As delivered at Confab Higher Ed 2015

1. Building Internal Communities
to Support Your Content Strategy
Georgy Cohen
OHO Interactive
@radiofreegeorgy
#confabeduhttps://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

4. Building Internal Communities
to Support Your Content Strategy
Georgy Cohen
OHO Interactive
@radiofreegeorgy
PSUWEB 2015https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

5. Georgy Cohen
OHO Interactive
@radiofreegeorgy
PSUWEB 2015https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

6. Georgy Cohen
OHO Interactive
@radiofreegeorgy
PSUWEB 2015https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

7. What did I learn?

8. https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558 https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitneyinchicago/3541505856
People liked
being connected
to information,
and one another.

9. It was easy for me to
find the rockstars.

10. I had an easy way
to disseminate
information.

12. “In most situations, the decentralized
publishing model has been disastrous.
The people trained tended to be
relatively junior staff, for whom
publishing to the website was just one
more responsibility. The result was lots
and lots of poor quality content that
was never updated or reviewed.”
Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management

13. https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

14. https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558

15. “When it comes to content, people are
far more important than software.”
Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management

17. So, what can we do?

18. “It is essential that [central web
teams] are highly collaborative,
which means they should spend
most of their time out of the
office. They should work closely
with the various organizational
units, spreading their expertise
wherever possible.”
Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/new-thinking/decentralized-publishing-equals-amateur-web-management
FROM
THE
TOP
DOWN

19. FROM
THE
BOTTOM
UP
https://www.flickr.com/photos/oimax/2260643716

20. Even better… we can formalize
these connections and
collaborations by creating
communities around our content.
Creating
communities

22. Living, breathing,
walking, talking
governance.

23. Goals for content communities:
1. Connect members to institutional
standards and overall best practices
2. Connect members to training,
documentation, and resources
3. Connect members to each other for
support and collaboration
Goals
for content
communities

24. “The result is a community of
communicators, working toward
similar goals and within similar
constraints.”
Chas Grundy
University of Notre Dame
http://grundyhome.com/blog/archives/2011/03/24/rising-boats-colleague-education/index.html

26. Subvert
politics
and turf
wars
Don’t
dominate;
facilitate
How do you manage this community?
Identify
goals.
Make it
relevant.
Convert projectteams or drawfrom existinggroups
Rotate hostsand venues
Make it
outcome-
driven
Skunkworks?Maybe.
Publishminutes,notes, session
video or PDFs

27. Analytics
training and
reports
Contentreports andtesting
Brainstorming
ideas
Projectcollaboration
Share
templates,
techniques, &
resources
Large (moral)supportnetwork
Information
sharing
Pool resourcesforprofessionaldevelopment
How do you get people on board?

28. Let’s check out some case studies.

29. @bamadesigner

31. Goals for UA WebTide:
1. To help benefit its members, and
the university, by promoting
professional development,
innovation, and discussion
2. To provide community, education,
professional development, and
support to all web professionals at
The University of Alabama.

32. “As a ‘one-man’ team, I wanted the
opportunity to share ideas and ‘talk
shop’ with other web professionals on
campus but, desiring more than just a
community, I also saw an opportunity
to crowdsource resources and
professional development for all web
professionals on campus.”
Rachel Carden, University of Alabama

34. “We all share similar challenges,
opportunities, and a goal of representing,
and promoting, the University with a high
quality web presence, so why not help
each other out!”
Rachel Carden, University of Alabama

35. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dvs/166443190
@nicholaseobrien

38. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

39. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

40. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

41. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

43. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

44. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

45. “While we as web professionals can
know best practices and try to add
value to our colleagues’ content, we
can’t be everywhere at once.
Through thoughtful and
intentional governance, we can
add more value to more content.”
Nicholas O’Brien
Bates College
Confab Higher Ed 2014https://vimeo.com/112237325

46. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_University
@wrstknitterever

48. Goals for OSU content strategy group:
1. Connect people to content strategy
best practices
2. Get people talking about the
purpose of their websites and who
their audience is
3. Show people how to effectively
plan and manage their web content

49. “It’s a good way to talk about things
people don’t usually talk about.”
Erin Martin, Oregon State University

50. Organize
around
Drupal
community
2 meetings,
~30 at each,
~56 on
mailing list
Guestspeakers fromother units
Breaking
down silos
with Slack

51. Also: OSU College of
Agricultural Sciences Site
Coordinators Group

52. “Our college does very important work across
the state and the world, but the digital
communication was haphazard, not
coordinated. This group is the first step in an
attempt to offer help and support to the
units in CAS, to provide guidance and to
learn what is going on in some units.”
Erin Martin, Oregon State University

53. “Our college does very important work across
the state and the world, but the digital
communication was haphazard, not
coordinated. This group is the first step in an
attempt to offer help and support to the
units in CAS, to provide guidance and to
learn what is going on in some units.”
Erin Martin, Oregon State University
http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/

54. Goals for CAS site coordinators group:
1. Forge strong working relationships
with unit leaders and staff
2. Offer guidance and support to
those managing websites
3. Promote “a bit of” content strategy
4. Promote College & University goals
5. Work with units to target audiences
and serve user needs

55. “So many of our site coordinators are
overworked, underpaid office staff and asking
them to do more is just not going to happen. I
try to frame it like they are our partners and I
am here to help. I’m still working on this.”
Erin Martin, Oregon State University

56. https://www.flickr.com/photos/5yearjourney/15924878026
@virtualr

57. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bexwalton/10133921476

58. “No one has to do anything a certain
way, but you do have to have the
right outcomes.”
Rebecca Bernstein, University of Buffalo

59. Goals for UB DCT Solutions Group:
1. Empower people with knowledge
to elevate their practice
2. Empower groups to get more input
and feedback from users
3. Inform community about changes
and new products

60. Another model:
pop-up shops

61. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bexwalton/10133921476

62. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bexwalton/10133921476
https://oncampus.oberlin.edu/webteam/2012/05/talktome-social-media-office-hours

63. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bexwalton/10133921476

64. “One thing I was struck with was watching
people interacting while they were waiting.
We are all trying to do more with less these
days; any opportunity to get strength and
support from each other is a bonus.”
Michelle Tarby, Le Moyne College
http://higheredsolo.com/newmodel/

65. In conclusion:
• It will always start small, but what
matters is that it starts
• Communities of any size are helpful
• A good content community ultimately
serves users at all ends of the process
• Any community requires purposeful
leadership to flourish

66. Thank you.
georgy@oho.com
@radiofreegeorgy
https://www.flickr.com/photos/faceme/2459391558
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
Japanese Proverb