WEB CONTENT IS A HIDDEN ASSET by Gerry McGovern
nds a bit technical.
Here's how a typical web project gets done. IT spends a load of money on some content management software. It's handed over to marketing who gets a graphic design company to create some concepts. Halfway through the project, someone mentions the idea that content will be needed for the website before it can be launched.
The manager in charge of the project will get the most junior person they can find to go round up some content from the other departments. If this content is absolutely awful, then the manager may get this junior person to rewrite it. Or perhaps they have a summer intern who can throw a few words together.
That's how content is treated in many organizations.
I came across a major report recently from a well-known consultancy. It was a plan for a web portal. This report cost a lot of money, ran into a lot of pages, and hardly mentioned the content at all. There was great detail on the technical strategy, but hardly any detail on the publishing strategy.
The world is full of accidental publishers sitting on this hidden asset called content. Of course, most of them are not exploiting their asset because they don't even know that it's there. We web content management professionals need to dig up and polish this hidden asset and show the organization what can be done with it.
I am a writer, and I am proud to be a writer, but I do not tell a potential client that I am a writer. I tell them I am a content management consultant who puts content first, technology second. Every year I make a better living from what I do because I help my clients do things with content that make them more productive and more profitable.
This is for all you true content management professionals; you writers and editors. Stand firm. Stand up for well-written content. Go for quality over quantity every time. Spend time to get rid of the out-of-date content. Spend time to truly understand who your reader is. Your time is coming because web content will in time be seen as one of the most valuable assets of the modern economy.
Gerry McGovern
You are welcome to republish this article once you place the following text and link at the end of the article:
For your web content management solution, contact Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/
WEBSITE LINK FOR THIS ISSUE:
www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2005/nt_2005_01_17_web_content.htm
Here's how a typical web project gets done. IT spends a load of money on some content management software. It's handed over to marketing who gets a graphic design company to create some concepts. Halfway through the project, someone mentions the idea that content will be needed for the website before it can be launched.
The manager in charge of the project will get the most junior person they can find to go round up some content from the other departments. If this content is absolutely awful, then the manager may get this junior person to rewrite it. Or perhaps they have a summer intern who can throw a few words together.
That's how content is treated in many organizations.
I came across a major report recently from a well-known consultancy. It was a plan for a web portal. This report cost a lot of money, ran into a lot of pages, and hardly mentioned the content at all. There was great detail on the technical strategy, but hardly any detail on the publishing strategy.
The world is full of accidental publishers sitting on this hidden asset called content. Of course, most of them are not exploiting their asset because they don't even know that it's there. We web content management professionals need to dig up and polish this hidden asset and show the organization what can be done with it.
I am a writer, and I am proud to be a writer, but I do not tell a potential client that I am a writer. I tell them I am a content management consultant who puts content first, technology second. Every year I make a better living from what I do because I help my clients do things with content that make them more productive and more profitable.
This is for all you true content management professionals; you writers and editors. Stand firm. Stand up for well-written content. Go for quality over quantity every time. Spend time to get rid of the out-of-date content. Spend time to truly understand who your reader is. Your time is coming because web content will in time be seen as one of the most valuable assets of the modern economy.
Gerry McGovern
You are welcome to republish this article once you place the following text and link at the end of the article:
For your web content management solution, contact Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/
WEBSITE LINK FOR THIS ISSUE:
www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2005/nt_2005_01_17_web_content.htm
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