3 Ring Circus Balancing act for web content

Writers block is an understatement when people are asked to write something for the web site, it is more like run the other way fear.  But I think a lot of this may rise from a feeling that when you right something for the web it has to be perfect and appeal to everyone, but in my opinion that is backwards of reality of the new web.

 

I picture writing for the web like a delicate balancing act in 3 rings:

Engagement balance between those that already know you and those who stumble upon you.

Audience balance between getting huge volume of traffic and reaching those who care.

Message balance between saying what you want people to hear and what your audience actually wants to hear.

I state those like they are a simple fact and it is easy to accomplish, yeah well good luck with that.

Engagement – We are addressing this issue by deliberately providing two ways to use our site browsing and utilizing it.  For those who don’t know who we are we will provide numerous ways and varying types of content (text, video, stories, interaction, etc) with the key focus of gradual engagement and small steps to get involved.  For those who are already engaged we will provide them the fastest possible way to get to the things that are the most important to them.

Audience – We are doing a complete overhaul of our architecture to improve our SEO (search engine optimization).  We are also revamping how all content gets created and written for the web to make it more search friendly.

Message - Many people try to manipulate their web site based on the message they want to send without taking time to consider what the audience wants to hear or how they want to get that message.  It is a tricky balance to keep the content focused on your message while still meeting your audience needs.

This isnt an all encompassing concept and has a bunch of holes probably, but hopefully brings up some thoughts for you.

After this post, my blog is going to switch focus for March-April off of the web and onto IT Alignment, which is a good friend of mine from the recent past. I am doing this in honor of the book that I wrote chapter 1 for NTEN called Managing Technology to Meet your Mission.  You can learn more on the wiki at www.meetyourmission.org.