Knowledge Management: Maximizing Input, Minimizing Output
The number of hours worked by American couples has increased by more than 10 percent in the last 25 years," according to USA Today (December 17, 2003). Monster's 2003 Work/Life Balance Survey found...
View ArticleWhat's Important to Measure on Your Website?
Websites are very measurable. However, reams of data can be time consuming and confusing. The knack is to know what is really important to measure. This includes the following: reader actions; reader...
View ArticleMaking the Customer CEO
The key revolution of the Web is customer empowerment and engagement. The Web empowers the customer more than it empowers the organization. The implications are enormous.
View ArticleGraphic Design Plays a Minor Role on the Web
The best websites are highly functional. They are task-focused. Graphic design has an important, though limited role. Don’t try and force the Web to be what it’s not.
View ArticleCustomer Focus: First Rule of Scientific Content Management
The science of content management begins with a deep understanding of your customer. The Web is more likely to push your customer away than to bring them closer.
View ArticleAre You Using the Wrong Web Metrics?
Do you base success on measuring the volume of visitors and page impressions? Such measures may in fact reflect the failure--rather than the success--of your website.
View ArticleWriting for the Web: Part 2
Writing for the Web requires careful planning. Your content needs to fit well within the context of your website. When a reader finds your content, they need to be able to scan it quickly. That's what...
View ArticleMetadata: Seven Tips for Writing Better Keywords
The shift in how search engines treat keywords is significant. They tend to ignore the keyword metatag and rather look for keywords in the actual page content. This means that you need to figure out...
View ArticleMetadata is Essential Web Writing Skill: Part 2
Creating great metadata for your content begins with understanding who your reader is. What is the metadata they look for when they read a page of your content? What are the type of words they use when...
View ArticleMetadata is Essential Web Writing Skill: Part 1
Metadata is one of the most misunderstood aspects of content management and website design. Editors and writers tend to look at it as a technical issue. Technical people look for a software solution....
View ArticleIt's Time To Get Serious About Metadata
When it comes to the Web, there is nothing more misunderstood than metadata. Technical people search vainly for a way to automate its creation. Many editors and writers want nothing to do with it. And...
View ArticlePutting Someone in Charge
Finally, organizations are getting serious about how they manage their intranets. The intranet is now moving out of an evolutionary, experimental phase into a more systematic, managed phase. It is...
View ArticlePublish What You Can Manage
There is a view in some organizations that an intranet is only for staff, so you can publish what you want. Quality content matters as much on an intranet as on a public website. Get your content right...
View ArticleMaking Knowledge Sharing Work
The intranet is beginning to restructure the organization in more ways than one. Content is now an asset, and the people who manage it need to treat it as such. Managing editors, and their team,...
View ArticleMake Sure Your Intranet is Well-Perceived by Staff
Many intranets are only now beginning to show their true potential. However, many staff, having had unsatisfactory previous experiences of the intranet, may need quite some convincing that the intranet...
View ArticleKey Benefits of a Single Intranet or Public Website
A single website is more connected and credible. It is more consistent and cost effective. It is easier to manage and measure. Multiple websites weaken the potential power of the overall organization...
View ArticleIs Communications Up to Job of Running Intranet?
The natural home of the intranet is in communications. However, intranet management requires particular skills that many traditional communications departments don’t have.
View ArticleIntranets: Strategy First, Usability Second
More and more intranet teams are buying into the need for usability. However, usability is not a strategy, and without a clear strategy, usability can become a pointless, wasteful and...
View ArticleIntranet Return on Investment Case Studies
An intranet can deliver return on investment (ROI) by either reducing the cost, or expanding the ability, to communicate. By shifting manual processes to the intranet, the cost of accessing and...
View ArticleIntranet Communication vs. Traditional Communication
A way to measure return on investment (ROI) for your intranet is to answer two basic questions. How does the intranet increase the level and quality of communication? How does it replace traditional...
View ArticleIf You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It
Intranets don't self-organize. Without planned, centralized information architectures and clearly defined published processes, they become unproductive. Intranets often have applications that either...
View ArticleYour Website is for Your Most Important Customers
Well-managed websites tend to be those that are narrow in their focus. They do a few things really well rather than attempt to do lots and lots of things.
View ArticleThe Secret of Managing a Successful Website
The Web is about self-service. To achieve success in self-service you need to really understand how your visitors think and behave. If they are to serve themselves they must feel comfortable and...
View ArticleThe Greatest Skill of the 21st Century
In an age when technology is everywhere, those who understand how technology works are easy to find. Those who understand how people work are much harder to find.
View ArticleHow Google Manages its Home Page
An average person can deal with only 7-10 choices on a web page, according to Google research. That's why it's so hard to get a link on the Google home page.
View ArticleFast-Downloading Websites are Still Important
People are impatient on the Web. They are function and task orientated. They want to get things done as quickly as possible. The average person is still accessing the Web over a 56 KB modem. You should...
View ArticleYou Need a Five-Year Plan for Your Website
Websites change the way an organization communicates with its staff, customers, investors and general public. A change in communication is a major shift for the organization. To effectively implement...
View ArticleWhy Personalization Hasn't Worked
Personalization hasn't worked because most people don't have a compelling reason to personalize. It hasn't worked because the cost of doing it well usually significantly outweighs the benefits it...
View ArticleWeb Content Management: A Lot of Great Progress
Every day there is tremendous work being done on the Web. Talented, dedicated people are working with limited resources and support to achieve brilliant results. If you’re one of those people...
View ArticleWeb Content Management Predictions for 2004
This is the year when web content comes of age. Organizations will slowly stop viewing content as some cost that needs to be managed. Instead, they will begin to see content as an asset that can drive...
View ArticleWeb Content Management Depends on Trust
You must be able to stand over everything that is published on your website and say that it is all accurate and up-to-date. Trust is a fundamental building block of professional web content management.
View ArticleWeb Content Management a Process, Not a Project
When something is new, we need to approach it in an exploratory manner. We need to experiment and try things out. And so it has been with the Web. That period is now over. We need to move from seeing...
View ArticleStart Measuring the Cost and Value of Your Content
Frederick W. Taylor, in his book, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), wrote about how waste in activity was a greater problem than material waste. He wrote about planning, organizing,...
View ArticleShould You Centralize or Decentralize Your Publishing?
Large websites often struggle to develop an efficient and cost-effective publishing model. Centralizing publishing ensures a consistent quality of what is published, but is often slow and frustrating....
View ArticleScientific Content Management
Management is the pursuit of the best way. Content is an increasingly important resource and activity within organizations. It is time it was professionally managed.
View ArticleQuality Publishing is About Saying No
Are the people who have least to say in your organization publishing most on your intranet or public website? Are the people who have most to say publishing least? You're not alone. Organizations are...
View ArticleMeasuring Your Web Publishing Processes
What's really important to measure for your website? Firstly, you need to measure how successful you are at creating, editing and publishing content. These are your web content management processes....
View ArticleLess is More for University Websites
Many university websites are poorly organized, and filled with out-of-date content that has been directly published from print. Delivering a better service to students and staff faces challenges...
View ArticleInformation Technology: Trojan Horse of Information Overload
Information technology has become the Trojan Horse of information overload. It has been invited into the organization as some magical gift that will bring greater efficiency and reduced cost. Once...
View ArticleDon't Make These Mistakes When Buying Content Management Software
Most organizations don’t need content management software. Unless you have a very busy website with lots and lots of content being published, the return on investment is not there. The majority of...
View ArticleDo You Manage a Website or a Warehouse?
There are two types of people involved in websites today: those who see content as an asset, and those who see it as a commodity. The latter better start looking for a new career.
View ArticleAvoid Santa Claus Approach to Content Management
The Santa Claus approach to content management creates a content management software wish list. It believes in the magic of technology to sweep away any and every problem. Typically, those who believe...
View ArticleAre You Publishing Too Much On Your Website?
Many websites are still publishing content that is not core to their business. The justification is that such content will indirectly deliver benefit. This is not a good idea. Focus on the content that...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Personalization
Personalization has rarely been implemented well. Its failure is usually because of a lack of understanding of customer behavior.
View ArticleSearch Words Versus Carewords
The words we use when we search are not always the words we like to read when we arrive at a website.Over the years, I have discovered that the way we think and the words we use when we search give...
View ArticleWeb 2.0 is About Giving Up Some Control
Web 2.0 and social media mean that for teachers a declining part of their job involves telling. An increasing part is listening to the class and facilitating them in having conversations. Teachers...
View ArticleWebsites: Designed by Dogs, Managed by Cats
Websites are generally designed by dogs. There’s a lot of optimism. The dogs look at the website and think of it as an endless attic. No matter how much stuff you into it, there’s always room for more....
View ArticleThe Functional Heart of Web Design
The fact that GOV.UK has won a top design award shows that the benefits of functional web design are finally being recognized.
View ArticleIf Content is King, Why Are Content Professionals Paid So Little?
You strike gold with web content when you create stuff that allows people to do things. It all begins with knowing what the person ultimately wants to do. The focus must not be on the content itself.
View ArticleWhat Really Matters: Focusing on Top Tasks
Every piece of web content is important—or so every stakeholder insists. But what happens when dozens, even hundreds, of different tasks battle for space on your homepage and in your navigation? It’s...
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