Managing content online content continues to be one of the top issues dogging intranet managers. Employee complaints about not being able to find certain information continues to be a top complaint followed closely by those about content quality.
Quality comes from good writing and management (i.e. cataloging, storing, tagging, etc.). Even the best communicators require refresher courses. For non-communicator employees who are managing content, training is a must – regardless of the content management system, publishing tool or established policies.
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“With the increasing implementation of distributed publishing throughout organisations there is an increasing need to train content providers to help develop a more consistent approach and style for their online content, not just train people on how to use the software,” writes Nick Besseling, a New Zealand-based intranet consultant in Training intranet content providers (thanks for the pointer from James Robertson @ Column Two).
Training workshops are a good forum for educating managers about the dos and don’ts of online content management. Nick provides a 7-point framework for conducting content training workshops:
- Before the workshop
Send out pre-workshop questions and an online content article to help get participants into the online content ‘head space’ and start them thinking about issues/problems. - Audience and purpose
Emphasise that the user of the information is the focus of content not the provider or the provider’s manager. This can be a major sticking point to get effective and useful content. - Intranet and online content conceptsCover concepts such as the idea that online readers skim/scan, the content triangle/inverse pyramid concept etc. Keep in mind that some of your content providers may have very limited knowledge of what makes online content successful.
- Writing/online style guidelines
Cover specific guidelines such as writing short sentences, ‘one idea’ paragraphs, use of tables, images, file types etc. Also cover the fundamentals in your organisation’s writing/communication style guide (get one developed if you don’t have one!). Be sure to highlight anything in the style guide that may clash with effective online content. - Discussion and exercises
Emphasise discussion and hands-on exercises. Get people talking about online content and working together to share ideas and approaches and use these discussions to help understand where your content providers are currently at. Exercises should be based on current intranet content and cover both concepts and specifics as discussed above. - Managing participants
Mix participants up across different business groups and keep numbers limited to a manageable numbers (10 or less), Get people working in pairs during the exercises and avoid domination of the workshop by more experienced participants (but be sure to use them when needed to elicit responses). - Cover editing/collating as well as writing
If (as in many organisations) a lot content comes from existing sources rather than being produced initially for an online environment, put more focus on ‘editing for online’ rather than just writing.
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