ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Content ideas #1 Personality tests

OK, so I thought I would start this series with something a bit left field. This is an example that I was responsible for so you can blame me . . .

A few years back I was working at Personnel Today, a website for HR professionals. We ran a story that the UK intelligence service MI5 was advertising for new agents. This seemed like a great opportunity to do something fun.

We managed to get in touch with a company that builds bespoke personality tests - Testsonthenet and with their help created a test, based on the job specs/traits listed in the job ads, to find out if our readers had what it took to become a secret agent.

It's a simple idea that worked well (it was a few years back so am going in search of the stats). It was fun, easy to do, interactive and was based on the give and get model of engagement ie the user gives some information, in this case answers a test, and they get a short report. We also incentivised it with a prize.

I have always wondered why jobs boards do not use this type of tool in their content marketing armoury - scrape the job ads (and do it over time to build a more comprehensive picture) and provide short tests to engage jobseekers eg Have you got what it takes to be a xxxxx?

[Picture credit: Mark Hillary]

 

Thinking about a series on content ideas

Over the last 18 months I got an interesting view on how editorial and marketing teams develop content.

An editorial team's USP is to create compelling content that engages with readers and users (and having been a journalist for a number of years this is where my skills lie). Journalists and editorial teams therefore have expert skills at how to deliver content in the right format at the right time. Changing technology and new tools have seen the pace of developing new formats quicken dramatically in the last couple of years - take data mining and data visualisation, for example, or real time news via Twitter.

A marketing team's USP is to sell the product (that's a broad definition, I know, but that is ultimately what it is all about) and that requires a range of skills from copywriting for web sites to email campaigns and adverts. Content for the marketer was always focussed on selling product.

Historically, editorial and marketing teams never made good bedfellows. They should have done but the idea of using editorial content to sell anything seemed too much for journalists and marketers would probably have found the copy too direct.

Now these two disciplines are starting to talk the same talk as technology and user behaviour has changed - marketers want to create content that is useful for users and that helps build engagement. Sounds like the same kind of aims as a journalist to me.

Marketing and editorial teams have a lot to learn from each other, which is why publishers are in a great place - both disciplines exist within their businesses. Are they making the most of this? Of course not, well not where legacy ways of working exist.

For those outside the publishing world, there is now a need to create useful content to attract and engage users - otherwise known as content marketing. We are all publishers now etc etc.

It is this emerging discipline of content marketing that fascinates me. Marketers have written some great posts on what makes useful, engaging content. However, I feel that it's time to get in on the discussion because I have spent years creating or enjoying others create really effective, interesting formats for content. This is not going to be a top 100 as I m not sure there are 100 - it will be a look at they types of content that work well at engaging people.

Final thought - I am wondering whether apps will sound the death knell to many of the most engaging non-mobile web content formats. Maybe in time, but I think there is still plenty of milage to be had in more standard (desktop) type content formats.        

AOL's content strategy revealed

Anyone who works with content on the web (particularly publishers) should take a look at AOL's content strategy.

This is a big document that needs a lot of digesting. However, it provides a great insight in how major publishers on the web are approaching content. Check out the associated article for highlights of the document.

Core to AOL's considerations for content are:

• Traffic
• Revenue
• Quality 
• Speed

Interesting to also see the emphasis on design . . .

• Every page of every site should look amazing
• Pixel perfection is the goal - always we be asking, "How can we make this better?"
• Constantly test new arrangements of page elements

As I said, there is lots more - the tools they use to measure content demand, profitability of content and other tools to help producers identify the right topics and to know when to keep pushing them (if demand is good).

Final point, there seems to be no mention of mobile in there.

[H/T Lakey for the link]

Can your CV ever do you justice?

I am beginning to wonder whether my CV will ever do me justice. I am currently pulling together all the info I need for my CV and much as I have enjoyed reflecting on achievements and what I like doing I can't help thinking two A4 sides of text is not the right format to sell myself. 

Reason I think this is that over the last few days I have had some really interesting conversations with people about some areas I would like to work in.

And when I talk about these things I feel very passionate about what I can offer and excited about the possibilities of new roles. And then I think about how I can capture that passion and enthusiasm in my CV. At that point the needle comes off the record.

Why? Because I know that my CV cannot reflect that passion and enthusiasm. It is also very hard for a text document to provide any sense of what you might actually be like - how many people write the line  . . . 'I am passionate about . . .'? (there is a reason why they don't - it would get ignored)   Let's face it, the CV is not the document for showing you as a three dimensional person.

It amazes me that a format which is so restrictive remains the currency of job search. That said, I am taking a new competency-based approach to my CV, which seems far more powerful than the chronological style I had previously been using (for years).

For the reasons I above, I know I have to have more than one approach to my job search. So, I will also be (and have been) . . .

Networking - because you get a chance to get excited about new roles and to show who you really are. Conversations are more rewarding than passing around a CV - well that seems to be the case for me so far

Creating alternative CV formats - I think I will try other types of content to convey more about me. I can see why people would create a video CV - it gives a more of a sense of who you are (have thought about this and I will probably not be sat in front of a camera trying to be funny!). Audio could also be interesting. 

I don't feel glass half full on this - it just strikes me that CVs, by their very format and design, are self-limiting. 

If I were to create a web page selling me and my services (which is part of the plan) - I would be able to create a far richer content experience (unlike Linkedin which puts the paper CV format at the heart of its design), identifying aims of the page, content hierarchy and how the design of the page can help sell it, etc.  Think I have just set myself a challenge . . .

See also . . .

• Other posts in my job search series 

Video: less is more for the user

ConnectingHR tweet-up January 2011: video and pictures

Last night's ConnectingHR tweet-up was great fun and it certainly looked like those who were there were having a good time - see the Twitter stream to feel the love.

Well done to Gareth and Jon for organising a great event and keeping the free drinks flowing for as long as they did.

I took a few photos and a video. Enjoy . . .