Less than a week remains of Digital Content Strategies. In the second to last Module (Module 7 or M7) of the course, we discuss designing content strategies for the future, with a focus on SWOT analyses.

What did you read or watch that surprised, delighted or disappointed you? Why?

I enjoyed this week’s video lecture, which was a webinar about integrating technical documentation into your content strategy. It was informative seeing a real and established company explaining its content strategy process, from planning to governance. It is incredible how much forethought and collaboration are often required to employ and maintain a content strategy. Based on the company’s experience that was shared in the webinar, this process was crucial for helping their customers gain access to technical documentation when they needed it. I imagine this automated or saved the company a lot of time, which therefore saved money and increased the business value of their content.

M7 also spent a good amount of time on SWOT analyses and how important they are to business strategy (and content strategy). Analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist (both internally and externally where possible) is important for any business seeking to stay ahead of its competitors. I see this tool or exercise as a chance to reflect and maybe discover areas that need to be addressed immediately or first. For example, directing efforts to identified opportunities or to correct weaknesses may benefit a business more than spending energy on projects that ultimately don’t provide as much of a benefit.

Lastly, M7’s reading material provided a good overview of keeping content structured in preparation for a transition into a more defined content strategy. In other words, things that authoring teams can do to increase the usability of their content right away.

What was most meaningful for your own career or course goals? Why?

Since content strategies can also be influenced or created by thinking of SWOT factors, the information provided about SWOT analyses is really useful for our last major project of this course, the Content Strategy Roadmap (a report that is an extension of our group project’s content audit). I especially think looking at a combination of SWOT factors is important as well. For example, thinking about strengths and how they can achieve opportunities. Or on the other hand, thinking about strengths and how they might overcome threats. I am wanting to leverage this new knowledge to come up with ideas/strategies for our client as well as maybe address areas of concern (weaknesses and/or threats).