Content strategy and the complex reader
There are many things to consider when creating online content. These talks will explore the audience side of the content strategy challenge, from localisation to accessibility. They’ll explain how to plan for and implement content for a diverse and complicated audience.
Balance, compromise and localisation
An effective global content strategy involves localisation—and that is more than translation. What differs among countries and cultures is not just language: there's industry maturity and market share; product and release availability; go-to-market approaches and partnerships; pricing and promotions; marketing objectives, campaigns and events; technical support and contact numbers; local presence and resources.
All these things have an impact not just on a website’s information architecture, but also on the content itself. They affect decisions about not just how to localise content, but what content to localise.
We'll discuss the reach of a localisation project, from translation to staffing, from tone of voice to prioritisation. And we'll learn how to find the right answers to the questions localisation projects ask, with balance and compromise.
What you’ll learn
- What to consider in a localisation project, beyond translation.
- How to prioritise activities in a localisation project.
- How to create great global content.
- Time:
- 11:10–11:50 AM, Tuesday 6 September
- Room:
- Miles Room, Mermaid Conference Centre
Understanding accessibility
Web content needs to be useful and usable. We know this. But part of our role as content strategists is to make sure that it’s usable to every user. Good accessibility is not a restriction for good content, it's a vital part of it.
We need to make sure that there are plans in place for those users who struggle to see, hear, concentrate or move around the websites we shape. We must be aware of their situations, and implement failsafe solutions. We should lead by example, and empower disabled users to be privy to the high quality user experiences we all evangelise.
We’ll discuss what the law says about accessibility, how certain content affects certain disabled users and how to deal with it in the early stages of content planning.
What you’ll learn
- How to plan for creating and maintaining accessible content.
- What the law says about accessibility.
- How disabled users perceive certain content.
- Time:
- 12:00–12:20 PM, Tuesday 6 September
- Room:
- Miles Room, Mermaid Conference Centre
Content strategy for the social web
People want great content. The question is: do they want it on your terms?
Users don’t always behave in the way we’d like them to, so we need to look beyond the spaces we control, to understand where relevant attention flows and what its appetites are. Only then can we design programmes that weigh-up the opportunities on- and off-site, and prioritise accordingly: content strategies for the social web.
In this session, we’ll consider how inputs like linguistic and network research and off-site content profiling can help reveal content opportunities. Charlie will outline how to apply this research to your content strategy, from discovery to implementation, discussing both the process and the team.
What you’ll learn
- The nature of users’ attention through the web.
- How to work with a cross-functional team to create platform-agnostic, wide reaching branded content.
- How to implement a content strategy from a new kind of content analysis.
- Time:
- 12:30–12:50 PM, Tuesday 6 September
- Room:
- Miles Room, Mermaid Conference Centre
