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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
triciabath's review
5.0
Erin Kissane's "The Elements of Content Strategy" delivers a brilliant, clear and concise overview of the discipline of content strategy. A must-read for anyone interested in strategically managing content.
torehogas's review
2.0
Ironically, I found this primer on content strategy, The Elements of Content Strategy by Erin Kissane, lacking in both content and strategy. Moreover, what made it hard to get through even such a short book was the dry prose. Even for someone who is very interested in content – online and otherwise – this was just too boring, I am sorry to say. It is a short book, but it took me months to get through - I kept having other, more interesting fare on my Kindle!
Basically, most, if not all, of the definitions and processes described in the book are well known to me, but do not convince me that we need a separate field called “content strategy” and a separate job title called “content strategist”.
I have written a slightly longer version of this review on torehogas.net if anyone is interested in reading it and commenting.
Basically, most, if not all, of the definitions and processes described in the book are well known to me, but do not convince me that we need a separate field called “content strategy” and a separate job title called “content strategist”.
I have written a slightly longer version of this review on torehogas.net if anyone is interested in reading it and commenting.
bakoind's review
4.0
I'm a big fan of Erin Kissane ever since her landmark Zombie Content article on A List Apart. This book is approachable, but short examination about how to get started doing content strategy.
aqword's review
2.0
This book is painfully dry. Yet it's moderately well written for the abstract subject matter it covers. Its main benefit was thus showing me that I definitely do not want to work in content strategy full time.
There's something highly ironic about trying to write a book about clear, useful communication when your own communication is not particularly clear nor particularly useful.
Much of the writing's just not well thought out: "humans, being mammals, need [a list of things including] wheelchair ramps and other accessibility aids." Right...it's because we're mammals that we need those things. Clearly a chinchilla needs a wheelchair ramp, but a chameleon...surely not. On the next page after that quotation, I find "marketing is the practice of bringing products to market." Okay, also true, but somehow I don't think I needed this book to tell me that.
Some things this books says are:
* You can use time of access to infer what content is likely most appropriate to serve up to users.
* Each piece of content should have a specified purpose. It should show how a specific piece of information benefits specific users.
* Content (including content style) should be structured around user groups rather than around the organizational units that create it.
* Content strategy has its roots in the fields of editing, curating, marketing, and information science.
* A content strategist repeatedly evaluates content, (re)designs content-related things, and executes the plans from the designs.
* There are two separate strategies to deal with: creating content for the user, and creating deliverables about that content for the other people creating the website.
* A competitive review is a small content audit of competitors that can be useful to gain a sense of what works well and what should be avoided in your own content.
* It's important to make sweeping recommendations of changes before focusing on changing individual pages because otherwise you'll get bogged down in the details and miss how the site as a whole needs to change.
* A content strategist will often create page-level content guidelines as well as content templates to supplement wireframes.
* One of the great challenges of content development is to get the people who understand the content to write about it in such a way as to make it understandable by those who don't. Hired writers may be able to write more clearly, but will understand the content less; company-internal experts will understand the content more clearly, but may have difficulty explaining it to a lay audience. A good way to deal with this is to have experts review the content after it is written by others.
There's something highly ironic about trying to write a book about clear, useful communication when your own communication is not particularly clear nor particularly useful.
Much of the writing's just not well thought out: "humans, being mammals, need [a list of things including] wheelchair ramps and other accessibility aids." Right...it's because we're mammals that we need those things. Clearly a chinchilla needs a wheelchair ramp, but a chameleon...surely not. On the next page after that quotation, I find "marketing is the practice of bringing products to market." Okay, also true, but somehow I don't think I needed this book to tell me that.
Some things this books says are:
Spoiler
* You can use time of access to infer what content is likely most appropriate to serve up to users.
* Each piece of content should have a specified purpose. It should show how a specific piece of information benefits specific users.
* Content (including content style) should be structured around user groups rather than around the organizational units that create it.
* Content strategy has its roots in the fields of editing, curating, marketing, and information science.
* A content strategist repeatedly evaluates content, (re)designs content-related things, and executes the plans from the designs.
* There are two separate strategies to deal with: creating content for the user, and creating deliverables about that content for the other people creating the website.
* A competitive review is a small content audit of competitors that can be useful to gain a sense of what works well and what should be avoided in your own content.
* It's important to make sweeping recommendations of changes before focusing on changing individual pages because otherwise you'll get bogged down in the details and miss how the site as a whole needs to change.
* A content strategist will often create page-level content guidelines as well as content templates to supplement wireframes.
* One of the great challenges of content development is to get the people who understand the content to write about it in such a way as to make it understandable by those who don't. Hired writers may be able to write more clearly, but will understand the content less; company-internal experts will understand the content more clearly, but may have difficulty explaining it to a lay audience. A good way to deal with this is to have experts review the content after it is written by others.
arooshadehghan's review
2.0
بدیهی اندر بدیهی
وقتی نود صفحه رو میشه در یک روز خوند معلومه که بیشتر نکات کتاب خیلی پیش پا افتاده است.
وقتی نود صفحه رو میشه در یک روز خوند معلومه که بیشتر نکات کتاب خیلی پیش پا افتاده است.
marcaurele's review
3.0
Peut-être que le sujet est un peu trop "abstrait" mais je m'attendais à quelque chose de mieux pour un livre de la série A Book Apart. Un livre à lire avec des points & remarques à se rappeler pour toute personne bossant sur le web.
skyzyx's review
4.0
Excellent, excellent book for getting started with content strategy — an oft-overlooked aspect of user experience design.
erincampbell87's review
3.0
This overview of content strategy is a must for anyone about to tackle the job of writing for the web. I can see that, if web writing weren't your immediate objective, the writing might be a little dry. But it is an effective starting point for those who find themselves overwhelmed with organizing a large amount of content, especially for the first time or with a fast turnaround. This book, and Erin Kissane, introduced me to content strategy and allowed me to dig deeper into effective ways of learning about it and practicing it.
alegrya's review
3.0
A useful introductory book to somebody not at all familiar with content creation and management. For readers who are not of that type then this book may not be ideal. It is very high level and most tips are probably things you already knew. There are some good insights and it's a very short book which is not laborious to read.