No Reason to Run Away from Content Audits

Mention the word “audit,” and many of us immediately think of stress, scrutiny, and – ARGH!!!! TAXES! Run away! Run away!

Dog running away but there's no need to run away from content audits.

But a content audit is far from a cause for alarm. In fact, a well-managed content audit improves your content management processes and enhances your digital landscape. Especially if that landscape has gotten a bit… well, overgrown.

You know how it is. You intend your content to go up as part of a planned strategy and most of the time it does. But then sometimes content expands organically; you throw something up in response to a last-minute request from sales or an article gets published ASAP in in light of unexpected events.

Over time, this organic material clutters things up with bits that no one really owns or manages. The result is content management that is more challenging than it needs to be and possibly a dilution of your brand’s message and impact.

The solution to these woes is the content audit. It’s a valuable opportunity to take stock of your existing content, understand its strengths and weaknesses, and chart a clear path forward.

Let’s demystify the content audit and talk about how it can be a positive experience for you and a positive process for your organisation.

Looking at the positive experience of a content audit Continue reading “No Reason to Run Away from Content Audits”

Getting Back To Normal After Being Hacked

After a very disruptive hacking of our previous website, we’re working hard to get favourite posts we were able to recover restored and a new, improved site up and running.

What will it be about? Anything and everything that catches me eye – exactly as it was before. After all, I deal with content. Lots of content. Creating it, organising it, managing it, managing those who create it. It might be:

  • linked to Modern Parlance, my content consultancy (lessons learned, advice offered, etc.),
  • pieces I’ve done with my freelance writer hat on (Travel especially, & check out Fabulous Foodie for most of the food related content),
  • based on something I picked up indexing (yes, indexes in the back of books are made by people),
  • commentary on the world of social media or MarCom where I spend so much time,
  • the result of falling down the research rabbit-hole, which happens a lot.

I know it sounds a bit like a catch all but the truth is, I’ve got a lot to say on a lot of topics. It’s why I make such robust use of the categories function.

So, be a bit patient while we sort out how to get back the material we want back and make plans for the new material to come.

Being Aware of Awareness Days

I love a good awareness day. Not just because they are a fun way to flesh out a social media calendar – there’s one for nearly everything – but because I always pick up something I didn’t know every time I draft new awareness day content.

But I know they are not universally beloved. Some people dismiss them as a quick crutch if you’ve got nothing else to say. And I cannot deny that there is some truth in that. You can tell when they’ve been thrown in just because someone has run out of time, ideas, or interest.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. If you use them reasonably, awareness days are great for highlighting your brand and encouraging engagement. Just be sure that you:
Continue reading “Being Aware of Awareness Days”

Workplace Collaboration: A Challenge or Triumph?

With a few notable exceptions, more gets done when people work together. Except for the control freaks among us (and we all know at least one), we all know that collaboration can boost productivity. If we didn’t know it, consultants tell us all the time, using phrases like ‘teams in harmony,’ ‘working on internal synergies’, etc. All that jargon-y mumbo jumbo.

So, we know it. Consultants know it. Even the control freaks know it despite being possibly uncomfortable with it. So why is collaboration often such hard work, or so difficult to get right? Well, there are a few common obstacles you’ll find in all sorts of workplaces.

graphic of a team working in collaboration Continue reading “Workplace Collaboration: A Challenge or Triumph?”

Who Is Your Target Audience? Hint: It’s Not “Everyone.”

“Everyone” is never the answer to the question, “Who are your target audiences?”

It never ceases to amaze me when someone actually answers “Everyone” because it suggests to me that they’ve not thought things through.

Nothing has a target audience of everyone. I mean, if I am wrong, please let me know. But nothing comes to mind.

You don’t have to drill down too deep to start narrowing things down. Even if you do the barest minimum, you get at least three groups to focus your content a bit more. Continue reading “Who Is Your Target Audience? Hint: It’s Not “Everyone.””

How to Ensure Remote Working Works

The recent flurry of articles about growing calls for a return to the office got me thinking. I’m sure some companies genuinely can’t break that habit, but I get the sense that at least some of the hype around this idea is coming from commercial landlords with space going spare and failing investments.

Not sure why it has to be an all-or-nothing sort of thing. More people are going into the office than, say, this time last year but we’re still seeing a lot of flexible working as well as a lot of people committed to keeping that flexibility. That means remote working isn’t going away – and that means you need to make extra sure it is producing the results you want or those calls to come back to the office will gain traction. And we don’t want that, do we?

So, how to ensure remote working works for you? Here are six things to keep in mind: Continue reading “How to Ensure Remote Working Works”

What Is Happening With Hashtags?

In a SHOCKING bucking of expected trends, I am not posting about Threads (which I imagine will get enough bandwidth today without my adding to it).

So no. Today I am posting about hashtags. Because more and more, I am coming to the conclusion that they don’t matter… or at least they don’t matter as much as they are generally assumed to.

Perhaps it’s evolutionary. Perhaps they mattered more before but they’ve become just a way to ensure I can find my own things in the future. If, for example, I want to do a round-up of an event I was doing live socials for or a monthly wrap-up…

But between posts with 30-40 hashtags and hashtags so broad in scope there is no telling what following it will turn up, they are becoming less useful as a discovery tool.

I admit this is just a feeling with a bit of my own anecdotal data from looking at socials with and without hashtags.

Does anyone else feel this way or see signs of this being the case?

Have a Happy Tortellini Day

Now, normally I’d be here talking about content audits or social media or some such. But not today. Why? Because it’s Tortellini Day and because one of the topics I write about all the time is food.

Happy Tortellini Day! To celebrate, I present just one of the many possible origin stories for this pasta-rific treat.

Lucrezia Borgia – yes, THAT Lucrezia Borgia – was travelling and stopped for the night at an inn in the small town of Castelfranco Emilia. The innkeeper was so captivated by Lucrezia that he couldn’t resist the urge later that night to peek at her through the keyhole. There were only a few candles lighting in the room so all he could see was her navel, and that, only just.

Now this might not seem a lot to you but not a lot happens in Castelfranco Emilia and a new navel was no doubt a noteworthy event. Anyway, the sight of Lucrezia’s navel sent him into ecstasy and he rushed to the kitchen and created tortellini in its image.

Or, it might have been intended to mimic the shape of a turtle – intended to echo the architecture of the area where many 17th-century buildings allude to the turtle motif.

But you know, turtle are fine in their way but they are no Lucrezia Borgia. So, I know which story I’m sticking with.

Want to see more of my food content? Head on over to Fabulous Foodie.

Book Indexing: A Real Thing Done By a Real Person

A warning in advance – this is longer than my usual posts and the reason is, I get a LOT of questions about indexing. Hopefully this addresses most of them.

example of a book index

Any time I tell people I am an indexer, eyebrows are raised and/or knitted, questions are asked and heads are shaken. It is an unknown job to most people. To those who do know about it – such as the man I sat next to on my way to Rome a few year back – we can approach the status of myth (“I knew indexers were out there. I’ve just never seen one. I though you all were like unicorns.“)

Nope, we are real. We are not many in number but we are out there. And as a public service, I thought I’d answer some of the questions I frequently get about indexing. Continue reading “Book Indexing: A Real Thing Done By a Real Person”