Proven Strategies for Getting Readable Content: The Content Managers Playbook

Course Description

Your content management system is in place, you've got support from the higher-ups, and you've hired all the right people for your own web team. Yet you still struggle to get worthwhile content from the subject matter experts in your agency who are supposed to supply it. They don't think writing content for the Web is their job. They are not motivated to update their web pages. Sometimes they feed you unreadable content and ask you to "webify" it. Other times they just want to post a long PDF. Their resistance or lack of skill threatens the distributed publishing model you've worked hard to establish.

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how content managers in corporations, government, and nonprofits have cultivated their subject matter experts' content writing skills. You'll receive a Content Managers' Playbook with case studies and strategies for training and motivating content contributors, and helping them understand their role in the overall content publishing cycle.

What You Will Learn

• How to diagnose content problems. Are contributors suffering from a lack of skill, motivation, or both?
• How to help contributors understand, and care about, users' content needs
• How to establish and enforce content quality guidelines
• How to use content case studies to provide models of excellence
• How to help contributors see the business value in writing quality content
• What types of ongoing training content contributors need

How You'll Benefit

• You'll review real-world examples of the strategies other content managers have used to solve their content problems
• You'll receive three models for organizing content contributors and consider which model will work best for your organization
• You'll learn how to make the business case for contributors to produce good web content

Who Should Attend

• Web writers and editors
• Web managers and content managers
• Program managers who want their employees to produce better web content
• New media and public affairs staff who are responsible for web content

Level of Course

Beginners/intermediate (attendees might benefit if they've previously attended a plain language writing class or have equivalent experience.)

About the Instructor

Leslie O'Flahavan is a co-founder and partner in E–WRITE. With E–WRITE, Leslie has helped thousands of people learn to write well for online readers. She has delivered customized writing courses for customer service agents, help desk staff, web content contributors, marketers, executives, demographers, county government employees, activists, federal employees, and teachers! 

Leslie helps agencies publish usable web content written by a broad range of contributors and develop web writing style guides to govern content writing. This year, E–WRITE has developed an Editorial Style Guide for the Energy Information Administration and an online web writing course for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Leslie is a frequent presenter at web content conferences and has been an Internet Best–In Class award judge for 3 years. She is the co-author of Clear, Correct, Concise E–Mail: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.