The Skills You Need to Manage Your Website
An editor is the person whose traditional job is to manage text, images, and the people who create these. What keeps an editor awake at night? Worrying whether they are getting the right content to the right reader at the right time at the right cost. If you want to manage a successful website that's what should be keeping you awake at night too.
The Internet is undoubtedly different from traditional publishing. In addition to standard editorial skills, you will also require:
- A thorough understanding of the organization, what it is about and what it is seeking to achieve.
- A sense of evangelism and a drive to convince the organization and external parties of the benefits of the Web. This skill is required because many people still need to be convinced of its merits.
- An ability to work across departments so as to create a unified and cohesive website that clearly communicates the organization's knowledge.
- The authority and stature that will allow you to gain the respect of the departments and groups that you need to knit together.
- An ability to encourage and respond to interactivity; from reader feedback to online communities.
- An understanding of the strengths and limitations of technology, as it is vital that you have an effective working relationship with the IT department.
- An ability to manage the structure of your website. An understanding of the importance of user-friendly navigation, read and interpret traffic reports etc.
- A mastery of content, and an ability to get the best out of the people who create, edit and publish your content.