Running content workshops can often feel like you’re opening a can of worms. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Combining best practice workshop organisation, strong facilitation and good exercise planning

1. Consider number and type of attendees

This may feel like Workshop planning 101 but honestly, no-one likes it when one person hijacks the agenda! Keep the group size manageable, ideally between 10-12 participants.

It’s also worthwhile thinking about the types of attendees who will be coming to the workshop. Here are a couple of examples of content strategy workshops and how it affects your attendees:

• process-based workshop – invite 2-3 people in the internal content/digital team and 3-5 people involved in creating and publishing content across the organisation
• messaging and tone of voice workshop – there may be more of a marketing and communications (comms) focus on attendees for this one, combining individuals from digital, marketing and comms to help align on messaging will ensure there is common agreement around language use for online platforms

2. Structure your content strategy workshop with clear objectives

It’s also worthwhile ensuring everyone is fully briefed beforehand on the workshop objectives and what is needed to help with the outputs. This helps to create better interaction and ensures everyone has a chance to contribute. Smaller groups allow for more meaningful discussions.

When it comes to content strategy workshops, common pitfalls include:

• confusion of terminology – so be ready to describe clearly what the outputs will be (and if possible with examples)
• the wrong people involved – get a healthy split of people doing the doing and others who make decisions to understand the detail and make change happen

3. Incorporate interactive and engaging exercises

It’s so important to keep content strategy workshops interactive to ensure the subject matter expertise is extracted! Engagement is crucial in virtual settings to maintain participants’ attention. Interactive exercises, such as polls, quizzes, or collaborative tasks, keep the energy levels up and make the workshop more dynamic.

We use collaborative tool, Miro and exercises with breakout room activities to help stimulate discussion, speaking of which…

4. Utilise breakout sessions for in-depth conversations

Specifically for exercises like content guidelines, it’s great to allow time for breakout sessions to help individuals share and contribute towards the workshop objectives.

Think about content strategy activities that will value from rich in-depth input. Plan for 2-3 breakout sessions during your workshop, each with a clear focus. Assign a moderator or use guiding questions to keep the group on track. Afterward, bring everyone back together to share insights with the larger group.

5. Follow up with clear and actionable takeaways

It’s important to analyse and summarise the takeaways points from the content strategy workshop. Especially if consensus hasn’t been found on certain topics, it’s important to highlight this and to ensure specific follow up meetings are in place to make a decision.

Summarise key points discussed and provide resources or templates that participants can use in their work. Consider sending a follow-up email with a recording of the workshop, additional reading materials, or a survey to gather feedback.

By implementing these tips, your online content strategy workshops will be more engaging, productive, and impactful for your participants.