Content and Clout: A Chat with Colleen Jones

KM: Great quotation! And to that point, I think it’s particularly interesting that Clout leans heavily on the psychology of language, vocabulary, and meaning as a way to illustrate how important Web content is to online success. Just as behavioral psychology relates to UX design, Clout relates to content strategy. Do you think this will be a hard transition for content strategists and writers to grasp?

CJ: The transition might be hard for any strategist or writer who hasn’t had some exposure to rhetoric. The older I get, the more I think our language studies should focus at least as much on rhetoric as they do on literature. Rhetoric is so practical! I found it exciting, for example, when my alma mater, James Madison University, recently changed the name of their Technical Communication program to include rhetoric. It’s now called Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication.

However, I think most content strategists and writers can overcome this challenge in time. They already draw on some aspects of rhetoric—such as being sensitive to context—without realizing it.

KM: We often talk about content gaps. While it’s important to know what gaps exist in our content, it’s equally important to find ways to bridge the gaps and look for suitable anchor points upon which to start building these bridges. How can we do this?

CJ: Yeah, I like the idea of building bridges. I think Kristina Halvorson’s book, Content Strategy for the Web, provides some great starting points. It offers a nice table summarizing what different departments or functions—such as Marketing—tend to emphasize or omit in content. In Clout, I take that a bit further. As a simple example, marketing and media tend to focus on influencing attitude, while usability and technical communication focus on supporting action. There’s a time and a place for content that influences attitude—and for content that guides action. More and more, a complete user experience must plan content that influences both attitude and action. That’s easier said than done, and I share how to do just that in my book.

KM: Right now, I think social media exemplifies one of those content gaps. So many people don’t recognize how important content is to social media. Your book is quite clever, in that it discusses the importance of content to all Web channels. How important is it for people to plan their content strategy around social media?

CJ: Social media is now a reality that affects how people use Web sites and, consequently, your content strategy. One example I discuss in the book is about how social channels are becoming a major gateway into Web sites. When someone shares content from your site on a social network, there’s a good chance other people will discover your site that way. So, you need to think about people finding your site not only through search engines, but also through social channels.

KM: “Content is king” was the refrain in 2000. Ten years later, it’s “Content is king. Context is the kingdom.” How does Clout set us up for the coming decade?

CJ: As people use Web sites more and more, business is becoming more and more digital. Forrester Research recently reported that Americans spend as much time online as they do watching TV. So, the entire customer or user experience—from raising awareness, to buying a product / taking action, to getting customer support—is going digital. In the past, that wasn’t the case. A Web site used to focus on one main phase of the customer experience. It focused on either attitude—as on a marketing brochureware site or a media-content site or a social forum—or on action, as for an ecommerce catalog and shopping cart application. Even the elements of user experience divide Web sites into content sites and applications.

That narrow focus made sense in the past. People were not using Web sites as much as they do today. But, now, that narrow focus is changing and will continue to change. Web sites are no longer simply marketing brochures or product catalogs or shopping carts. Our Web sites are becoming all of these things at once. They’re evolving into complex mashups. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.

That means our approach to content needs to evolve. Clout helps by offering principles that guide content decisions and a practical approach to planning. The book also explains how to overcome some common roadblocks.

KM: I often explain Web content to clients in this way: “Information promotes. Stories emote. Information compiles. Stories compel.” I love that you talk about the cultural considerations of vocabulary and implied meaning when evoking emotion on the part of the reader. How can we harness this in our Web writing—and through Web content in general—to create meaningful interactions?

CJ: Yes, culture and values are closely tied to emotion. If you want people to really care about what you’re saying, you have to evoke emotion in them and, consequently, delve into culture and values. Trying to evoke emotion is also a bit like playing with fire. If you get it right, it’s awesome. If not, you’re going to have big problems. So, you have to be careful.

Of course, culture and values vary in different countries—and even within different populations within the same country. So, if you’re an international organization or company, you have to think about when to simply translate content into a different language and when to invest in localizing it. By localize, I mean re-imagining the content for a particular country or culture. The VERB public health campaign to encourage tweens to exercise is a great example. The campaign offered very different materials for English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and Vietnamese-speaking Americans. Even at a glance, you can see they’re not strict translations. (See this for yourself on the CDC Web site.)

KM: Thank you, Colleen! Clout has been a welcome addition to my bookshelf, and I know it will be for many content creators. I think it’s time for many of us to focus not simply on clear and concise language, but on creating engaging content that has clout—to embrace it, not shy away from it. Thanks for reminding us of that today!

If you’d like to learn more about Colleen’s book Clout, visit the book’s page on the Content Science site. 

From the Editor—If you’d like to buy Colleen Jones’s book Clout: the Art and Science of Influential Web Content at a 35% discount and get free shipping in the USA, go to the Peachpit Web site to purchase it. Provide the coupon code CLOUT on the checkout page. This offer is good until December 31, 2011.