I have experience on both a personal and business level with content, and both are drastically different.
Personally, I created a podcast with a few friends situated around the world, where we discussed new episodes of TV shows that we loved or watched long-time ended cult classic series (hello Battlestar Galactica, my old friend). The shows that we chatted about had a solid fan following on Tumblr and Twitter, which we were a part of long before starting the podcast. Out of the four of us, two focused on creating GIFs, GIF sets, or short videos to promote new episodes for Twitter and Tumblr specifications. One of us focused on recording, editing, and uploading the podcast itself (me), and the last focused on social media engagement with listeners. However, we all dabbled in these roles- they weren’t set in stone.
On a business level, and what I’ll be discussing in this post, I create educational content for new initiatives rolling out in the finance division. When I started out, there were barely any materials to inform and educate the college community on anything finance-related currently in place, never mind anything new we were working on. It was a double-edged sword because while it’s great to start fresh with low expectations, there was also nothing for me to base anything on.
All of my content is digital, but some can be printed to be physical. I’ve made manuals, one-sheet guides, walkthroughs, presentations, animated whiteboard videos, and more. I feel it’s important to have a variety of engaging materials for each subject because people learn in different ways. Some are visual and prefer flowcharts or tables, while others prefer to read written instructions. Acclimating content to the majority is crucial.
Given that there was not much content to begin with, I essentially scrapped everything. Most of it was outdated or contained information that is no longer used. Very little of it could be redesigned as a foundation for new content, but I tried to salvage what I could. I also used the opportunity to look at best practices, and what other institutions are utilizing for content sharing.
Budget letters from 6 years ago? No thank you.
Considering that a lot of the information is interdepartmental, I made the decision to keep much of that documentation on one page for several reasons. First, I wanted a single depository where people can reliably go for the most accurate forms, tools, and resources. This also prevents the content manager from visiting multiple places to re-upload documentation.
Internally, I make sure to accurately name every file and store it similarly to the hierarchy of web pages. Any older versions are either deleted or moved to an “Archive” folder so there are no mix-ups, and things can be found quickly in a hurry.
As of right now, any content is worth keeping because there was barely anything out there. However, because much of the documentation is for new procedures and processes, tweaks are made nearly every other day at the beginning of the launch. This requires many reuploads and version-keeping. It’s also why I prefer to direct everyone to one place, and not even necessarily give them the actual URL of a document, but rather the page to find it on. URLs can easily change, so it’s better to point someone to where they can find something instead of them bookmarking a document URL.
I will say, one thing that is challenging is making sure I do each step in the update process. Sometimes I forget to change the revision date at the bottom of a document, or I upload the new version but forget to insert it into the website. I have to come up with a way to track myself, whether through an excel sheet or a physical pen and paper. What’s the point of content if no one can see it?
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