Let's be honest. As a marketer, do you like standards for creating and managing content in the phone number list digital world or, like many people I speak with, do you view them as an unnecessary barrier to creativity? If you find yourself in the latter camp or unsure of the phone number list value of digital standards or even what they are, I hope you will read on. When digital standards are properly positioned within an organization, they not only deliver better content experiences phone number list for your audience, but they also fuel your team's creativity. What are digital standards? What exactly are digital standards? These are an organization's specifications or guidelines phone number list on what to do regarding certain aspects of digital publishing. If you're new to work, if it's been a while since you've completed a particular content task, or if you disagree (respectfully, of course) with a colleague on a content decision , digital standards are what you turn phone number list to for answers. In her book, Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design, Lisa Welchman lists four types phone number list of digital standards: design, writing, publishing and development, and network and server infrastructure. I would use slightly different terms, especially for organizations whose content is hosted in the phone number list cloud or at least offsite. Here's how I think of types: These four types overlap. They are not mutually exclusive categories, but rather a continuum. While you may find it useful phone number list to document certain standards separately—design standards here and editorial standards there, for example—you may want to document certain types phone number list of standards together. For example, a taxonomy may need both editorial standards (to help writers decide which terms to use and which to avoid, for example) and tooling and publishing standards (to help the phone number list production to understand how and when to apply categories and tags in the CMS, for example). You can document your editorial standards and your tools and publishing standards separately. Alternatively, depending on who is going phone number list to use the standards and how they use them, you may find it more convenient to put all of your taxonomy-related standards in one place. Imagine that you are designing a car. Imagine it red. Now imagine it black. Now make it the phone number list color of your dreams, say, satin cashmere. You can paint it any color in your mind - your creativity can go wild. All the phone number list while, you don't have to spend a second deciding (and re-deciding and re-deciding) how this paint should be applied to protect the car's surface and keep it looking great for years to come. The phone number list automotive painting process has been standardized, freeing up the designer in you to think creatively where creativity is needed.