Unsuck-It.com: A Clear Content, Anti-Jargon Resource
I took a break from a new post to listen to Content Talks. Episode 9, with Mike Monteiro, to be precise.
The topic was the business of design. But along the way, they mentioned UnSuck-It.com.
I’d never heard of it before. (Which, given this blog, is outright bizarre!)
So of course I checked it out. The site is a database of witty common-sense alternatives for jargon terms. Rewritten – “unsucked” – so they make sense.
I am ecstatic to see this. Not only did we badly need this out there, but it means I don’t have to build it myself! (I did have a similar idea in my notes.)
Whoever wrote the ‘unsucked’ explanations deserves a medal. Lots of great sarcasm to quash any jargon-user’s (self-)righteous fury.
I’ll quote a few examples:
Gamification
-Unsucked: “A popular product strategy fantasy about turning every mundane task into Farmville.”
My Comment: While balancing work and play is healthy, the fact that ‘gamification’ exists worries me.
Red Flag
-Unsucked: “Concern.”
My Comment: If you’re in Texas, you can use this. (It’s in the state business code, I think.) Everywhere else? It’s just a concern.
Social Media Strategy
-Unsucked: “Typing into text areas.”
My Comment: Heehee! Hey, wait a second…
Solution
-Unsucked: “Software. Please, just call it software.”
My Comment: Yes! We even have extra add-ons to make it clearer! Software program, software application…a “solution” is what you reach after USING the software!
Take It to the Next Level
-Unsucked: “Improve it.”
My Comment: Hatred of this term has sustained me for years.
“Unsuck” Your Content Before Posting It
I happily recommend this site to everyone writing content. If you’re using a term that’s listed on UnSuck-It.com, reconsider.
Can you be clearer? Chances are you can. Then your content won’t suck.
Next time I’ll write on content development for startups. (Product’s not the only thing you’ll need to work out!) Watch for it soon.
While you wait, why not follow me on Twitter or add Blue Ferret’s Clear Content Writing to your RSS?
How to Create Your Own BOGs
(And Why Your Company Needs Them)
Creating business guidelines unique to YOU makes your company trustworthy.
What evokes more trust: Content full of generalities, or content that explains precisely how you (and only you) work?
Last month I wrote a post about the term “best practices.” How too many businesses use it instead of detailing how they do things, expecting their readers to “just get it.”
I argued for writing out specific guidelines. If not for your industry, then at least for your company. Last week I created a name for them: Business Operating Guidelines.
BOGs for short.
I promised a how-to on creating your own BOGs. A set of guidelines on…how to make guidelines.
Now, these guidelines I’m recommending are what spur the beginnings of trust among your customers. They must reflect what you actually do–not what you imagine you do.
Don’t just dash off one-liners for each guideline and call them done. Roll these around in your workplace. Ask employees what they would say. Get feedback from customers.
Make sense? Okay, let’s go for it.
CAVEAT: This is a prototype document. It will change as time and business moves along. Bookmark it and check back.
Guidelines for Writing Guidelines: How to Create BOGs
- List out the industries, locations and sizes of your clients. Include prospects too (add buyer personas if you have them). All BOGs must address these people.
- Detail your “typical project.” Go step-by-step, from first contact to final billing. Be as specific as you can without naming (client) names.
- Write out exactly what you do in the event of a problem. Do this for the 3 problems that first come to mind.
- Identify which communication channels you prioritize (email? Phone? IM?). Then identify which ones your customers prioritize. Do they match? If not, why not?
- Write out your initial BOG ideas. THEN discuss them with employees. Ask questions, and let the conversation bring up more questions.
- Write down the things your customers ask for. Address all of the problems.
- Frame your BOGs in terms of a conversation with your audience about these topics. Don’t preach or rattle on. What frustrates them? Is there something you do that’s different from other companies? (Do the customers like that?)
- Include examples. Examples of your documentation, your procedures…the conversations you have. Things like:
- Project Quote Documents
- Names & Contact information for specific tasks (customer service, issues, department heads)
- Your Interactions with Partners, or Vendors
- Examine competitors’ websites. Is there helpful content you could offer that they don’t? Write a BOG pointing this out.
- Post the BOGs prominently on your website. Include them in company documents. Make them easy to find.
P.S. – Always use Clear Content for BOGs. Simple, human language.
Now, what do we have after all of that? A bunch of specific, relevant content!
(This one activity could generate dozens of ideas for even more content, too.)
The BOG Advantage to Business: Differentiation
My bet is that BOGs will help you build authority in your industry.
You define how others see you with this content. Everyone else has to follow that.
“But we can’t define how our whole industry works! That’s rude!”
You don’t have to define BOGs for your industry. Just define your own guidelines. It can be a big differentiator for small businesses looking to garner a wider audience.
Specific Guidelines VS. “Best Practices”: Why BOGs Win Out
Posting guidelines on how you work helps you (the business owner/VP/manager) get information out of your head and in front of your audience. People who’d love to know how you work, before they do any business with you.
Instead of wondering what you mean by “best practices,” they have an idea of how you work right up front. Readers get the sense of, “Hey, these are human beings. We can build a good relationship.”
Let me give you a visual on BOG value.
Some of my clients are industrial manufacturers. They know their equipment and their parts inside & out.
But they almost never write out their procedures. It’s all ingrained; they don’t think to tell customers how their business works. They just expect us to trust them (in fairness, most of us do).
As a result, their sites are barren. BOGs give them a chance to beef up their site’s content. Explain what their customers get.
And the customers have that much more reason to trust them.
Want to write out your own BOGs? Tell me about it!
In a future post I’ll share a BOG set for my own business (content creation/editing). Watch for it!
In the meantime, what would you put into BOGs for a B2B Software Development Firm? Or an IT Security Vendor? (Or even a Web Writer?)
When Should Content “Come In” in the Development Process?
I was watching Karen McGrane’s video on “The 11th Hour Sh*tstorm Problem” earlier today. (It’s a really good video. If you have anything to do with user experience or web development, go watch it. I’ll wait right here.)
Welcome back. So, while watching that, I had a few ideas.
The problem she’s discussing is VERY real. I’ve seen it too many times. But let’s look at it from my end – that of the content writer/producer.
Sometimes development teams focus on their work and think of content as “something that goes in later.” Resulting in content producers (like myself) have awkward last-minute conversations with them. Like this:
“Thank you for finally speaking to me about content. I’ve been trying to coordinate with you and the client for weeks now. What? You built the site already? Here you go then–half-baked content. Have fun figuring out how to fit it in!”
So I thought I’d blog about a question. A question that should help crystallize the “11th Hour” problem – and maybe help a few of us avoid it in future projects.
When should content “come in” in the development process?
Right now content is the red-headed stepchild in most dev processes. It’s the “black box” as Karen put it, that designers & developers block out in their minds. And to be fair, it’s not their primary job, so it makes sense.
Trouble is when they do this, one of two things happen:
The content producers are shoved to the side of the project cycle.
OR
The content itself is ignored.
Both result in – you guessed it. The 11th Hour Sh*tstorm. (Karen, that is a great metaphor. I may borrow it for future meetings.)
So how do we fix this? Well, first by answering the above question of when to bring in the content. I find that…
The best position for content “coming in” is right before the client sees the new site for the first time.
Why then? Because this position forces several changes in the overall development process. All of which help keep everyone content-aware.
Oh, and it helps create better content too.
- It reminds development that the site is not a “bucket” for content – it’s a podium for it.
- It compels use of a content strategy. If the dev team knows content is coming up, and there’s a content strategy involved in the project, then that strategy must work with the overall Web strategy. And vice-versa.
(This also gives a paper trail for everyone to refer to/save themselves with later.) - It compels early buy-in from the client. It’s easy to put content off in favor of development. But if a content writer is right there at initial planning, he’s much harder to ignore…
- It helps you organize the site around user needs. Karen made a big point of this in her presentation, and I agree 100%. The site isn’t there to astonish the client. It’s there to help their customers solve problems. Showing them content DURING development gives more time to sharpen the message.
Content Must Be a Constant Presence
When the client first sees the site, it should have content IN IT. Lorem ipsum filler is now a sign of poor development. (I have decreed it so.)
If content is to be delivered at first-version, then content R&D has to start at the same time as site development. Usability testing, audience research/interviews, UX, outlining…all done while the site goes from wireframe to HTML.
This way content providers stay in the loop. And the client receives reminders about content’s importance. Maybe this will help dev teams avoid last-minute scrambling.
Hey, we content producers don’t like it either. We’re all problem-solvers in one sense or another. So let’s fix this!
Thoughts? Anything to add? Think I’m radically oversimplifying things? Comment away.
How (and Where) Will Skimping on Content Cost You?
You may have sacrificed your website’s greatest strength.
I know, I know. You needed to save money. The go-live deadline was breathing down your neck like a rhino with halitosis. Clients are complaining. Just get the site up, we need X Y and Z!
So you went ahead and did it.
You skimped on the content.
(*minor-key piano!*)
Why Did You Do That?!
Maybe you succumbed to the “talk about ourselves” temptation.
Or tasked the writer to come up with a whole website’s content with barebones source material, and wound up with sparse content.
Or maybe you just put content development off until the last minute and wound up missing a piece of the website’s puzzle 3 days before launch.
Whatever the reason, the end result is the same. The website LOOKS great – nice clean layout, colorful, easy to navigate. Except the pages read like an stockbroker’s ledger from 1914.
The (Scary) Reasons Content Gets Low Rung on the Totem Pole
Time – Researching, writing and testing good site content takes time. More time than most people have, given their other tasks each day. More time than they’re willing to give to it too.
Money – The biggest reason. “We can’t afford spending that much on content.” This sort of thinking comes from undervaluing content in the first place. And from…
Under/Overestimating Your Audience – If you assume your audience either doesn’t need to know anything specific about you (overestimated), or they know absolutely nothing about your industry & you must teach them (underestimated), you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Boo!
The Inevitable Cost of Skimping on Content
One way or another, bad content (or worse, mediocre content that acts like it’s helping) bites you back. This can come in a variety of ways.
- Loss of business
- The site isn’t able to compete with bigger/more popular competitors
- Your site launch stumbles – not much search engine traffic, poor rankings
- Difficulty promoting the site in social media
The worst part of it is, sometimes you can’t feel the bite until much later. When you’re already in panic mode.
Solution? Simple.
When doing any site updates, put content FIRST.
Poll your audience, and respond to their needs. Make and stick to a strategy for updates. Test content if you’re uncertain how effective it’ll be.
Yes, this all takes time and money. It also forces you to prioritize content. Guess what? The Web no longer cares. Skimping will cost you.
(P.S. – I’m aware this sounds like me trying to justify my work. It’s not that; I’m actually pretty busy right now. I’m blogging because I know I’m not alone in this. And my colleagues and I see lots of opportunity just slip past our clients.)
Are you guilty of skimping? Confess below! Were you good and put content first? If you comment you get a Web-cookie.
