On Managing Content and Content Management Systems (CMS)

July 01, 2003 | 0 Comments

This week two great articles from Gerry McGovern were published. First, Content management: critical skill of modern manager and second, Take Full Responsibility For Your Web Content. Gerry has some great insight into what is an often overlooked part of successful Web sites.

I’ve got my own thoughts on the issue.

A major part of every successful Web project is proper management of content, make no mistake. By that I’m not necessarily talking about “content management” as in a Content Management System (CMS) rather, I’m talking about the act or process of managing content. A CMS can’t, by itself, do much of anything. And assuming that implementation of a CMS will solve all of your content problems is a mistake you don’t want to make. It’s also a mistake that is commonly made.

That is just the beginning when it comes to CMS. I have yet to see one that is anywhere worth the amount of money and time needed to get it into place and often times, for many reasons, a CMS can actually make a site worse. Most times, unless you have lots of money and lots of people, a CMS is not the way to go. If you are thinking about going with a CMS, think long and hard before you decide to go that route. I know of too many folks who jumped in and ended up really regretting it.

Instead of going with a CMS, I would think learning how to properly manage one’s content and/or putting money into putting the proper personnel into place to do so is a much better idea.

Management of content is an essential skill that is often completely overlooked or even worse, placed into the wrong hands. It’s something that should be handled by someone who has the knowledge, experience and willingness to do so. This person usually should not be a Web developer, designer or anyone like that. Unfortunately, most often these are the people tapped to manage a site’s content, as if they don’t have enough to do. That is not to say these folks can’t do it and do it well, it’s just in an ideal solution you would want someone dedicated to your content and that content alone. Use your Web folks as content resources and avisors if they have those skills, and in a pinch, but realize that managing content is usually a full time job.

I’ve had the good fortune to work on a Web team that had dedicated writers and editors. They improved not only the quality of the sites and projects we worked on immensely, they also helped our processes run more smoothly. It was really great and I often lament how much I miss them.

I’d recommend that any medium to large Web team think about adding at the very least a good Web editor, and if possible a full time person to manage content. If that can’t be done, and I imagine that is the case lots of times, it might be a good idea to have someone tapped as the content guru and give the majority of those duties.

In addition, it can really help to make the effort to educate anyone who is providing Web content, as well as stakeholders, managers, and anyone who else works on a Web site. That’s what we are trying to do down at the hospital, and a big reason why we asked Gerry to come an give a talk. Maybe sometime we’ll be able to have a full time content person, but for now we do what we can.

Let’s face it, content is still king, and probably always will be.

Filed under: Web General