Content Is King

By Scott Proudfoot, Principal
May 2002

Splashy web design may grab our attention but it takes interesting content to hold it! Good content takes smarts, effort, time and, consequently, money. Here are few things to keep in mind when it comes to your organization�s web site and its content. This is an abridged version of a Hillwatch column from the May/June 2002 issue of Association & Meeting Director magazine.

Content is the key driver for any organization hoping to build long-term relationships with site visitors.  Fresh, relevant and well-delivered content that meets members� needs and exceeds their expectations creates a powerful incentive to revisit the site on a regular basis.  It is the value proposition of a web site. 

A Poynter Institute �eyeball tracking� study proved web users are drawn first to text (headlines, captions, highlighted phrases) over images and pictures on a web page. In a Markle Foundation survey, Internet users were asked which word best describes the Internet. The most common answer was a Library.

In other words, people visit a web site to read its content.

Good content takes smarts, effort, time and, consequently, money. Creating and updating content is usually the largest web site expense.   Here are few things to keep in mind when it comes to your organization�s web site and its content.

A Web Page Is Not Paper

Did you know that according to studies by web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen?

• 79% of web users scan web pages instead of reading word-for-word
• Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than paper.
• Users don�t like scrolling through large texts.
• People often have multiple sites open at the same time and skip around and between sites in a non-linear, lateral fashion.
• Ten minutes is a very long time for most people to spend on a site.
• Web content should be 50% the size of the paper equivalent.

Content on a computer screen is far less reader friendly than magazine, newspapers or books. Information is not optimally delivered on the net by sequential chapters but by linking units of content that allow users, at their whim, to go from shallow to deep details, from the core to the margins of topic information, and to leave the site and come back.

Most organizations deliver information online the way it was delivered before the Internet existed. These old forms are not effective. To engage an audience�s attention, you have to adapt to new ways of writing, presenting and organizing content. The new rules are relatively simple but we are unused to them. Organizations resist being re-programmed to do content differently.  Or as Marshal McLuhan pointed out several decades ago:

"The potential of any technology is always dissipated by its users involvement in its predecessors�Computer are still serving mainly to sustain precomputer effects."

Work Within Your Limitations

Have you ever been to web sites where all the information is old? The last press release was six months ago. The Upcoming Event is last year�s annual meeting. The �What�s New� item should be labeled �What�s Old�. The site structure promises a dynamic organization with multiple activities occurring but the content delivers the opposite message. This type of web site actually hurts your organization�s image.

Many organizations lack the staffing or funding to support a dynamic content-rich web site. Yet, they have more web site than they can support. They would do better with a simpler, modest web site that presents their organization in a good light and meets the basic requirement of letting those interested discover who they are. Not every site has to be, or can afford to be, content rich.

How Much is Too Much?

Some web sites have too much content, not too little!

Is it hard to find the latest information or clearly identify the organization�s key concerns or activities?  Is interesting information buried with the mundane?  Will visitors to the site read the full speech of the Chairman or the full report on the annual meeting? Probably not! But they might read a one-page summary and you can provide a link to the full text.

Your site is your public face. Keep it lively, interesting and current. Periodically weed your content.  Always provide short summaries of longer pieces. Clearly label content. Let viewers make quick choices about what interests them and what they can ignore.

Make, Borrow or Buy?

If the goal is quality, fresh content to attract and hold the attention of members of your association, you can write it yourself or borrow or buy it from professional content providers.

Writing, at least, some of the content in-house is usually a good idea. But other demands on your time inevitably limit how much and how often you produce your own material.

Sometimes content exchange agreement can be initiated with kindred organizations inside and outside of Canada. With proper attribution and enough sites sharing content, this can be a win-win situation for all involved, boosting everyone�s traffic.

Some sites take on the role of �Infomediary�. They organize exhaustive links sections to useful resources or regularly �scrap� dozens of news and issue specific sites, providing daily updated links to all the breaking news and research; placing it on the site and/or delivering by e-mail. By editing  �information overload� judiciously for their viewers, a web site can become the reliable source on an industry or an issue. Infomediaries service their members, pull in traffic, create relationships with the media and build a platform to promote their organization�s own content.

If you don�t want to create or borrow content, some firms aggregate content and sell it.  With some such as Mediocom, you pay per article.  Most aggregate news stories and organize them by industry segment or topic, charging a monthly subscription fee for a constantly updated, web feed of linked headlines. The better know names in this space are Yellowbrix, Pinnacor,and World News Feeds.  

For some web site, the problem is too little Canadian content and having to pay for it in US dollars. And, if these vendors� pre-established content streams fail to match your viewers� interests, you are out of luck.  Ottawa based Rocket News is worth a look. It is a competitive intelligence firm with a 5300+ database of publications. Their web feeds can be fine-tuned by the buyers. Some associations use Rocket to create their own branded newsletters and deliver it electronically to their members on a daily or weekly basis.

Advocacy Content is a Special Case

One of our firm�s core competence is helping clients combine online and off line advocacy to achieve a result. In our experience, advocacy content takes special effort.  Some leading activist groups in the NGO community have become very good at this.  Some associations have also caught on but most have some distance to cover.

Good advocacy content involves boiling down complex issues and grabbing the viewer�s attention by making a personal connection between the issue and their life. The type of advocacy content required for a Grassroots campaign via a public Internet web site may be different from material prepared for a Grasstops campaign organized via an intranet or extranet.

Good content advocacy requires respecting the viewer�s intelligence.  That means transparency about who you are and what you want. Viewers have to be convinced of your credibility. They need easily available resources to dig deeper into a topic to satisfy their own level of interest. The goal is to build a sense of community around an issue and sophisticated content �push� strategies are required to do this.

Ultimately, your members or site visitors must be encouraged to take an action. Choices of action have to be offered. Are they �mad as hell and don�t want to take it anymore� or are they merely perturbed or do they simply want more information? Once they have taken an action, you have to keep in touch and provide progress reports. Channels where you can listen to the viewers have to be provided.

You do all this with words and, hopefully, the deeds that give this content meaning.

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How do you measure the effectiveness of your Content, Media Friendliness, Search Engine Strategies and the other Web Site Performance issues? You may want to consider a Hillwatch e-Impact Benchmark