Content Management + Strategy

Course Description

Content management is the creation, managing, distributing, publishing, and retrieval of structured information — the complete lifecycle of content as it moves through an organization. A content management strategy then, is a structured plan to create, publish, and govern your organization’s content and data. These strategies are critical to the survival of organizations, as communication underpins effective information management.   In this class we will cover many aspects of content strategy including web content strategy, social media strategy, content management and maintenance. We will look at content management systems, think about organization and project management, and also consider the overall branding of information.  

 This course will also function as a lesson in branding and pitching an idea or company. Each of you will have the opportunity to think about what it’s like building a company from the ground up (which requires critical attention to information and content). At the end of the semester, you will have the opportunity to vote on which idea for a company you think has the most potential. Groups will be organized around the top projects for the final assignment, and groups will have to create a content strategy for the brand.

Objectives

You will learn about and discuss:

  • The writing processes behind a successful content strategy

  • Strategies for organizing content to accomplish a variety of goals or objectives you may be assigned in a professional setting.

  • The (rhetorical) importance of content branding and promotion, especially when it comes to social media and cohesive content design.

Goals

You will practice techniques for:

  • Effectively managing writing projects.

  • Making content accessible for a variety of audiences.

  • Making good decisions about what content to create and how

Major Units + Assignments

Unit I: Intro to Content Management and Content Management Systems

What is content management? In the first unit, we will learn about popular content management systems, and some basic terminology and concepts. Content management systems help you organize a few vital content-related components including (but not always limited to) content creation, publication, and analytics.

Assignment 1: CMS Audit | In the first assignment you will imagine you are looking for a Content Management System for your new company.  What kind of content you will need to manage will have some impact on the system you choose. Common systems are Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla But there are also others (and you usually have to learn to work with what a company already uses).

 

This project should include the following:

  • A description of your company. This company can be loosely modeled after an existing one, and you can just mix up the branding or angle. We will do some exercises in class that will help you with this.

  • An overview of all “content” your company will produce and maintain, including communications.

  • A description of which CMS will be best for your company and why.

Unit II: Markup, Maintenance & Media

In this unit, we will get into the nitty gritty. While you may never have to use XML (a data-description language) or be able to define your company’s content maintenance strategy, knowing best practices can be helpful. We will also consider web accessibility. 

Assignment 2: Competitive Analysis | You will complete some of this assignment in XML to practice data description. For this assignment you will identify two competitors for your brand and put together a competitive analysis. This report should have a clearly defined heading structure, be well-organized, and show strong research skills. I will be grading you on how clear your writing is, how informative your report is, and how useful it would be to a content strategy.

This analysis should include:

  • Descriptions of each competitor’s website

  • A description (in XML) of one product each competitor offers, with a brief explanation for the elements and structured authoring you’re using and why.

  • An overview of each competitor’s social media presence(s) and any obvious social media strategy

  • Screenshots, images, or links.

 

Unit III: Designing Content Strategy

In this unit, we will tie everything together and also think about branding. Because of this, Unit 3 has some overlap with (and a brief introduction to) content marketing.  While content strategy (internal guidelines and governance) and "content marketing" (curation, promotion and editorial) are often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing, because you can always strategize about non-marketing content.

As we have learned, content strategy concerns itself with the vision—how and why your content will be created, managed, and archived or updated. It looks at all of the content you and users/customers will ever encounter. For the final project, we will define our terms, consider the differences between these terms and learn how they can overlap in productive ways. We will also think more about project management in relation to completing your final project.

Assignment 4: Content Marketing Strategy Report | In this final project, you will work in teams to put together a formal report for one of the “winning” brands. The report should be appropriately and clearly formatted in a PDF document. In such a report, you will need to articulate your company’s vision, goals, audience research, voice and style, but also its content strategy.

This report must include the following:

  1. A table of contents

  2. An executive summary and overview

  3. Identifiable goals for the company/brand

  4. A competitive analysis (this will build or expand on what was done for the previous assignment)

  5. A social media strategy and plan

  6. A content governance plan

 

 

 
 
 

Readings

Halvorson, Kristina, and Melissa Rach. Content Strategy for the Web. (2nd Edition)

Wachter-Boettcher, Sarah. Content Everywhere: Strategy and Structure for Future-Ready Content.