Developing a content publishing platform

If you’re not reading Voce Nation (and you really should be) I’ve started a series of posts there over the last couple weeks on the nuts and bolts of beginning a content publishing program. That’s something we do exceedingly well at Voce so I thought it would be appropriate. Right now the first three entries in the series are live and a bunch more are coming over the next several weeks.

Part 1: Form Follows Function: The initial step in the process is one that can be alternatively gut-wrenching, thrilling or a little of both. It starts with sitting down with a client and trying to find the answers to a number of questions: What goals are we trying to achieve? How are we going to measure them? Who will be contributing? What platforms will be used? What communications are already being developed that we can build off of? Those are just some of the potential questions to get asked.

Part 2: Choosing the Platform: In my first post I steadfastly avoided pigeonholing what was being discussed by avoiding identifying it as being a corporate blog program. While a blog might be the primary platform people think of when discussing publishing plans it’s far from the only option. Programs such as these can be run solely on social/status networks, within the comments on third-party blogs or elsewhere. They can also be solely internal-facing and happen on intranets, corporate wikis or even plain old fashion inter-office email.

Part 3: Developing Internal Policies: It might seem unnecessary to have these policies developed and in place since the issues they address may not exactly match what the program is meant to be about or deal with. Why would there need to be policies dealing with, for instance, employee misconduct if the program is about influencing industry peers and potential customers? For the simple reason that all social media programs are, by their very nature, wide open to the entire public and so tinges may need to be dealt with on those platforms regardless of their original focus. Even if those policies and agreed-upon procedures say “Maintain a staunch ‘no comment’” they need to be there so those involved in the program are not left swinging in the wind when something comes up.

Click through for the full posts and, as I mentioned, stay tuned for future installments.

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