As I shuffled through the instructional material in week three’s module, I grasped the concept of content strategy. There was abundant material, but one source stood out from the rest.
This week, I reviewed a video by Anna Kaley called How To: Content Inventory and Audit. Although a short video, it gave in-depth information on the process of inventories and audits for content strategy.
What Delighted Me?
After watching this video, I was delighted at how much I better understood the concept. Anna did an excellent job explaining the difference between content inventory and a content audit. After her explanation, it is easy for me, as a novice, to understand the process.
As she explains, content inventory shows how much inventory you have but does not show how it performs. In contrast, she explains that a content audit shows how your content is performing and how you can improve it.
To fully grasp the concept, I put it into context to gain my understanding. For example, I did a little experiment, making a note of my inventory of shoes. My inventory results concluded I had 100 pairs of shoes in my closet.
Now that I knew how many pairs of shoes I had in my closet, I proceeded with an experimental audit. My goal was to determine my need for so many shoes. I also needed to decide how many pairs I wanted to include in my daily shoe rotation.
My audit revealed that I consistently wore the same 15 pairs of shoes daily. So that means that I had 85 pairs of shoes I didn’t wear.
As Anna Kaley mentioned in the video, the goal of an audit is to examine:
• What Content to Keep
• What Content to Update
• When New Content is Needed
• When to Merge Existing Content
• Where to Delete Outdated Content
My self-imposed shoe audit experiment led me to examine the steps that Anna had cited. I knew I had 85 pairs of shoes I didn’t wear, but I didn’t understand why.
I recognized that the 85 pairs of unworn shoes were not at eye level. They were on the top shelf and inside of shoe boxes (out of sight, out of mind), and the 15 pairs I wore consistently were on the closet floor where I could see them.
I am sure you know where I am going with this. This experimental audit required me to make adjustments for better use of my shoe inventory.
Oh, boy! I had shoes I had not seen in years, shoes that were too small, shoes that were out of style and now back in style, shoes that were still out of style, and shoes that I didn’t even remember buying.
After all was said and done, I decreased my shoe inventory from 100 pairs of shoes to 20 pairs total, which included the 15 pairs I already had in my rotation.
The five new pairs of shoes I added to my rotation merged well into the big pile of 15 I had already had on the closet floor.
I now have 80 pairs of shoes with styles that span over a couple of decades stacked in my garage, waiting to be donated to the nearest Salvation Army.
The little experiment helped me put the concepts of content inventory and content audit into perspective.
What was most meaningful for my course goals? Why?
The process Anna Kaley outlined in the video will help me in this course. The information is meaningful because it clearly outlines the difference between content inventory and content audit.
Since I can now decipher the difference between the two, my team and I will produce quality deliverables for our client.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the insights gained this week go beyond academic learning; they provide a tangible method for engaging with content critically and creatively. As I move forward in this course, I’m equipped with theoretical knowledge and practical skills that will be invaluable in my journey as a content strategist.