Sally Bagshaw on Web publishing used to be a secret art form that only a select few knew how to do. Developers had control of when and where content was published. The average employee didn’t understand code or FTPing – and didn’t particularly want to.

Website content was taken from existing brochures, and Google was still an idea in a couple of college boys’ heads.

Haven’t times changed?

The rise of content management systems, and the general explosion of digital communication has turned everyone into a publisher. It’s easy to whack another page on a site. In many organisations content can be sent live without any input from a trained content writer.

Source: www.webcontentstrategy.com.au Posted by bee 731 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes ago

At the request of several of my WM colleagues, today I'm going to take you on a quick tour of the basic points you will usually find covered in a writer's contract. I have signed many of these over my career and was a legal secretary in a galaxy far away from here, so I've always felt comfortable reading and negotiating my own contracts.

But if you're new to contracts, they can seem intimidating and even boggling. I recently negotiated one that was more than 10 pages long!

Source: www.thewmfreelanceconnection.com Posted by support 734 days, 19 hours, 38 minutes ago

Most organizations do not undertake a migration effort with the rigor and discipline that they normally would for a software project. The result is often a failed migration. You should treat a content migration project like any other major software project in terms of execution. What this means is that you should deploy a proper methodology for implementing migrations.

A typical software development methodology has the following phases at a high level:

• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Testing
• Deployment

Source: www.eiwatch.com Posted by bee 735 days, 19 hours, 52 minutes ago

Corporate communications is a phrase that has come to include all of the communication techniques, whether spoken or written, that is issued by a corporate organization or business. These items can include written business plans, news letters, media scheduling or procuring e-mail merchandising, business proposals, script crafting or even press releases.

Corporate Communications Can Be Both Internal And External

These communications can be either internal, like those sent to employees or stockholders, or external like communication that may be sent by way of the media, to the government or throughout an educational institution. This group of routines is used to handle and orchestrate the internal and external communications in order to gather a flattering viewpoint from either the public or the stockholders. It’s a method of distributing information and facts with the familiar goal of strengthening the overall corporate image.

Source: www.easy-air-charter.com Posted by bee 736 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes ago

Internal and External Communications can suffer from this wind-bag pontificating too I fear. Some time ago, I was asked to publish an intranet article celebrating the ‘birthday’ of one of our computer systems. OK, that’s fine, but you see, the article had no story, no news, no messages.

A fifty word article saying ’something has happened’ is not worth my time, nor that of our readers. Articles need to be relevant to the audience – there has to be some point to the article for a good section of the readers. The relevancy and richness can be improved by providing enough context about the subject matter, and about why it’s necessary to communicate about it.

Source: kilobox.net Posted by bee 737 days, 6 hours, 40 minutes ago

When you’re planning to launch a brand new intranet system, the focus should rightly be on what the new system will do for the business and for your people. Part of ‘what it will do’ must of course be in how it presents your content, and people will want to know about the ‘Content Migration Plan’.

‘Migration’ is a misnomer; at least it’s somewhat misleading. It’s unlikely that you’ll just pick up the content of your current / previous intranet and dump it into the new system.

Source: kilobox.net Posted by bee 743 days, 19 hours, 39 minutes ago

As a fundamental purpose of intranets, communication has a vital role to play in the ongoing development and success of a site. But understanding how an intranet can perform as a useful communication platform is often lacking.

This article will explore three types of communication that can be found or deployed on an intranet. There are many others too.

Source: www.steptwo.com.au Posted by bee 750 days, 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

I have this friend who’s been looking for a Content Strategist for a web design project. He’s having trouble finding someone who has all the skills and experience that he wants them to have. This is bound to happen, because the field is new enough that there’s no standard set of skills and experience for people who practice content strategy. Plus, he was looking for some pretty specialized extras.

My advice to him was to look for someone with the core skills, and then prepare them to acquire the rest on the job. I’m pretty confident that a person with the following five qualities could pick up any content strategy task you might need them to do.

Source: scattergather.razorfish.com Posted by bee 757 days, 18 hours, 57 minutes ago

More and more customers are going straight to specific pages on your website, rather than the homepage.

The decline of the homepage In 2003, 39 percent of the page views for a large research website were for the homepage. By 2009, it was down to 19 percent. In one month in 2008, of the 70,000 page views a technology site received, 22,000 were for the homepage. For the same month in 2010, of the 120,000 page views the site received, only 2,500 were for the homepage.

Source: www.gerrymcgovern.com Posted by bee 760 days, 19 hours, 37 minutes ago

words of wisdom that you should understand when writing for reading on-screen. The techniques fall into a few groups.

How to write the text These techniques apply to the words and phrases you write. They include "Write links that don't have to be followed", "Use lists", and "Be concise". Some of these have examples of good and bad.

How to lay out within pages These techniques help you organize the text and links inside of a single page. They include "Use heads, subheads, and summaries", "Write newspaper style", and "Use typography and layout for skimming".

How to design pages These techniques help you organize and layout individual pages. They include "Use screen designs, not paper designs", "Distinguish different types of pages", "Place page elements carefully", and "When (and how) to use frames".

How to organize documents These techniques apply to the whole document. They include "Provide detail", "Use maps", and "Know your audience and their needs".

Overall strategies How to go about making everything work, including "Test new designs" and "When (and how) to use frames".

Source: www.gooddocuments.com Posted by bee 761 days, 19 hours, 35 minutes ago