One of the challenges in managing content to meet business goals is figuring out when to provide the audience a taste of what’s avaialable, and when to give them the whole cone. This challenge appears whether you’re designing support documentation and don’t want to confuse a user, or if you’re publishing marketing content in a consumer industry or busines-to-business.
Social media and content curation take the tempting taste further than many other forms of communication (except maybe movie trailers). Figuring out how to make the most of 140 characters without looking like a herringbone jacket isn’t always easy. But it wasn’t particularly easy back in the days of Don Draper either. Even less so when you’re training customers to use esoteric software or industrial machines. If you can’t make it sexy and glamorous, then you need to make it delicous and filling… without making it annoying or intrusive. Content for content’s sake won’t cut it… even if you’re filling 30-seconds during the Superbowl. Content needs a purpose, and the business drives that purpose.
On the other hand, you can taste test while you create that useful and delicious content. It helps to keep you on the right track, and can even inspire other creations for future snacking. We’re totally into sampling, and our tiny little ice cream spoons have dug into some new and interesting flavors this week, including:
- Money and technology are not a content strategy
- RTFM? How to write a manual worth reading
- Building a Customer Experience Management Practice
- Why ‘Mobile First’ May Already Be Outdated
- How to Achieve Healthcare Literacy, Part 1
Pick your flavors and your toppings from the latest edition of Tech Writer This Week.
