Strategy amp Tactics Best Practices from a Portal Don Sena Managing Editor MSN October 2 2007 Portal Content Best Practices Agenda The complexities of a portal Content planning ID: 462582
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Content" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Content Strategy& Tactics:Best Practices from a Portal
Don Sena
Managing Editor,
MSN
October 2, 2007Slide2
Portal Content Best Practices: Agenda
• The complexities of a portal
• Content planning
• Breaking News on a portal
• Embrace Your Engineers
• Data-informed editing
• The thin green line
• Q & ASlide3
Portal Content Best Practices: Complexities of a Portal
Multiple content properties
• From Autos to Yellow pages. Lots of channels = ‘ownership’ & balance issues
Multiple Services
• From e-mail to messenger to calendar to chat, etc.
Myriad business models
• Ad impression-based; $ per click/UU; Ad rev share; etc.
Content partnerships: big and small
Bottom line pressure: broad & specific
• Revenue, marketing, advertorial, etc.
… All challenging the cohesiveness, relevance, usability, integrity of sitesSlide4
Portal Content Best Practices: Complexities of a Portal
Question
What other complexities, challenges,
obstacles are out there?Slide5
Portal Content Best Practices: Layers of planning
Proper HP content planning brings myriad benefits
• Increased quality and relevance to users = increased engagement
• Proper mix and distribution of content, partners, etc.
• Allows you to deal with the revenue pressures
• A solid plan allows better reaction to content we have to react to
Three levels of planning
• Monthly Forward Planning
• Weekly Planning: Builds upon Monthly Plan, keeps HP timely and relevant
… But, we must know when to blow up the plan …
• Breaking News: The “
can’t-miss-this-today
” story, i.e. breaking news, sports, health, stock market, event coverage, etc.Slide6
Portal Content Best Practices: Annual/Monthly Planning
Monthly planning …
• Should account for at least 33% of all HP leads
• Alleviates Topic Trainwreck
• Increases engagement, CSat
• Better sell-through of content
Could be very big: Election, Super Bowl, Oscars
Could be enterprise projects: Immigration or national security/civil liberties
Could be predictable: Tax season, Valentine’s Day,
Or …Slide7
Portal Content Best Practices: Annual/Monthly Planning
Monthly planning …
• Should account for at least 33% of all HP leads
• Alleviates Topic Trainwreck
• Increases engagement, CSat
• Better sell-through of content
Could be very big: Election, Super Bowl, Oscars
Could be enterprise projects: Immigration or national security/civil liberties
Could be predictable: Tax season, Valentine’s Day,
Or …
When do people buy Xmas trees?Slide8
Portal Content Best Practices: Weekly Planning, dayparts
To daypart or not to daypart …
• In 24/7 publishing environment: How, when and why do you rotate content?
• How do you parse your main inventory?
• How do you slot all inventories?
• How many templates do you have?Slide9
Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal
Creating culture and environment to handle news and ‘of the day’ programming
•
Hiring decisions are
vital
• With limited resources, establish roles and processes for covering breaking news before news hits
•
Form close collaboration & virtual teams with partners & cross groups (content providers, tech teams, etc.) – they all come
together
•
Build and test actual execution scenarios & templates (photo sizes, actual wording, etc.)
• A mantra: Accuracy, Speed and Quality
•
It is not just about
this
storySlide10
Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal
Virginia Tech: Early morning coverageSlide11
Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal
Blowout Templates used later in daySlide12
Portal Content Best Practices: News in the Portal
Blowout Templates used later in daySlide13
Portal Content Best Practices: News in the portalSlide14
Portal Content Best Practices: Embrace the Engineer
The marriage of technology and editorial programming is what separates Web from other media forms and needs to be embraced more
• Create an environment where engineers/tech teams are interacting with editors, sharing ideas, showing what is possible
• Build a test site – a sandbox – to take new ideas live
• Make yourself and your team responsible for breaking this wall down
Examples
•
Hiding Olympics results on
Yahoo!
•
March Madness and the “printable bracket”
• Innovation emerged during Hurricane Katrina and its
aftermath
•
MSN ExtraSlide15
Portal Content Best Practices: Working with Data
Question
How do you use data to inform editorial decision-making?Slide16
Portal Content Best Practices: Working with Data
Question
How do you use data to inform editorial decision-making?
Hourly data
Monthly data for seasonality, spotting trends
Inform headline writing
Day/hourly affinities
Focus groups/surveys/polls
Segmentation (demographic and behavioral)
Does any of this replace the “editorial gut?” Of course notSlide17
Portal Content Best Practices: The thin green line
Working with advertising, marketing and other monetization teams
User Interest
“Optimized”
User Interest
Business
User
Interest
RevenueSlide18
Portal Content Best Practices: High Rev/Low UI content
•
Two big types of revenue pressures: Hi Rev/Low UI or Advertorial
• Have a robust, accepted Editorial Policy & Guideline document
• Help establish carrots and sticks: Mendoza lines
• Attempt to establish UI levels for each channel/property per month (user interest spikes, ‘Super Bowl’ months, etc.). Then, have rev teams map the revenue
• This is not a ‘User Interest vs. Business interests’ discussion; it is a ‘short-term business vs. long-term business’ discussion …
… Protecting user interest/editorial
is
good business
Slide19
Portal Content Best Practices: Know your Competition
Questions
Name one thing your competition does better than you?
Name one thing you do better than your competition?
Is this important to know?Slide20
Portal Content Best Practices: Best of the Best Practices
1. Take RisksSlide21
Portal Content Best Practices: Best of the Best Practices
2. Remember the puppy on the paper
1. Take RisksSlide22
Portal Content Best Practices: Q&A
Q&A
and
Discussion