为什么网站内容管理如此重要？

　　内容管理在大多数组织的商业决策中，在用户体验的提升中，一直是不太被理解，经常被忽视的领域，在具体执行中也有很多不一致的地方。要克服内容传递的“不一致”，给受众一个统一的口吻，面临诸多挑战。这里我想简要讨论一下内容管理领域面临的主要问题。

　　什么是内容管理?

内容管理其实是一系列的流程和技术，它支持任何形式的信息收集、管理和出版。内容管理与项目的各个方面如界面、交互、技术相互交织，产出的内容必须确保符合语境，符合受众预期。项目上线后，内容管理还要定时进行内容维护，确保内容精准。

很多人都理所当然的认为一个内容管理员(Content Mangers)的工作就是简单的检查下拼写、语法错误。但是这是一个很大的误解。这样一个短浅的想法导致了内容管理领域作为一个整体存在普遍问题，包括：

项目做计划的时候不考虑内容

内容管理员自己对自己应该扮演的角色缺乏了解

项目进行的时候并不把内容管理员纳入项目参与者

认为内容管理这种工作只需要一两个人就够了，不管公司规模有多大

固守陈规的认为所有的内容管理员都应该来自新闻写作或者创新写作领域

事实上，要想与受众进行有效的、一致的、成功的交流，一个内容管理团队需要拥有各种专业技能人才，包括：

内容策略人员

文案写作人员

技术管理人员

这些人才也应该在很多领域有相关的专业经验，这些经验可能与现在的职位并不直接相关，比如：

项目管理

市场营销

设计 (Photoshop, 交互，排版)

开发 (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

商业分析

SEO引流

　　为什么一个经验丰富的内容管理团队那么重要?

一个成熟的内容管理部门应该游走与各个部门，参与项目的各个方面，不管这个项目是大是小。内容并不存在于真空中-它与一个系统的各个方面紧密结合。在项目的任何一个步骤中 – 从一开始的概念设计、框架结构，到HTML编辑，再到项目发布以及项目后期维护，内容都是重要的组成部门，所以一条内容信息在上线之前可能会经很多人的手。

这就是为什么内容管理员需要有相关的工作经验，以确保在项目开发的任何一个步骤中，他们都能机动灵活的确保内容产出的质量。

我们举一个例子：

有一个小项目，需要一个行动点。所以内容管理员Dave提供了下面一个的文案：

Click the ‘Learn More’ link below to find out more about us!

Dave在整个项目中就参与了这一个小点。但是当项目上线后，Dave看到了下面的：

　　Click the ‘Learn More’ link below to find out more about us!

　　Dave在这个项目开发的周期中，并没有追踪自己的文案被放在哪里了，所以造成了这些问题：

他写的行动点描述的是一个链接，但是设计师认为做成按钮更加好看。所以现在他写的这个行动点在这个语境下是错误的了。

他写了“Learn more”，但是并没有放上超链接，所以开发工程师自己写了“Learn more info about us”。现在这两句话对行动点的描述不一致了。

开发工程师写的文案“Learn more info about us”太长了，并且都是小写。作为行动点，这样的写法太不显眼，并且难以阅读。

从这个小例子中我们可以看出，对文案的不重视，对文案从各个部门中怎样流转不关注，会给用户带来很多困惑，严重影响用户体验。

在阿里巴巴国际站UED，我们的内容管理团队的策略是从不同的领域中雇佣经验丰富的专家。由于我们是国际性的网站(内部交流的语言并不是我们的设计输出语言)，我们面临诸多语言挑战，这就更需要我们在管理内容上使用强大、有序的方法。

工具和人才对我们团队的成功非常重要。但是更重要的是我们有一套有效、可靠、可衡量的流程来帮助我们创作、监督和部署文案。

如果一个公司要与用户进行一致、成功的交流(从而展现自己强大、统一的品牌形象)，那么内容管理与各个部门之间的界限-不是内容管理的方法-必须要模糊。

Content Manager

阿里巴巴国际站UED

　　英文原文：

　　The Importance of Content Management

　　Content management is a poorly understood, frequently underappreciated and inconsistently implemented aspect of most organization’s business strategy. There are many challenges in overcoming this ‘fuzzy’ approach to present – what should be – a unified corporate voice to the audience. The main issues are outlined below.

What is content management?

Content management is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. [1] It involves the deployment and maintenance of contextually relevant and efficiently targeted content across all areas of a project.

Most people assume a content manager’s job is to simply check text for spelling and grammar errors, but this is an important misunderstanding. This narrow view leads to institutionalized issues for content managers as a whole, namely:

A lack of consideration of content during project planning

A lack of understanding from content managers themselves as to their own role

A lack of inclusion of content managers during the project build phase

The perception of content management as a job for only one or two people, regardless of the size of a company

The stereotype that all content managers should come from journalistic or creative writing backgrounds

In reality, the ability to communicate efficiently, coherently and successfully to any audience requires a team of specialists, including:

Content Strategists

Copywriters

Technical Managers

These specialists should have solid professional experience in wider areas not directly related to their current positions, such as:

Project Management

Marketing

Design (Photoshop, Interaction, Typography)

Development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

Business Analytics

SEO

Why is an experienced team so important?

A mature content management department should be deeply interwoven into every aspect of a project, large or small. Content does not exist in a vacuum – it is integrated with all of the features of the system that the user interacts with. As a result, content passes through many hands during the build phase – from concept and wireframing, through design and HTML production to project launch and post-launch updates.

It is for this very reason that content managers need relevant experience to shepherd their output through each stage with great vigilance. This is illustrated in the following example:

A call to action was required from a content manager for a small project. The content manager – let’s call him ‘Dave’ – provided the following copy:

Click the ‘Learn More’ link below to find out more about us!

This was Dave’s only involvement in the project. When the project finally went live, Dave saw the following:

　　Click the ‘Learn More’ link below to find out more about us!

　　As Dave didn’t follow his copy throughout the project life-cycle, the following problems occurred:

His call to action describes clicking a link, but the designers thought a button would be more stylish. His reference to the call to action is now wrong.

His text says Learn More, but he didn’t provide the words for the actual hyperlink in his copy. The developer chose to write Learn more info about us herself. Now, the copy and call to action do not match.

The Developer’s Learn more info about us copy is too long, and in standard case. As a call to action, it is not prominent and difficult to read.

So with this quick example, we can see that a lack of attention and consideration of how copy is handled as it passes from one department to another can quickly lead to a confusing user experience at project launch.

In B2B ICBU UED Content Management, our strategy is to hire seasoned experts from a variety of disciplines. The challenges for working in an international organization (one where the primary output language is not the primary language of internal communication) places a much greater need for a robust, well-organized approach to managing content.

Tools and talent are very important to the success of our department. But more important still is a well-worked out, reliable and scalable process for creating, monitoring and deploying our content.

The most important requirement of all is that our team extends and blends its influence across all relevant departments, from Design to Development and from User Research to Marketing.

For a company to communicate consistently and successfully with the audience (and thereby present a robust, unified brand), the boundaries between departments – not the approach to content management – must be fuzzy.

Chris Dyer

Manager, Content Management Team

Alibaba UED

References

　　https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management

　　http://meaningful-marketing.com/building-content-management-team/

VIA:　曹利娟译