3. Solution
WHAT IS CONTENT STRATEGY? Is it a practice? A document? What does it include? Who’s responsible for it? How is it implemented? Can we measure its success?
Your enthusiasm is palpable. We like it. We share it. Let’s dig in.
Re-Envisioning Content
Once we recognize content as a valuable business asset, we start to see it as more than just pixels or PDFs. And once we can identify goals for our content that serve both our organizations and our users, we can start to align our efforts to form a cohesive strategy. That strategy will then help us prioritize our content initiatives, streamline our efforts, and use our resources as effectively as possible.
In this chapter, we will:
• Explain what content strategy is (and is not).
• Examine the key elements of content strategy.
• Explore who does this work.
What is Content Strategy?
Well, first of all, what is “content”? Content is what the user came to read, learn, see, or experience. From a business perspective, the content is the critical information the website, application, intranet, or any other delivery vehicle was created to contain or communicate.
Depending on who you are and what you need to do, content strategy can mean a few different things.
Content strategy:
• Defines how you’re going to use content to meet your business (or project) goals and satisfy your users’ needs
• Guides decisions about content throughout its lifecycle, from discovery to deletion
• Sets benchmarks against which to measure the success of your content
In summary: Content strategy guides your plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of content.
Sometimes, content strategy may focus specifically on the editorial, structural, or technical aspects of content. And sometimes, it may be an enterprise-wide effort that’s directly tied to high-level business strategies. In either case, content strategy helps us find ways to better understand all aspects of our content, which means we can make smarter, more informed decisions about how we’re going to select and execute our tactics.
What isn’t Content Strategy?
When some people talk about their “content strategy,” they’re actually talking about what they plan to deliver online, and where. In this context, a content strategy may be described as:
• A series of educational articles
• A full-service, online knowledge base
• An employee blog post series
• A new tablet subscription service
• Social media accounts
These things, when combined, do not make up a strategy. They’re just a bunch of tactics.
A strategy is an idea that sets the direction for the future. Once you’ve decided on your strategy, you can benchmark tactics against it simply by asking, “Will this help us get to where we’re going?” Imagine your strategy as a lighthouse that keeps you headed in the right direction, no matter how stormy the waters may become.
How does Content Strategy Work?
As anyone practicing content strategy will tell you, the answer to this question is never cut and dried. In fact, it’s what we’re tackling in this book, which is sort of meta but let’s move on.
Before we can talk about how content strategy works, we need to introduce what we refer to as “the quad”—an image that displays the critical components of content strategy. These are the things that affect whether or not your content ends up usable and valuable, both to your users and your business.
copyright 2010 Brain Traffic
At the very center is the core content strategy. This defines how an organization (or project) will use content to achieve its objectives and meet its user needs.
The core strategy informs what the content will be and how it will be structured:
• Substance: What kinds of content do we need (topics, types, sources, etc.)? What messages does content need to communicate to our audience?
• Structure: How is content prioritized, organized, formatted, and displayed? (Structure can include IA, metadata, data modeling, linking strategies, etc.)
The core content strategy also informs how people (specifically content owners and overseers) will help drive the content lifecycle:
• Workflow: What processes, tools, and human resources are required for content initiatives to launch successfully and maintain ongoing quality?
• Governance: How are key decisions about content and content strategy made? How are changes initiated and communicated?
One breakthrough people often have when looking at the quad for the first time is realizing how important it is to address the people components as well as the content components. The relationship between substance and structure is fairly implicit: when you add content to a website, for example, the structure of that website might change. But what about how that new content will impact workflow? Does anyone need to review changes before they can go live? What happens if the content goes live and it’s incorrect? Who’s responsible for maintaining the new content? You get the point: Content strategy connects real content to real people. That connection is key to getting your content right.
Who does Content Strategy?
The easy answer is, “lots of people.” And they do! Many people are practicing some type of content strategy in their current role ... probably even you. But for now, let’s look at the roles and responsibilities of a fully dedicated content strategist.
The content strategist is the person who is responsible for your content—for one project or your entire content landscape. This person:
• Is the advocate for the content throughout the team and organization
• Provides the background research and analysis that stakeholders need to make smart decisions about content
• Creates recommendations for the content based on business and user needs
• Works with the organization to implement the content online
Ideally, especially on large or complex projects, the content strategist solicits and synthesizes input from a variety of people, including web writers and editors, information architects, SEO practitioners, database managers, and subject matter experts. When needed, however, a good content strategist is often willing and able to embrace whatever role is necessary to deliver on the promise of useful, usable content.
What Exactly does a Content Strategist do?
What follows is a sample job description for a content strategist. Of course, depending on the structure and needs of your particular organization, roles and responsibilities will vary.
The content strategist is responsible for overseeing the success of content initiatives.
Collaborating closely with other key project stakeholders, the content strategist is critical to defining the content needs of websites and applications.
For each project, the content strategist will:
• Gather, audit, and analyze existing content relevant to project requirements.
• Collaborate with project leads to examine and analyze the content “ecosystem”—internal and external factors that impact the content—during the project discovery phase.
• Determine projects’ overall content requirements and potential content sources.
• Ensure that the team aligns on content objectives, assumptions, risks, and success factors.
• Develop content strategy and plans based on client business objectives and user needs.
• Coordinate and collaborate with a team of experts in IA, SEO, social media, database management, metadata, and anyone else who is assigned ownership of an online initiative.
• Work with the web editor or web writer to oversee the development of all content to be included in the solution.
• Create taxonomies and metadata frameworks for grouping and tagging content.
• Develop content indexes and mapping documentation for the site.
• Understand and help implement content accessibility standards according to national law and organizational policy.
• Shepherd content through the creation process.
• Oversee content migrations and prepare documentation to do so.
• Work with database administrators to make necessary changes and updates.
• Ensure there is a plan for maintaining and governing content post-launch.
How is Content Strategy Different from Other Disciplines?
Well ... it might not be.
A content strategist’s work isn’t necessarily separate or apart from user experience, technical, or communications professionals. In fact, you might say the content strategist can work within, between, or inclusive of any of these disciplines, which may include:
Messaging and branding
Messaging and branding professionals specialize in defining what the “story” is behind the content. They answer questions such as: What are your brand values and attributes, and how will they inform the content? What do you want the user to learn or know or believe after reading your content? Do we say different things to different users? Do we talk to the same user differently depending on his current task or length of relationship with the organization?
Web writing
Web writing is the practice of writing useful, usable content specifically intended for delivery online. This is a whole lot more than smart copywriting. An effective web writer must understand the basics of user experience (UX) design, be able to translate information architecture documentation, write effective metadata, and manage an ever-changing content inventory.
Information architecture
Information architecture involves the design of organization and navigation systems to help people find and manage information more successfully. An information architect who also focuses deeply on the content substance will define the content requirements for pages or content components of a website. This includes structural issues, messaging hierarchy, source content, maintenance requirements, and so forth.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of creating, editing, organizing, and delivering content (including metadata) to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on web and site search engines.
Metadata strategy
Metadata strategy identifies the type and structure of metadata, also known as the “data about data” (or content). Smart, well-structured metadata helps publishers to identify, organize, use, and reuse content in ways that are meaningful to key audiences.
Content management strategy
Content management strategy defines the technologies needed to capture, store, deliver, and preserve an organization’s content. Publishing infrastructures, content life cycles, and workflows are key considerations of this strategy.
Call it What you Want ... Just Get it Done
It’s utterly pointless to try and say, “This person isn’t a real content strategist because she only does a subset of the activities that fall under the content strategy umbrella.” Sure, there are content strategy generalists—professionals who can inform and perform the activities that affect every phase of the content lifecycle. But there are also professionals whose expertise runs deep in one specific area of content strategy, or whose work has direct impact on how a content strategy is created or executed.
Ultimately, the important thing is simply that someone is paying close attention to the critical questions that will make or break your content: why, what, where, for whom, by whom, when, how much, and what’s next. It doesn’t matter what you call it or who does it ... as long as the work gets done!
So, Now What?
Now comes the fun part.
The next six chapters will help you understand in depth how content strategy works. We’ll talk about preparing for strategy, creating your strategy, and putting together your action plans for world domination through content. Which is totally possible.
Let’s go!