What is Content?

Content can be described as any message that an organization communicates to convey an idea or effect a definable result. Content is a fundamental part of an organization’s operation and relationship with its shareholders, employees and customers.

All organizations produce a range of content including:

• Text
• Graphics
• Video
• Marketing materials
• Training materials
• Presentations
• Procedural guidelines
• White papers
• Research
• Accounting information
• etc

Why is content important?

Content represents an organization’s business, operational and intellectual knowledge.  It is fundamental to every area of business operation.

Content is typically used to:

• Provide support to employees and customers
• Present a coherent image of the organization through branding, marketing and other communicative practices
• Provide up-to-date information to employees who need it to perform their work activities
• Update all employees on new procedural guidelines and company processes

Why is managing content important?

Content management provides organizations with several advantages particularly through cost saving, increased ROI and consistent, appropriate and quality information. For example:

• Costs are can be lowered by ensuring that the same content creation is not duplicated e.g. in two different departments. Instead, content once created can be reused/repurposed for delivery to different audiences.
• By ensuring that the information being presented to both employees, customers etc. is accurate and appropriate. Organizations can face anything from minor disruption to legal costs if the wrong message/information is distributed.
• Productivity and smart decision making is enabled when personnel have access to high-quality content. This adds to the ROI from content creation and management.
• Legal compliance is made easier by using a well designed central content repository for managing/storing records and documents .