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Author: Sarah O'Keefe

White papers

Content accounting: Calculating value of content in the enterprise

The challenge of content value

Content value is a hot topic in marketing and technical communication. In the publishing industry, the connection between content and value is clear. A publisher sells a book (or film or other piece of content) and gets book sales, ticket revenue, or streaming subscriptions in return. But what if your content is a part of the product (like user documentation) or used to sell the product (like a marketing white paper)? In these cases, measuring content value is much more challenging.

It is tempting to fall back on measuring cost instead of value. The cost of content development can be a trap, though. Eliminating wasted effort and optimizing content workflows is sensible, but too much focus on cost leads us toward content as a commodity.

Sarah O'Keefe
November 11, 2019
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Podcast Podcast transcript

Subject matter experts as authors and reviewers (podcast)

In episode 63 of The Content Strategy Experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe and Chip Gettinger of SDL chat about subject matter experts and their role as authors and as reviewers of content.

“One of the most important things about working with SMEs is to meet them where they are. It’s important to understand where they’re coming from and their perspective. Understand what issues matter to them.”

—Chip Gettinger

Sarah O'Keefe
November 4, 2019
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White papers

The Scriptorium approach to content strategy

Executive summary

Scriptorium’s approach to content strategy is based on management consulting principles. First, we identify business goals that are connected to content problems. We then do a needs analysis and gap analysis, and develop requirements. That work provides the foundation for a recommendation. From that recommendation, we build out the solution.

The key to success is the balance between content and strategy. It’s easy to reduce the cost of the content lifecycle if you don’t care about the quality of the content. If you focus only on the quality of the end result and not on the content creation process, you can end up with beautifully crafted content that’s only usable in a single format, that’s impossible to translate, or that takes entirely too long to create.

When you invest in content strategy, you are committing to a major digital transformation effort. The challenges are significant, but so is the opportunity.

Sarah O'Keefe
July 8, 2019
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White papers

Understanding content strategy as a specialized form of management consulting

First published in Technical Communication Volume 66, Number 2 (May 2019) by the Society for Technical Communication.

Coauthored by Sarah O’Keefe, Alan Pringle, and Bill Swallow.

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of this article is to position content strategy as a specialized subdiscipline of management consulting. Standard management consulting practices, such as gap analysis and needs analysis, are the foundation of content strategy practices.

Method: This article draws from the theory on management consulting and shows how management consulting principles work in the context of content strategy projects.

Results: Practitioners in the burgeoning field of content strategy will develop a better sense of how their work aligns with overall management consulting practices.

Conclusion: Management consulting already has best practices and methodologies. Content strategy builds upon that foundation to establish a professional discipline.

Sarah O'Keefe
May 13, 2019
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Opinion

2019 trend: Smarter content in unexpected places

It’s always dangerous to make predictions, but for 2019, we are defining “smarter content in unexpected places” as our trend in content strategy.

The catalyst is recognition of content value. Once you decide that delivering certain information is valuable, you then start to think about the best ways to create, manage, and deliver that information. How can you maximize its value?

Sarah O'Keefe
January 14, 2019
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Podcast transcript

Full transcript of Potluck strategy podcast

Sarah O’Keefe: Welcome to the Content Strategy Experts podcast, brought to you by Scriptorium. Since 1997, Scriptorium has helped companies manage, structure, organize, and distribute content in an efficient way.

Sarah O’Keefe: Hi, everyone. I’m Sarah O’Keefe. For episode 40, we’re thinking about food. Although, I should clarify that we think about food a lot here at Scriptorium. It’s an important part of our daily life and our holiday potluck is an opportunity to show off our culinary skills in cooking and, I think, most especially eating. So it occurred to me that a great potluck has a lot in common with content strategy, and in this episode, we’re going to talk about our favorite topic, food, and how we can apply a potluck planning, which is hard to say, to content strategy.

Sarah O'Keefe
December 5, 2018
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Podcast

Potluck strategy podcast

In episode 40 of the Content strategy experts podcast, Sarah O’Keefe, Bill Swallow, and Gretyl Kinsey create a food-themed facade for content strategy. Abundant potluck metaphors illustrate some of the most important content strategy decisions.

Sarah O'Keefe
November 30, 2018
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Podcast transcript

Full transcript of Battling content strategy inertia podcast

Sarah O’Keefe: Welcome to the Content Strategy Experts podcast, brought to you by Scriptorium. Since 1997, Scriptorium has helped companies manage, structure, organize, and distribute content in an efficient way. In episode 34 of this podcast, we talk about inertia. It’s August, so here we are in the dog days of summer in North Carolina. It’s hot and humid, and doing absolutely nothing seems like pretty much the best and only strategy right now. That got us thinking about inertia in content strategy. It takes a big push to get a content strategy project moving, and a lot of times, do nothing seems like a much safer strategy than actually taking action and doing something. But of course, the choice to do nothing is, itself, a decision, and may lead to sunburn if you just stay out there too long.

Sarah O'Keefe
August 15, 2018
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