1. An early start
Create a policy document that would act as a guide for a successful WCM strategy that would have clarity in terms of decision making regarding content and content allocation. Confusion at a later stage can be avoided if conversations are documented from the start.
2. Locate a sponsor
Organizations need someone influential to mediate disagreements and set direction. The designated person should be some kind of project manager and not just someone authorized to sign checks.
3. A steering committee for WCM
A team across departments should have meetings early and often to create workflows so that content can be approved and validated, reviewed and edited, scheduled, archived, and deleted. Without a doubt, the steering committees are vital as the group could think clearly about the basic rules of WCM. However, these groups are notorious for creating workflows that may seem foolproof but could actually lead to complications. If the approval process for a WCM is long, that is considered an obstacle.
4. Fresh content
The content must be fresh for the web presence to be truly successful. Without any ownership of the content, the content will be out of date. However, the owners cannot be held responsible, as there could be a lack of resources in terms of setting criteria that are clear as to how often content is reviewed and whether outdated information should be archived or deleted.
The constant stream of new content from business groups is few and far between. To ensure a constant flow of content, new content that is created could be linked to the publishing processes. You could create a checkbox, for example, that would indicate that new content is ready to be published on a website.
5. Feedback analysis
Defining policies and workflows is fine. Organizations, however, need to be able to quantify success. To begin with, there are some indicators that would make it possible to determine whether or not the objectives of the site have been met. The performance of a site, in other words, would depend on whether revenue, in addition to what a business may be generating without using the site, is generated through the site, whether leads are generated through the site, and therefore last, but not least, if customer service is improving as a result of the site.
Traffic analysis tools could be used for further feedback analysis with precision. Organizations would benefit from using analytics skillfully, and the data could lead the way for content owners as to how they should shape and update content.
WCM consultants are of the opinion that all of these puzzle pieces should be in place before the system is implemented. Even if websites “go live” quickly, the website can be integrated with WCM later.
If a system or lack thereof is out of control, then equipment and processes are even more necessary. The processes that are currently in place should also be audited so that existing processes can be optimized and improved for better WCM performance.
Latest trends in CMS
Both WordPress and Drupal, for example, are free and open source software licensed under the General Public License and are primarily written in PHP. WordPress is only compatible with MySQL database management systems, while Drupal is compatible with other database management systems besides MySQL. Themes and templates are used to make sites appear visually along with plugins, modules, or extensions for advanced features. Since these are open source software, they are community-initiated projects.
