The “Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences for Your Organization” MOOC offered by Coursera and Northwestern University has been a success with its worldwide participants and thousands of meaningful discussion threads. This piece serves as a sum up of some of the key concepts and principles learned through my experience with this MOOC.
John’s Three Truths is the first thing that is highlighted in this MOOC. First, there is an ever-rising tidal wave of any subjects, and it will continue to rise forever. Second, each of us has only 24 hours a day. No more time than these 1,440 minutes we have each day. It means that many things are competing for our time including eating, sleeping, working, meeting people…Third, The world is becoming an ever-more complicated place, but people will give you their time & attention if you give them more of what they want.
In daily practice, it is important to differentiate “tactic” from “strategy”. Tactics are typically things that need to be done, and has less than a year’s timespan. Strategies are roadmaps to the future; they are consisted of your top goals and priorities.
Developing a persona for your audience is prerequisite for successful strategies and practices. Personas are archetypes of individuals at the center of your organization’s target market, or a fictional representation of your ideal client. The trend of looking at and using “new” media favorably can be dangerous and off-target. An ideal place to be is to meet your audience right where they are with either old and/or new media. Personas also help to position your brand. Here is a suggested positioning statement formula:
To (target audience) _____________________
Who (characteristics) ______________________
This brand (what is it like) ___________________
That (different from) _____________________
In daily practice, it is important to differentiate “tactic” from “strategy”. Tactics are typically things that need to be done, and has less than a year’s timespan. Strategies are roadmaps to the future; they are consisted of your top goals and priorities.
Developing a persona for your audience is prerequisite for successful strategies and practices. Personas are archetypes of individuals at the center of your organization’s target market, or a fictional representation of your ideal client. The trend of looking at and using “new” media favorably can be dangerous and off-target. An ideal place to be is to meet your audience right where they are with either old and/or new media. Personas also help to position your brand. Here is a suggested positioning statement formula:
To (target audience) _____________________
Who (characteristics) ______________________
This brand (what is it like) ___________________
That (different from) _____________________
We hear marketers and businesses talk about “engagement” all the time, but what is engagement? This MOOC defines it as the collective set of experiences that audiences have with the media brand. What does this mean? It means engagement/experiences is not about you, it’s about THEM (your audience). Or more specifically, it is NOT what you think your brand is - it is what your audience thinks it is.
There are many kinds of experiences associate with a brand. Some of the prevalent ones include inspiration experience, identity experience, and utilitarian experience. Experiences matter for three reasons. First, all contents create user experience. Second, experiences are linked to usage. Third, the creator of the content can shape these experiences.
The process of creating experiences start with a concept- “what is our best idea of what the content should mean to its readers or viewers?” And then we proceed to create contacts (including content, design, customer service, marketing, etc.), which lead to the actual experiences by the audience and their perception of these experiences.
Experiences are applied to content at three levels: message, content distribution, and strategic level (the goal). The 5 D’s model is promoted for building a core strategy: discover – define – design- develop – deploy.
When creating content, think about our platform and media choices. Multiplatform and multimedia are often cross-used, when in fact they refer to different things. Multiplatform refers to the content’s multiple destinations, such as mobile, tablet, and traditional browser, while multimedia refer to the use of more than one type of content, such as audio, photography, video, and text.
When designing content, human-centered design (HCD) is recommended. HCD process begins by examining the needs, dreams and behaviors of the people we want to affect with our solutions, and continues through an iterative process of idea – lower fidelity prototype – higher fidelity prototype – continuous testing – new product.
Many have discussed social media over and over again. From this MOOC, one of the most important take away is the self-forming of virtual communities and the promotion of content according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which consist of basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment needs at various levels.
There are many kinds of experiences associate with a brand. Some of the prevalent ones include inspiration experience, identity experience, and utilitarian experience. Experiences matter for three reasons. First, all contents create user experience. Second, experiences are linked to usage. Third, the creator of the content can shape these experiences.
The process of creating experiences start with a concept- “what is our best idea of what the content should mean to its readers or viewers?” And then we proceed to create contacts (including content, design, customer service, marketing, etc.), which lead to the actual experiences by the audience and their perception of these experiences.
Experiences are applied to content at three levels: message, content distribution, and strategic level (the goal). The 5 D’s model is promoted for building a core strategy: discover – define – design- develop – deploy.
When creating content, think about our platform and media choices. Multiplatform and multimedia are often cross-used, when in fact they refer to different things. Multiplatform refers to the content’s multiple destinations, such as mobile, tablet, and traditional browser, while multimedia refer to the use of more than one type of content, such as audio, photography, video, and text.
When designing content, human-centered design (HCD) is recommended. HCD process begins by examining the needs, dreams and behaviors of the people we want to affect with our solutions, and continues through an iterative process of idea – lower fidelity prototype – higher fidelity prototype – continuous testing – new product.
Many have discussed social media over and over again. From this MOOC, one of the most important take away is the self-forming of virtual communities and the promotion of content according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which consist of basic needs, psychological needs, and self-fulfillment needs at various levels.
As a summary, content strategy is very important to any organization as all of them are quickly turning into publishers, broadcaster, innovators and content influencers despite their willingness or not. It is an inevitable trend and it is wise to start from now and address these needs for the benefit and development of an organization.
Link to the MOOC for more info: https://class.coursera.org/contentstrategy-001
Image credit: https://class.coursera.org/contentstrategy-001
Link to the MOOC for more info: https://class.coursera.org/contentstrategy-001
Image credit: https://class.coursera.org/contentstrategy-001