Find meaning in your life and in your content

I think it’s safe to say we all strive to achieve, in some form or another. In some particular walk of life. In a way it’s that perennial search for meaning. We all have that search in us, to varying degrees, and throughout our lives. Only, the search evolves and adapts according to your environment, your generation, your moods, your habits.…

So it goes with content. Content is like life. It bends and flows, can get stuck, or worse, can become uncared for. But well catered for content attracts many, and can be an inspiration for others. Good content is remembered and passes the test of time over and over. The meaning of content…. this may well be why some content strategists stay up late at night.

Find meaning for businesses with content

How do you find that meaning in business content, day after day, where explanations and presentations lose the reader’s attention, perhaps leading to a sort of emptiness. Often, the content can be just plain boring. How can you create content that engages the user, a stranger in essence, to share, comment, and ultimately use for business purposes?

Are we glorifying content ? Maybe a little. Yet, as Sara Wachter-Boettcher says in her ebook Content Everywhere : « Content everywhere is all about learning how to prepare one set of content to go wherever it’s needed – now and in the future. » And just like with our lives, content will have different needs at different times.

As creators of experiences on the web, it’s our job to structure the content according to the meaning we want to achieve. How do we do this ? Content modeling. And this is just one of the many forces with Sara’s book. Here’s how she puts it:

It’s the process of first understanding the concept of a specific type of content—how your users perceive and understand the various pieces and parts it comprises—and then creating a structure that supports those components and relationships.

In other words, we must define « which core elements make our content types come to life. »

Content modeling

AirBusiness Academy recently had their website redone, and it was the moment to evolve their content. A major task started with structuring and prioritizing their content. We accompanied them and undertook the project from a content modeling approach, especially for their open courses. The open courses are not the priority for ABA, but they are more often than not the front door by which potential customers enter. ABA also offers customized courses which is their core activity, and so this is ABA’s value proposition: offering high-end and personalized aeronautic training across multiple domains.

To help structure each program, a content template helped prioritize the flow of information. As Sara mentions, our goal therefore was not only to have well organized content, but also to generate meaning for the user, and bring the open courses to life. This meant putting up top the objectives relative to the training program. Who should take this class and why? What are the benefits of this class? Then the in-depth program description to reinforce the goals outlined. In each case, SEO issues are also aligned, but first and foremost we want to make sense to the user.

What does a content model look like? Taking ABA’s example, here is the initial model of the structure for their open courses, with comments for each criteria.