it's not mandatory. We do have
a style guide, but it's more focussed on the nitty-gritty of punctuation
and capitalisation, rather than tone of voice - the nearest we get is to
tell people to "be friendly".
I'll be interested to see how things pan out at Bath, and also to hear
about any workshops.
Cheers
Paul
--
Paul Kelly
Web Content & Design Officer, University of York
tel: 01904 434578 | email: [log in to unmask]
Visit the new Communications web pages at www.york.ac.uk/communications
and www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events
On 08/04/2010 14:08, Paul Boag wrote:
> Hi all,
> can I pick your brains? We are thinking of running a content strategy
workshop like the one we did last year
(http://headscape.co.uk/workshops/edweb09/). However, I am really looking to
better understand how different organisations handle their content strategy.
For example...
>
> 1. Do you deal with content centrally?
> 2. If you have distributed content providers how do you ensure quality and
accuracy?
> 3. What training do you give content providers?
> 4. Do you set a 'corporate tone' for written content?
>
> Basically I am not sure how 'sophisticated' you all are when it comes to
managing the copy on your sites. Its hard for me to judge whether a workshop
like this would be useful.
>
> It is also an issue I haven't seen discussed on this mailing list which is
surprising as a sites content has to be its most important aspect. Thought
it might be a useful conversation starter :)
>
> Any feedback would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
> - - - - -
> Paul Boag [ Co-Founder ]
> H E A D S C A P E
> m: 07760 123 120
>
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