Content assessment is the crux of content strategy
How does the old proverb go?
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And what did Richard III shout?
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for my horse!
When learning about content assessment, primarily content inventories and audits, these words sprang forth from my literatus mind. Through this context we can see inventories and audits of content being the raging battle to enlarge… or save… the kingdom that is content management and the organizations striving to harness it. Therefore, it follows that the nails in this metaphor are the shards of content delivering a group’s message, voice, and brand.
Most content strategy and management projects will need to include an assessment phase. This should follow a planning phase. For more information on content strategy planning, see my previous post (link).
The assessment phase can be the crux of an entire project, “because it serves as the foundation for all future-state decisions and provides a blueprint from which to build a design,” says Kevin P. Nichols in his Enterprise Content Strategy. He goes on to say a light or rushed assessment phase can detriment future design and implementation and compromise the solution (pg. 28).
Content assessors hold all the cards to the future content experience, content strategist Anne Casson expounds. Content assessment must be complete and thorough. This includes inventories and audits. Inventories, of course, is the collection and quantification of the content and the audit consists of a qualitative analysis. Each can be completed separate or simultaneous of the other.
In my opinion, the audit is the most important part. During this phase, content managers determinate the current-state of content and whether it needs to be updated, maintained, or deleted. Nichols suggests the audit be complete via spreadsheet and the team conducting the audit can create their own criteria to evaluate the material.
Part of my content strategy graduate course requires us to audit an external company’s content. After reviewing and learning how a seasoned professional handles an audit, I’m happy to report my team is conducting our own audit in this manner. Without going into too much detail, we created our own Trello board to situate our tasks and for the audit itself we created our own rating criteria and will be using Excel to compile this data. Once we compile our data, we will then review to see where we differ in our ratings. We hope that averaging our ratings will provide a solid sample size for the content audit. We also hope since we are averaging our ratings over the entire inventory we eliminate any personal biases we may hold.
So far I’m learning a lot when it comes to content strategy. It’s definitely a sledgehammer of new information and can be difficult, but, as Dr. Kim Sydow Campbell advised us, going beyond your comfort zone is how you learn.
Let’s just hope none of us ever step on a rogue nail.
Further reading:
Nichols, Kevin P, Enterprise Content Strategy: A Project Guide. XML Press. 2015
