Letting Go of the Words  ## Metadata - Author: [[Janice (Ginny) Redish]] | [[3. Resources/Authors/Janice (Ginny) Redish|Janice (Ginny) Redish]] - Full Title: Letting Go of the Words - Category: #books - Kindle: [Open in Kindle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HOJHDM) - Document Tags: [[Writing]] ## Document Notes ## Highlights - People come for information that answers their question or helps them complete their task. They want that information to be easy to find, easy to understand, accurate, up to date, and credible. ([Location 469](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=469)) - Knowing what matters to your site visitors may help you decide what content to include and what to focus on or emphasize in the content. ([Location 955](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=955)) - A persona is an individual with a name, a picture, specific demographics, and other characteristics. A persona is, however, not usually based on one actual individual. Rather, each persona is a composite of characteristics of real people in the group the persona represents. ([Location 1019](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1019)) - Planning your content is critical for apps, web sites, individual web topics, blogs, social media messages – everything you write. ([Location 1131](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1131)) - Planning means asking: Why? Who? What conversations? ([Location 1133](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1133)) - To have successful conversations, you have to know – what you want to achieve through your content – who you are conversing with – what they want from your app, your site, your topic, your message; what task they want to accomplish ([Location 1134](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1134)) - Understand that your readers are not blank slates. We all interpret as we read, bringing the baggage of our past experience and our own understanding of what words mean. ([Location 1140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1140)) - Know your readers. – You have many ways to learn about your site visitors. – Gathering data from real sources from analytics to social media to site visits and usability testing is much better than making assumptions about your site visitors. ([Location 1142](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1142)) - List major characteristics for each group of site visitors, including: – key phrases or quotes – experience, expertise – emotions – values – technology – social and cultural environments and language – demographics ([Location 1146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1146)) - Gather site visitors’ questions, tasks, and stories. ([Location 1155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1155)) - Use your information to create personas. ([Location 1156](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1156)) - Content strategy means that all the content is not only created (or repurposed or revised); it is also • planned • coordinated • reviewed regularly • managed and maintained with someone in charge • removed when it becomes outdated ([Location 1193](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1193)) - To have a content strategy, you must answer questions like these: • What are the organization’s key messages? • What are the key messages of each piece of content, and how does that piece fit into the overall strategy? • What mix of media will you use? • What style guide will you use or create? – How formal or informal will the writing style be? (It can all be the same, but it does not have to be. You can have different styles and tones for different groups of site visitors. You can change style and tone among your regular site, your mobile apps, your social media. Content strategy means that you plan those differences, so writers know which style to use in each case.) – What guidelines will you have about illustrations and other visuals? About use of video? Use of music and other audio? ([Location 1201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1201)) - Inventory the current content. 2. Decide on messages, media, style, and tone. 3. Start an organic style guide – and use it. 4. Create workable designs that focus on content. 5. Audit the current content – and act on the audit. 6. Test the strategy. 7. Plan for the future. ([Location 1298](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B008HOJHDM&location=1298))