A few years ago content management systems were quite restrictive, with some of the following challenges:
The good news is that content management systems have evolved - empowering you to manage your content enabling you to leverage the power of digital communication to build stronger relationships with your stakeholders in a genuine and impactful way.
Here are some of the key features you should be looking for in any content management system (CMS):
Unlimited editing - you should be able to edit or update any area of the website and create new pages and sections in the website., and to be able to easily change the order of pages in teh navigation and structure of the site.
'In-line' editing - most systems today allow you to log in to the CMS and then go to each page of the website and make changes 'in-line'. This means you can actually go into the page as a user would see it to make your changes - similar to editing a word document. The days of having to go into a complicated editing back-end, making the changes, and then moving to a preview area are long gone. This kind of capability makes it much quicker and easier to make changes.
Warp control - so you can view the history of changes and easily roll back to a previous version if required - as well as being able to track who has made changes through the site history.
Scheduled publishing - so you are able to set the CMS to publish new content at preset times - especially useful when launching campaigns.
Managing content fragments - that enables you to create an item of content once (such as a teaser) and be able to simply drag and drop into relevant pages. This saves you time and effort as any change to that fragment you can make once and it updates everywhere it appears.
A quality asset repository - most content management systems have a way of storing assets. However, the new systems have all the features of an asset library. Not only can you store all your images, video, documents, PDFs etc in one place, but you can also tag them. This gives the ability to easily find them next time and add license rights so you know when any usage rights have expired - you can even ensure that the asset is archived once the image rights have expired.
Automatic image rendering - with responsive websites needing images at different resolutions, it could be quite time-consuming to upload all these different assets. However, your CMS should enable you to upload one image and the system itself can then generate all the required different versions for tablet and mobile responsive states, thus saving you hours of time creating and uploading images.
Multi-website management - allows you to manage all your websites through one interface, and use the same imagery and content across these sites. This enables you to quickly and easily re-use content across your various channels.
Social media integration - enabling you to feed social media, such as Twitter or YouTube, into your website and to publish new website content through your social media channels. Suddenly, all your digital channels can deliver a seamless user experience.
Multi-lingual capabilities - with powerful AI tools available does your CMS enable you to leverage AI to generate translations of your content? Whilst always recommending a human eye check, AI does enable you to run an automated translation of your web content with a personalised dictionary to accelerate multi-lingual content delivery.
Text to speech - with voice control on the rise, being able to embed tools that enable users to listen to content such as blogs and insights rather than read are on the rise to improve the experience and deepen engagement.
SEO tools built in - so that you always have teh right content, tags and information to ensure your content is visible to both search engines and generative AI results.
CDN integration - if your website is accessed by different users across the globe it would make sense to ensure the CMS you use can easily integrate with a Content Distribution Network (CDN). This is especially important for video content. You need to be able to load the video into a CDN, and for this to feed in through the website so that wherever your users are they can view content without buffering.
Mobile compatability - allows you to build sites that render perfectly whatever the device - and ensure the CMS itself is responsive so you can also edit from any device!
Workflow management - allows you to set up different roles within the system such as editors and approvers and ensure you have control over the content that is published.
Role-based authors - lets users edit or update only areas they have access to, so the HR team are empowered to manage the Careers section, Investor team the Investor Relations section and so on.
Accessibility prompts - to ensure that as editors add new content they are prompted (or forced) to enter key content such as ALT tags to make the content as accessible as possible.
Accessibility scanning - so that as your contnt evolves you automatically scan the website to ensure that the content is accessible, and enabling you to quickly fix any omissions. Your CMS needs to be able to work with accessibility scanning tools to ensure this - accessibility is only as good as the content entered!
Beyond the features of the system itself, there are other important elements to consider, such as:
Security - how secure is the CMS? Is it a system that has had certain security problems or is it known for vulnerabilities? Some systems, perhaps those that are more open source with free libraries may be more vulnerable than others.
Hosting - are there restrictions on where you can host the CMS? As long as the hosting facility is secure, then the location is probably less critical but you should be aware of any restrictions
DR capabilities - if the main CMS has a problem or major failure, what backups or contingencies are in place? You need to know:
The benefits you can derive from the new systems are:
Black Sun is at the vanguard of this revolution. Our new Publishing Platform, powered by the world-class content management system from Adobe, delivers all of these features - and much more.
If you would like a showcase of how it works and you can benefit please contact:
Black Sun Global is a stakeholder advisory and engagement agency that's been driving transformation and positive change for ambitious brands for more than 20 years. With deep expertise in disclosure and reporting, ESG, sustainability, and digital engagement, we reshape how organisations connect with customers, investors, employees, and the wider world.
We are trusted partners to some of the most influential global organisations, sparking innovation and sustainable performance through our strategic insights, partnerships, and proprietary technologies.
As founders of the Positive Change Group, we are on a mission to create a new kind of stakeholder relations partner. Our world-class specialists work closely with executive leadership teams to protect reputations, inspire trust, and promote responsible business practices - building resilience and long-term value in a rapidly changing world.
For more information, please visit: www.blacksun-global.com
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