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Mapping Out the Future of Publishing

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Content strategy both champions and makes possible the idea that "everyone is a publisher." New platforms and approaches to collaboration let us reframe the conversation beyond traditional book publishing. But with challenges to net neutrality and inconsistent network connectivity in the developing world, do we need to limit our definition of "everyone" to just the white and wealthy world and the more cutting-edge businesses it spawns? Maybe that’s the case today, but today is the mirror of realism. The future is the undefined outcome of optimism—and we have many reasons to be optimistic. Looking at emerging examples from modern business culture, Silicon Valley investment strategies, and communication trends beyond the United States, Margot Bloomstein will map out challenges and opportunities for publishing in the coming decades. The author of Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project, Bloomstein will explore how content strategy will work in the future to aid the changing face of publishing. Who will practice it? Will power align with technology, quality, perspective, or a combination of all three? And how will we define "publishing," anyhow? Presented at Content Strategy Summit, #CSSummit, online, on September 22, 2015

Jumpstarting content strategy with a message architecture at Converge2015

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Trying to manage scope, stakeholders, and shifting priorities? Need to determine a consistent voice among multiple authors? Content strategy can help. Amid constrained resources, competing priorities, and a contributory culture, content strategy can help us focus and do less—but do what really matters. Margot will discuss how to empower communicators and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for use in print, traditional web communication, and social media. Presented at Converge 2015, #Converge2015, October 22, 2015 in New Orleans.

Establishing a Brand-driven Message Architecture WebVisions NYC

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Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy. If you’re a designer planning for content or a developer tailoring the CMS to specific content types, they’re your challenges, too. If you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation, forget your title. It’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture. Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you design for the web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Then use this foundation to learn about a qualitative and quantitative content audit, content types, and editorial style guidelines. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis reveals when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. You’ll leave with the savvy and experience to bring brand-driven content strategy techniques and thinking into your own work. What you can expect: Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update Use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget Presented as a workshop at WebVisions NYC, April 7, 2016, at WebVisions in New York.

Content Strategy for an Era of Self-Validating Facts at CSsummit

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The 2016 US presidential election reveals a post-fact culture. Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand--ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford. Today, lies matter less. Not to brands, but to their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you choose content types to develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their convictions? Can mass media validate fact if "truthiness" trumps truth? Can you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? Most importantly, we’ll discuss how to empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions on your behalf. Presented at the online Content Strategy Summit 2016, #CSsummit, August 25, 2016.

Brand-driven Content Strategy: Developing a Message Architecture workshop at Confab Intensive 2016

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Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll also discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment. Then use this foundation to conduct a qualitative and quantitative content audit. We’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture. Join this workshop to build out your content strategy toolkit: Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with a hands-on exercise Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget

Behind Your Back: How Other Industries Talk About Higher Ed at ConfabEDU 2016

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Long before you target prospective students, they’re forming opinions, narrowing options, and determining costs… without talking to you. They’re hearing other voices—and what those voices say may surprise you. Today, organizations like Peterson’s, Sallie Mae, and College Confidential help students vet schools and determine budgets, conversations previous generations had with guidance counselors and college recruiters. Discover how publishers and financial institutions are earning trust through new choices in content types, calls to action, and partner investments. As higher education draws scrutiny for cost and relevance, it’s time to learn from adjacent industries and reframe the conversation from your own institution. Learn how students gain confidence in their choices as they navigate the application and aid processes. Discover what prospects look for when determining what resources deserve their time, attention, and trust. Uncover how partners can strengthen your brand in the topics students value—especially when they don’t want to hear about those topics from you. Presented at Confab Higher Ed 2016, #ConfabEDU, in Philadelphia November 15, 2016.

Communicating in an Era of Self-Validating Facts at SXSW

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The 2016 US presidential election revealed a post-fact culture. Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand—ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford. Today, lies matter less… not to brands, but to their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their own convictions? Can mass media validate fact if “truthiness” trumps truth? Can you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? Most importantly, we’ll discuss how to empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions on your behalf. Presented at SXSW in Austin, #sxsw and #factstalk, on March 14, 2017.

Driving Your Product's Content Strategy with a Message Architecture at UX London 2017

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Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centred design to use prioritised communication goals to focus new features, content types, and the workflow to create and maintain them. In this workshop, you’ll get up to speed on the philosophy, questions, tools, and exercises to implement brand-driven content strategy. We’ll use BrandSort™ to conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritise communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the web, mobile apps, social media, offline experiences, or any imagined output of your CMS. Eager for more efficient engagements? You’ll discover how a brand attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organisational alignment. Then we’ll discuss the content opportunities a gap analysis can reveal when we use the message architecture as a metric of quality in a content audit. Join this workshop to build out your content strategy toolkit: Learn how—and why—to establish a hierarchy of communication goals in a message architecture with the hands-on BrandSort exercise. Discuss the right questions to ask—and how to ask them—to minimise distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update. Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget Presented at UX London in London, #UXLondon, on May 24, 2017.

Brand-Driven Content Strategy: Creating a Message Architecture Workshop at Confab Central 2017

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Brand-driven content strategy complements user-centered design, and this workshop will help you get up to speed on why and how to implement it. We’ll conduct a hands-on exercise to prioritize communication goals and develop a message architecture—ideal whether you maintain content for the Web, mobile apps, social media, or offline experiences. From there, you’ll learn how to use a message architecture as the metric against which to measure content in a qualitative content audit. Then carry it into governance: We’ll explore the impact of a message architecture on editorial style guidelines and an editorial calendar—and see how that foundation can improve efficiency and client satisfaction throughout your projects. Discover how a brand-attributes card sort can help you identify potential pitfalls and points of disagreement while you improve organizational alignment through entire engagements. Trying to manage scope creep? What about seagulling stakeholders? And what content matters most, anyhow? These questions and other challenges drive content strategy, and the business issues beyond it. What if you need to empower a team, wrangle a client, and rally everyone around a common vocabulary for your primary navigation? No matter your title, it’s time to embrace content strategy, starting with the message architecture. Learn how to establish a hierarchy of communication goals with a hands-on exercise and the right questions to ask along the way to minimize distracting, off-brand features, like the blog no one has time to update. Discover how to bring brand-driven thinking through subsequent activities, like the content audit and content model. Explore the impact of the message architecture on “rubber meets the road” details in style, tone, and diction. Gain additional tools to keep your projects on track, on time, and on budget. Presented as a workshop at Confab Central, #ConfabCentral, in Minneapolis, June 7, 2017.

Communicating in an Era of Self-Validating Facts at Confab Central 2017

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The 2016 US presidential election was our latest reminder of frustrating, sickening zeitgeist: We live in a post-fact era. But let’s ask: did we ever really live in a *fact* era? Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand—ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford. Now, Mark Sanford is back as a senator and lies seem to matter less … not to brands, but to their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their own convictions? Learn how to bring wisdom and brands to the masses with authoritative content that navigates the new challenges: Can you use content to validate fact if “truthiness” trumps truth? What content types can help you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? How can you empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions on your behalf? Presented at Confab Central, #ConfabCentral, in Minneapolis, June 8, 2017.

Communicating in an Era of Self-Validating Facts at DCC17

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The 2016 US presidential election was our latest reminder of this head-spinning zeitgeist: we live in a post-fact era. But did we ever really live in a fact era? Previously, catching someone in a lie could sully their name, derail a campaign, or decimate a brand—ask Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, and former governor and Appalachian Trail enthusiast Mark Sanford. Now, Mark Sanford is back as a senator and lies seem to matter less… both to brands and their audiences. Emotion replaces logic. So how do you develop rapport when your audience tests proof points against their own convictions? How can we seed popular opinion with accurate data? Learn how to bring wisdom to the masses with authoritative content and design cues that navigate the new challenges and empower audiences to embrace the courage of their convictions—heart over head—on your behalf: * Can you use content to validate fact if “truthiness” trumps truth? * What content types can help you harness opposing perspectives without ceding to false equivalency? * What affordances of design can help underscore trust and build rapport around your brand? Presented at Design & Content Conference, #DCC17, July 18, 2017 in Vancouver.

Empowerment in an era of self-validating facts at World IA Day Boston

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As we wrangle with the focus of World IA Day, "IA for good," we should start by asking: what does it mean to be good in the context of IA, user experience, content strategy, and design? In this post-fact era, does the truth matter--and does good matter? It does--not in how we shift our loyalties, but in how our users shift their instincts. Inconsistency affects us and destroys trust--in brands, governments, wisdom, and ourselves. The most good IA can do is to empower the impact of our users. Design is a force multiplier and we can fuel that good. Keynote at World IA Day Boston, #WIADBOS, #WIAD18, February 24, 2018, in Cambridge MA.

Content Strategy for Slow Experiences at Generate NYC 2018

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Online experiences can be fast, efficient, easy, orderly—and sometimes, that's all wrong! Users click to confirm too soon, confuse important details, or miss key features in product descriptions. Efficient isn't always effective. Not all experiences need to be fast to be functional. In fact, some of the most memorable and profitable engagements are slow and messy... and that’s just right. By designing for pace, we can intentionally help users focus on details and gain confidence in their choices. We can also encourage their sense of discovery and help them build stronger memories. Not all experiences need to be slower, but content strategy can help identify and support these outliers of user experience. Look to REI, Target, Fidelity, Patagonia, Disney, and others for lessons you can apply to aid learning, retention, and user satisfaction. Help your audience soak up the journey or just engage with more certainty, all by design. Presented by Margot Bloomstein at Generate 2018, #generateconf, on April 27, 2018, in New York City.

How to Embrace Pace with Content Strategy for Slow Experiences

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Fast and efficient may rule the web, but efficient experiences aren’t always effective, for many reasons. Instead, try slowing down your customers to improve learning and advance their journey. Fast-to-publish and quick-to-sell can lead to low lifetime value, shopping cart abandonment, returned merchandise—and understandably unhappy reviews. Attend this session, and learn how to craft appropriately-paced customer experiences that allow the time and space for discovery, customer confidence, and insights that last long after the conversion. The secrets live in how you craft copy and prioritize content types to move customers forward wisely, to enjoy the journey mile after mile. Presented at Content Marketing Conference 2018, #CMC18, in Boston, May 3, 2018

Publishing and Expanding Our Expectations

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Content strategy champions and makes possible the idea that “everyone is a publisher.” But with challenges to net neutrality and inconsistent network connectivity in the developing world, do we need to limit our definition of “everyone” to just the white and wealthy world and the more cutting edge businesses it spawns? Maybe that’s the case today, but today is the mirror of realism. The future is the undefined outcome of optimism—and we have many reasons to be optimistic. Looking at emerging examples from modern business culture, Silicon Valley investment strategies, and communication trends beyond the United States, Margot Bloomstein will map out challenges and opportunities for publishing in the coming decades. The author of Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project, Bloomstein will explore how content strategy will work in the future to aid the changing face of publishing. Who will practice it? Will power align with technology, quality, perspective, or a combination of all three? And how will we define “publishing,” anyhow? Presented November 5, 2014 as part of the UX Futures Summit.

Content strategy for deliberate discovery at CongresCM

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Online experiences can be fast, easy, and orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong for both users and brands. Not all websites need to be efficient to be effective. Some of the most memorable and profitable web experiences help users slow down, engage in discovery, and learn by doing. Brands like IKEA use “slow content strategy” to encourage discovery and create a new level of brand engagement. Other companies such as outdoor specialist Patagonia and investment bank Fidelity use content types and editorial styles to help customers focus. Content strategist and author Margot Bloomstein explains how such a slow content strategy can pack a target audience for the brand and thus propel customer engagement to new heights. Presented at Congres Content Marketing & Webredactie, #congresCM on November 20, 2014 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Designing trust in an era of self-validating facts at Fluxible 2018

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Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. If that’s the case, who can we trust — and how do we invest our trust? We used to seek experts as arbiters of reality, but then looked to “people like us” whether we were picking a restaurant, planning a vacation, or clicking on a trending news item. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike began to turn inward for the truth — and by designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there. In this exploration of some of today’s most engaging brands, content strategist Margot Bloomstein draws on two decades of personal experience building trust into companies, their websites, and their broader messaging. Author of Content Strategy at Work and the forthcoming Trustworthy, she explores why trust in the old guard has fallen apart — and then presents how today’s smartest companies and institutions rebuild trust by building and bolstering the knowledge of their customers. We’ll dig into examples from America’s Test Kitchen, Volkswagen, Crutchfield, GOV.UK, and other organizations of the public and private sector to ask: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? What happens when cultural predisposition affects public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy? You’ll see how design and content come together to empower users — and how the same tactics can work across industries, scale, and audience. You’ll uncover a play-by-play approach to educating and empowering consumers and citizens alike — and learn how thoughtful design and content can rebuild our sense of trust itself. Presented by Margot Bloomstein at Fluxible 2018, #fluxible2018, on September 23, 2018, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Canada.

Designing trust in an era of self-validating facts at Fluxible 2018

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Mass media and our most cynical memes say we live in a post-fact era. If that’s the case, who can we trust — and how do we invest our trust? We used to seek experts as arbiters of reality, but then looked to “people like us” whether we were picking a restaurant, planning a vacation, or clicking on a trending news item. But as our filter bubbles burst, consumers and citizens alike began to turn inward for the truth — and by designing for empowerment, the smartest organizations meet them there. In this exploration of some of today’s most engaging brands, content strategist Margot Bloomstein draws on two decades of personal experience building trust into companies, their websites, and their broader messaging. Author of Content Strategy at Work and the forthcoming Trustworthy, she explores why trust in the old guard has fallen apart — and then presents how today’s smartest companies and institutions rebuild trust by building and bolstering the knowledge of their customers. We’ll dig into examples from America’s Test Kitchen, Volkswagen, Crutchfield, GOV.UK, and other organizations of the public and private sector to ask: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? What happens when cultural predisposition affects public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy? You’ll see how design and content come together to empower users — and how the same tactics can work across industries, scale, and audience. You’ll uncover a play-by-play approach to educating and empowering consumers and citizens alike — and learn how thoughtful design and content can rebuild our sense of trust itself. Presented by Margot Bloomstein at Fluxible 2018, #fluxible2018, on September 23, 2018, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario Canada.

Content strategy for deliberate discovery at CongresCM

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Online experiences can be fast, easy, and orderly—and sometimes, that’s all wrong for both users and brands. Not all websites need to be efficient to be effective. Some of the most memorable and profitable web experiences help users slow down, engage in discovery, and learn by doing. Brands like IKEA use “slow content strategy” to encourage discovery and create a new level of brand engagement. Other companies such as outdoor specialist Patagonia and investment bank Fidelity use content types and editorial styles to help customers focus. Content strategist and author Margot Bloomstein explains how such a slow content strategy can pack a target audience for the brand and thus propel customer engagement to new heights. Presented at Congres Content Marketing & Webredactie, #congresCM on November 20, 2014 in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Designing for Trust in an Uncertain World at An Event Apart Seattle

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We must empower our audiences to earn their trust—not the other way around—and our tactical choices in content and design can fuel empowerment. Margot will walk you through examples from retail, publishing, government, and other industries to detail what you can do to meet unprecedented problems in information consumption. Learn how voice, volume, and vulnerability can inform your design and content strategy to earn the trust of your users. We'll ask the tough questions: How do brands develop rapport when audiences let emotion cloud logic? Can you design around cultural predisposition to improve public safety? And how do voice and vulnerability go beyond buzzwords and into broader corporate strategy? Learn how these questions can drive design choices in organizations of any size and industry—and discover how your choices can empower users and rebuild our very sense of trust itself. Presented by Margot Bloomstein, @mbloomstein, at An Event Apart Seattle, #aeasea on March 4, 2019.
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