ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

5 differences between web and print

Been meaning to list these for an age. Thanks to @karlschneider for these.

The web is:

1. Interactive
2. Real time
3. Multi-media
4. Global
5. Measurable

Delegate ideas into action in a training context

Just finished a training session on effective online content and it occurred to me that the great ideas the delegates were coming up with for their own sites may not actually turn into action. Hopefully they will but the onus will be on them to make it happen.

Better to make it explicit that the delegates commit to putting their ideas into action and then reviewing their efforts at a later date.

Five-a-day management fundamentals

Thanks to @oldshep for this useful list provided by ACAS and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Video: Google Wave developer preview

Working from home

A great post from Dan Blank on the benefits of working from home.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

A new department is born . . . this is where it came from.

And here is the BIS press announcement.

What happened to succession planning?

OK you might call it talent management but whatever you call it this piece on finding decent candidates for top boardroom jobs made me wonder where all our next generation business leaders are hiding. Certainly not within organisations themselves it would seem.

Puts a cloud over talent management efforts or maybe it shows how conservative businesses really are.

One benefit of being ill . . .

Is that I am reading. Yesterday I read About a Boy by Nick Hornby. This was a page turner for me. Some very funny lines that made me hurt from laughing - I have a sore chest from an infection!

Funny, touching and altogether uplifting - good for me cos I'm feeling rubbish.

How good are journalists at marketing their content?

Adam's post sparked me to write this - I agree journalists cannot expect people to look at their content just because of who they are. I particularly liked this line on treating content a page at a time.

Each piece of content on the web lives on its own, freed from the constraints of the "package". And that can be frightening and liberating. And we need to figure out ways of building audiences one page at a time.

I recently spent some time with a colleague who works in one of RBI's lead generation businesses. I asked him what makes good content for lead generation ie content that people would find useful and click on which would then (hopefully) convert to a lead for a supplier. This is what he said . . .

You need to think about who you are writing for and why they might be reading what you're writing. With the transition to online, people aren't just looking for news anymore, and if they are, they aren't the type of person we are looking to attract with our content. We want one of two types of people:

Those who are researching information on a subject because they have an interest in learning more and becoming better at their job.

Those who are researching information on a subject because they have either been told to, or because they are planning a project.

The content has to be real-world useful and by that I mean, ask yourself the question "If I read/watch this will I learn something that is useful to me? Will it help me in my job?" If the answer is 'yes', then there's a good chance others will want to read it too - so go ahead and create it.

It sruck me that this approach by marketeers, copywriters, creatives - or whatever you want to call them - is exactly the approach all us who produce content should be adopting - and a page at a time.

This is an exciting time and area (but I would say that as I move into a new user experience role) - we need to challenge non-news content - what it is for and why. And we need to wake-up to the fact there are some very sharp 'creatives' who are very good at producing relevant and useful information (which is also helping to drive revenue).

Foreword to the People 1st State of the Nation survey

I was asked to write a foreword to the People 1st State of the Nation survey on jobs and skills in the travel and hospitality sectors. Here it is:

Over the last two years the travel industry has been through enormous change – and it isn’t stopping. Consolidation of the big four – MyTravel, Thomas Cook, First Choice and Thomson - into Thomas Cook and TUI Travel created a knock-on wave of consolidation throughout the sector.

And over the last 12 months the economic downturn has started to bite, with the collapse of the XL Leisure Group being the largest and most dramatic failure to date. Airlines have fallen by the way side, travel agencies and tour operators have gone out of business.

Now our worst fears have come true. We have a recession and the pressure on travel and tourism industry continues. However, all is not doom and gloom. Out of adversity comes innovation, focus and purpose.

Employers are starting to be creative with how they invest in their workforce. This report highlights, for example, that apprenticeships are becoming an increasingly popular way of attracting newcomers.