Last week I wrote about how it is important to set guidelines for people sending content to the website manager as well as how long the website manager has to get new content published on the website.
This week, I want to discuss a similar topic: Setting reasonable expectations for how often the website should have new content.
Over the past few weeks, my son (who is in middle school) has been flooded with major projects from three of his classes. This is in addition to the regular homework, quizzes, and tests that he still has on a regular basis, leaving little time for a kid to be a kid. Our expectations were that he would have a fair amount of homework and studying but that he would still have some free time to play with his friends. As a result of our expectations not being met, tension in our house has been high.
The same can happen if reasonable expectations are not met when it comes to how often content will be updated on your website. Whether you are a “one person” team or a large organization, it is important that the work load of creating new content is reasonable so people don’t resent the responsibility of creating content. Below are a 3 tips on how to ensure this:
- Before taking on a new initiatives (blog, eNewsletter, new section of the website, etc), make sure all your content is regularly up to date.
- Get feedback from those doing the updates to make sure that they are able to take on new content projects.
- Look at content that you are regularly updating and evaluate if it is worth continuing to update.
Are you frustrated with updating content on your website? Do you need to step back and evaluate what you are currently doing? Please post your comments below.