Make content creation easier with a content creation framework. The South of Seoul volunteer team makes blogging easier and more targeted by following the South of Seoul Content Creation Framework (SOS CC Framework) created by founder Lanae Rivers-Woods. Such a framework provides a logical step-by-step process for developing quality sustainable content quickly. If you don’t care about content creation (which is normal and fine) feel free to jump to more fun blogs on our homepage.
South of Seoul Content Creation Framework
Rivers-Woods designed the SOS CC Framework to make it easier for solo content creators to design meaningful and sustainable social and blog content for multi-national communities. The SOS CC Framework empowers volunteers/creators to succinctly meet the needs of 1) communities, 2) the readers, 3) the volunteer/content creators, and 4) SEO for the purpose of creating sustainable content that matters over time.
Keep in mind, the SOS CC Framework exists as an iterative process. Iterative means that our volunteers constantly review old blogs and new content using the SOS CC Framework in order to improve what we create now and improve what we created in the past. Such processes and improvements never end since new volunteers and new research always bring new insight and new opportunities.
About the SOS CC Framework
SOS CC Framework consolidates research from many specialties such as Marketing, Curriculum Design, Project Management, SEO, User Research, UX/UI, etc into a simplified framework/system. Such a framework allows solo creators and small volunteer teams to minimize the negative personal impact (financial, emotional, etc) of content creation while also maximizing the impact of content on the wider community. Creating effective content that doesn’t drain volunteers of their time and joy exists as an SOS foundational principle.
Since creators outside of the SOS organization may also struggle with finding efficient ways to create content, SOS Volunteers thought we would share our process with the public. South of Seoul volunteers seek to empower creators around the world to create meaningful content for their multi-national communities. The more information that exists from different perspectives the more people feel supported. Let’s look at the framework.
The Four Factors of Sustainable Content
The SOS CC Framework consists of four factors listed in order of process:
- Community Value
- Reader Experience
- Volunteer Resources
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
South of Seoul volunteers consider such factors in a specific order for the purpose of limiting content creation development time and ensuring the content holds value. Such an order goes against many common practices within content creation which often begins with SEO.
Since the South of Seoul program exists as an educational platform with a cultural curriculum at the core of all processes, SEO does not lead our content development. Instead, we use SEO to enhance and amplify information necessary for the success of our community members. In short, SOS focuses on leading with the new and necessary information rather than re-hashing the past information.
Now, let us look at each of the four factors in the SOS CC Framework individually.
About Community Value in Content Creation
Before South of Seoul (SOS) volunteers create content they first ask, “What value can we add to this topic?” Volunteers ask such questions as:
- Does our proposed content add to the general knowledge on the topic?
- Does our proposed content frame the content through a new lens?
- Does our proposed content honor past content created on the topic?
- Does our proposed content offer something necessary or desired?
If the answer to the questions is, “Nothing added” then we can make that content a link to someone else. We can choose to support another creator who has done an amazing job and put out the fantastic effort. Honoring others’ work remains as important as doing our own. If the information could simply be a link, then our volunteers can move on to creating content from a different lens.
However, if the answer is, “Yes, the proposed content meets a community need then we move to the next step in the development and question-asking process which is Reader Experience.
About Reader Experience In Content Creation
Reader Experience can also be called the UX/UI standards. Such standards take into consideration readers’ social lenses which may include unique considerations for a multi-national population:
- Cultural diversity (In an international context, different cultural lens may create different views of the same topic)
- Visa diversity (In an international contect different visa restrictions may create different knowledge foundations)
- Language diversity (Readers may speak English as a first, second, or third language)
- Linguistic diversity (Readers who speak English as a first language may use English differently based on region)
- Neuro diversity (Readers may need different levels of information scaffolding based on how they process new knowledge)
- Social diversity (Readers social experiences may vary based on many factors so social understanding can not be assumed)
- Educational diversity (Readers may come from varying educational levels and backgrounds)
- Identity diversity (Readers may experience different perceptions of gender, race, culture, and language)
Our volunteers review content and ask themselves, “How might this content be experienced through these different lenses which form a human experience?” We then work to mold our information in new ways to include more and more readers in the conversation.
Such questions related to cultural lenses require volunteers to acknowledge their own privilege and bias and work to view other experiences through an empathic process. At South of Seoul, we specifically employ empathy processing tools used in the Social Work field and UX design field.
The empathetic Reader Experience design exists as an iterative process. Volunteers continually review, update, and refine content based on field research which includes interviews, surveys, and A/B testing.
About Volunteer Resources and Content Creation
After volunteers identify necessary and reader needs regarding the content, volunteers assess solutions and our ability to implement such solutions based on our resources. In order to choose the best solutions for meeting readers’ needs volunteers consider such resources considerations may include:
- Volunteer time (How much volunteer time will the solution require?)
- Financial cost (What no-cost options exist?)
- Maintenance implications (How will the informtion be kept current?)
In order to create sustainable solutions, South of Seoul (SOS) Volunteers need a solution that takes limited volunteer time, little to no financial cost, and can maintain itself over time without costing additional volunteer time or monetary cost. We do not have funding and our volunteers all have family and job commitments. Many solo creators also find themselves in similar situations.
Assessing volunteer resources exists as one of the most important aspects of the content creation design process. Questions that volunteers/creators need to ask themselves include:
- How long will it take to create this content? Do we have that time available?
- How long will this content be valid for? If it changes, how will it be updated?
- Does this content solution cost money to maintain?
- What outside content does this article rely on and who maintains the accuracy of that content? (consider this when choosing outgoing links)
- What happens to this conent when I leave and can’t maintain it? Will it cause others issues?
- How can I make my content stand the test of time or ensure it’s maintained over time?
We want to ask the hard questions about content sustainability so that our content doesn’t cause a stumbling stone for those who move to our multi-national community in the future.
About Search Engine Optimization
Once we have assessed the Community Value, Reader Experience, and Volunteer Resources we move on to Search Engine Optimization. In order to empower readers to find SOS Content, volunteers must find creative ways to rectify how the language needed to communicate with algorithms may impact Community Needs, Reader Experiences, and Volunteer Resources.
Poorly scaffolded and framed SEO techniques may cause friction and conflict in multi-national communities in a variety of ways. Therefore, SOS volunteers strive to take social responsibility for considering how our SEO choices impact perceptions of cultures and communities. Such social responsibility exists as an iterative process as we listen to the community and conduct research.
For example, Google loves the term ‘best’ since people often choose to search things such as “best restaurants” or “best cafes”. However, the term ‘best’ remains subjective to a personal lens formed on many social/cultural factors. Many content creators may title their information the ‘best’ to ensure that others can find the information on Google. Such a practice feels acceptable since common SEO practices include basing blogs on common keyword searches.
However, the reader’s perception of ‘best’ may differ from a content creator’s view of ‘best’. Such differences in what ‘best’ means may cause readers to view content creators as ‘deceptive’. For example, readers may assume ‘best’ implies something voted on or judged for authenticity. Thus, when content creators ‘best’ lists without explicitly stating what ‘best’ means (‘best known’ or ‘best-reviewed on TripAdvisor’) content may impact the community in unexpected ways.
Thus, SOS volunteers use the SOS CC Framework to take into consideration the many implications of SEO Keyword choices. This also speaks to why SEO decisions occur as the final step to our internally designed sustainable content creation framework instead of the first step as often promoted in SEO strategies that only consider online traffic implications.
Sustainable Content Creation
After analyzing the four factors for creating content, our volunteers compile and create the content for distribution. Once the SOS content has been released into the wild, SOS volunteers iteratively review the content with readers to see how what changes still need to happen. The SOS CC Framework keeps us always asking questions and always moving toward better content.
Definitions of Terms
Two definitions that may be necessary for fully embracing this blog may include:
- Framework: A framework consists of concepts, together with their definitions, and existing theory/theories.
- Lens: A lens is a way of looking at the world. Factors that may contribute to a social lens may include such things as culture, country, economic background, gender identity, religion, education, etc. Individual lenses dictate how each person processes and interprets information and experiences.
Let us know if any part of this framework and corresponding explanations feel unclear. We want our readers to feel fully informed regarding how we create and maintain our information over time.
Founded in 2015, the South of Seoul team consists of volunteers on three continents working together to support English-speaking people traveling or living in South Korea. South of Seoul volunteers work with organizations and individuals across South Korea to improve equitable access to information across South Korea. Much of South of Seoul’s information focuses on Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
Blogs published under the authorship of “South of Seoul” include blogs compiled by multiple volunteers to improve access to standardized information unrelated to individualized personal experiences.
