If a piece of content is published, but no one can Google it, does it make a noise? Organic Search can be the greatest source of traffic for any content strategy - now and well into the future. Harris Schachter, an in-house SEO strategist at a Fortune 200 and independent consultant, will show you the basics of search engine optimization so your content can go the distance.
Learn how to bake-in SEO principles into your existing content development process as well as tools, strategies, and resources for outranking the competition. Whether you're a web developer, copywriter, designer, or business owner, you'll come away from this session with valuable advice you can put into practice immediately.
Aug152013
Engineering Effective Communications with Andrea Goulet Ford
Content may be king, but is he an effective leader? Effective communications turn prospects into paying customers, help operations run efficiently, onboard new employees faster, and even help you get paid quickly.
Join RVA Content Strategy's own Andrea Goulet Ford as she leads us on the charge to create content with best practices. If you're a business owner, product lead, content geek, or just want to learn how to communicate more effectively, this is the session for you.
Jul302013
POSTPONED: Data Sets You Free with Jonathan Colman
[Update] Due to a scheduling conflict, we have postponed our event with Jonathon Colman until the fall. Sorry for any inconvenience!
It's our party, and we'll cry if we want to, cry if we want to...cry, "WOOHOOO!" that is.
We're celebrating our first twelve months of awesome with good company. Jonathon Colman, Principal Experience Architect at REI, will join RVA Content Strategy for cheer, merriment, and a rollicking good presentation called "Data Sets You Free: Building the Content-Driven Organization."
There will also be cake. Delicious, delicious cake.
Jun252013
Happy Hour + Confab Recap
Join RVA Content Strategy for some good food and good brews, plus a fun recap from Richmonders who attended Confab, the content strategy conference.
May282013
Content Strategy at Work
"Real-world stories to strengthen every interactive project."
This month we are reading and discussing Content Strategy at Work by Margot Bloomstein. And, we are going to Skype with Margot to thank her, praise her, and ask her questions.
Content folks have been praising this book for its real-life, down-in-the-trenches case studies. For many of us who have already read it, we've changed the way we approach content based on the stories in this book.
We hope that you'll join us for what promises to be a great evening of learning about how to embrace content strategy on every interactive project you encounter.
Apr302013
Content Audits, Pizza, & Beer
Join us for show 'n tell and conversations on how to improve content audits. If you've done an audit before, bring your content audit templates or completed audits that you can share with others. We'll share stories of what worked, what failed, and what questions we have on how to improve the inventory process so that we get useful information.
Apr182013
Happy Hour
As much as we love poring over assets and analytics, opening hundreds of tabs in Chrome, and creating masterpieces in Excel, we all need to recharge sometimes (and maybe see a human or two again). Take a break from the grind and unwind with the RVA Content Strategy crew at Happy Hour!
Feb262013
Content Strategy for Mobile (Book Club!)
Something very exciting happened at the end of last year: In partnership with A Book Apart, the amazing Karen McGrane released her book Content Strategy for Mobile. Long before the book went to press we were dreaming of a night when we would discuss the great ideas in this book with all of our content friends (ahem, that's you).
And, lucky for us, the time has come for our first book club! Over the next few weeks, we'll devour our copies of Karen's book, and then we'll come together to share what we learned, what impressed us, and what down-right confused us.
After chatting about the book, we'll head out to one of the neighborhood bars for a nightcap.
Sep252012
What Is Content Strategy? Why Does It Matter?
We had such a great time with you in July talking about content that we're getting together to dig a little deeper.
We'll kick off the night by quizzing local folks who are up to their elbows in content on what they do every minute of the day and how they do it. We'll talk about audits, style guides, metadata, and governance plans - oh my!
Our panelists will share what tools make their lives easier and lessons they've learned along the way of creating and publishing awesome content. Whether you're a content newbie or an expert, the discussion promises to be fun and informative for all.
After we geek out for a bit, we'll head over to Capital Ale House for drinks.