Time is in short supply. Deadlines are tight. Resources are even tighter. If you're like most content professionals, you have dozens of great ideas but not enough time, money or experience to bring them to life. But it doesn't have to be this way. In this content marketing meets intelligent content engineering case study, we will explain how the newly published book, The Language of Content Strategy (XML Press) was created with the help of the crowd, structured XML content, a wiki and a formal content strategy. Attend this session to learn how the two seasoned content strategists enlisted the help of 50 knowledgeable experts to create a printed book, an e-book, a companion website and educational flash cards in record time, all from a single source of content. You'll discover why it's imperative that content professionals —regardless of their area of specialty — understand and leverage the power of advanced information development practices. You'll leave knowing why a repeatable content production system, optimized for productivity and designed to efficiently produce multiple content products simultaneously, is no longer an option, but rather a necessity.

1. Content Marketing Meets Intelligent Content
Scott Abel & Rahel Anne Bailie
with contributions from 50 content experts
The Making of The Language
of Content Strategy
#TLOCS @scottabel @rahelab

2. great
Wouldn’t it be
if you could
delightyour customers by
providing content
they want and need?

3. amazing
Wouldn’t it be
if you could do it without
breaking
the bank?

4. OBSTACLES

5. There never seems to be
enough time to do
everything we’d like to
OBSTACLES

6. Money is alwaysin short supply
OBSTACLES

7. Talent, knowledge, and experience
are scarce commodities
OBSTACLES

8. OBSTACLES
We don’t have the right tools for the job

10. To keep pace, we need to adopt
manufacturing methods and
apply them to content
production

11. Content
manufacturing is
made possible by
content engineering

12. Content engineering
is the application of the
engineering discipline to
the design, acquisition,
management, delivery,
and use of content.

13. Content engineering
is about operational efficiency,
speed, and the elimination of
unnecessary manual tasks

14. Hand-crafting
content is expensive,
time-consuming,
and NOT scalable

15. Content can (and often should)
be manufactured…just like
products in a factory

16. Wouldn’t it be great if you
could overcome the obstacles and
produce content as efficiently and
effectively as manufacturers create
consumer products?

17. You can!

19. My promise to you
I’ll show you how to harness technology and the
power of the crowd to create a book, an eBook, a
website, and a set of learning aids from a single
source of content without breaking the bank.

20. Let’s take a
lookat a real project

21. Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
#TLOCS @scottabel
Case study
The Making of
The Language of
Content Strategy

22. Write It Once, Use It Often
Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
#TLOCS @scottabel
A Repeatable Process For Creating Content Efficiently and Effectively

23. Content Strategy
Workshops

24. EDITORIAL TECHNOLOGYvs
UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE

25. EDITORIAL TECHNOLOGYvs

26. EDITORIAL
is concerned with word choice,
tone, voice, style, brand
it’s about the content!

27. Editorialists are artists
who believe their value is in their knowledge of content

28. TECHNOLOGY
is concerned with sustainable,
repeatable processes, and
tools, techniques, and standards
it’s about production!

29. Technologists are engineers
they believe their value is in their knowledge of systems
Technologists
orchestrate and
choreograph content

30. Editorial-focused strategists (without experience
crafting engineering-based content solutions)
started crafting their own terms and definitions

31. Technology-focused
strategists (with
experience crafting
engineering-based
content solutions)
started tuning the
editorialists out

32. BIG PROBLEM
the lack of a
common vocabulary

33. Wouldn’t it be great if we
could help both sides
understand each other?

34. Wouldn’t it be awesome
if we could work smarter
and avoid working late?

35. Wouldn’t it be supercool
if we could get the editorial
and the technology sides to
work together?

36. We created aWe put our heads
together
To illustrate the need for
content strategists to
understand both sides:
editorial and technology

37. Content strategy
is the ANALYSIS and PLANNING to develop a
repeatable system that governs the management
of content throughout its entire lifecycle
Content strategy is incomplete without GOALS
Content strategy is NOT ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION
a definition

38. Content Strategy
projects are not always
about the web
print • audio • video • Braille
are also in the mix

39. Starting from scratch
means we had no legacy
content to inventory, audit,
or analyze
Instead, we focused on
creating content to support
our project goals

40. Analysis
• reviewed educational landscape (academia/professional)
• recognized need for multi-channel, multi-pricepoint content
• acknowledged need for conversation about terminology
• identified marketing value to contributors
• recognized contributor limitations (time, tools experience)
• determined skillsets, roles, and budget required
We used the analysis phase
to research the challenge
and determine next steps

41. Project goals
1. create a common vocabulary, accessible to all
2. own the conversation about the vocabulary
3. foster understanding between editorialists and technolgists
4. demonstrate competency within the discipline
5. produce a real-world case study (3 variations)
6. showcase professionals who ‘get it’
7. create evangelists to spread the word

42. Deliverables
• printed book
• eBooks (EPUB format)
• website
• printed learning aids
Different views from
same set of content

43. All produced from a
single source
automatically*
No hand-crafting
No copying-and-pasting * there were some manual tasks that were required as we pushed content from one tool into another

44. Define content types
• term/definition pairs
• importance statement
• essay (250 words)
• contributor name/bio/contact info
• additional resources

45. Authoring environment
• web-based (collaboration)
• easy to use (editorialists)
• structured XML authoring (DocBook)
• basic content management features
• facilitates reuse
Tool selected: Atlassian Confluence

47. Selecting the terms
We selected editorial and
technology terms that every
content strategist should
know and understand

48. 52Yes, there are more than
52 terms every content
strategist should know and
understand
terms
definitions
experts
weeks
cards

49. Selecting the team
The best and brightest
in tangentially-related
fields were invited

50. We used a Google Docs
form and spreadsheet to collect
and maintain information about
contributors and contributions

51. Defining roles
and responsibilities
• markup specialist
• editors
• indexer
• peer reviewers
• graphic artist
Editorial and
technology roles
are equally
important

52. Creating content models
Models were created for the
printed book, the eBooks, the
website/blog, and the
learning aids/flash cards

53. Content flow
book
ebooks web
cards
Source
(wiki)

54. Importance Statement
Topic Name
Definition
Essay
The source

55. The source
Biography
Additional Resources
Contributor Name
Contact Info

56. Importance
Statement
Contributor Name
Topic Name
Definition
Biography
Essay
The printed book
Every chapter is two pages long
and consistently structured
Contact Info

57. Essay
The eBooks
Contributor Name
Topic Name
Definition
Importance Statement
Biography
Contact info

58. The website/blog thelanguageofcontentstrategy.com

59. Topic Name
Contributor Name
Definition
Importance
Statement
Essay
The website/blog
One chapter is automatically
published every Thursday.
!
Audio files support accessibility
and allow visitors who prefer
audio to listen to the book.
!
Photos were added after the fact,
although they were imported into
the authoring tool in one batch.
!
‘Additional resources’ that do not
appear in the printed book and
eBook appear on the website.
Additional
Resources

60. Importance Statement
Definition
Topic Name
The flash cards

61. Lessons learned
Because we started with a
content strategy designed to future-
proof our content, we were able to
easily adjust to challenges, threats,
opportunities.

62. Audio
Audio requires a script
designed to be read
aloud. Audio files also
need a host that provides
sharing capability

63. 52 quotes from 52 content strategists
Scott Abel & Rahel Anne Bailie
with contributions from 50 content experts
The Language of
Content Strategy

64. Rahel Anne Bailie, Founder and Chief Content Strategist, Intentional Design
“Content strategy is the practice of helping
organizations improve their content performance,
primarily through the analysis of existing content
problems and development of plans for
improvement.”
02
Core Concepts > Content Strategy
We can create
additional
deliverables from
a single source

65. Social media
Tweets can be tagged
and pushed into social
media scheduling tools
where they can be
published automatically

66. The Tools
design + XML
Adobe In Design
Reusing content
between different
software applications
involves some learning,
setup, and testing.

67. We spent $3,295USD* to bring this project to life
* this amount reflects what we paid out ; it does not include overhead, labor, hidden costs

68. Here’s the breakdown Graphic design = $1500USD
Indexing = $500USD
Editing = $500USD
Markup assistance = $500USD
Audio file hosting = $135USD (per year)
URL = $10USD (first year)
Site hosting = $150USD (per year)
$3,295USD** this amount reflects what we paid out ; it does not include overhead, labor, hidden costs

69. HIDDEN COSTS
Books $1500USD
Postage/supplies $700USD
Adobe InDesign $240USD (per year)
Confluence Wiki $2,000USD (per year)
Administrative costs $1000USD
$5,440USD
Reduce cost by
bartering and
using existing
resources

70. I showed you how to harness
technology and the power of
the crowd to create a book, an
eBook, a website, and a set of
learning aids from a single
source of content without
breaking the bank.
My promise to you

72. Need help? Contact me.
scottabel@mac.com @scottabel thecontentwrangler.com 415.857.2235

73. Write It Once, Use It Often
Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler
#TLOCS @scottabel
A Repeatable Process For Creating Content Efficiently and Effectively