Some initial thoughts about Content Strategy
In my first article for the COS portfolio, I would like to introduce myself pointing out my previous knowledge and reflections on new learnings in the field of Content Strategy. I would like to present, in an introspective way, my current position in the Content Strategy program, what I already know and what I should work on further.
Last year, when I was attending design classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Verona I was thinking about how to proceed with my studies. I was interested in learning more about visual and digital communication and tried to find something part-time because I am a full-working person.
Information about an innovative master program called Content Strategy emerged after one of my internet searches. At first glance, I realized that the study was about new digital media and that my knowledge of visual design could be useful, but I did not know a lot about the field. Although I was searching for additional information, it was hard to figure out a brief Content Strategy practice overview.
Also, I have to admit that after finishing the first semester of the program I did not get a clear idea of what Content Strategy really was.
I work as a Consultant for Cultural Events at the City of Umag and manage the City Art Gallery. My work consists of organizing cinema and theatre performances, as well as some manifestations like the festival of classical music and the jazz, blues and ethno music festival during summertime.
My background is in the field of visual design and figurative art and sometimes, to be honest, I find myself having difficulties to linguistically express myself. I feel much better to express my thoughts visually than in a written word. At some points, I was in doubt whether studying Content Strategy was the right choice for me. Soon after the first semester, I realized that Content Strategy was an interdisciplinary practice, very suitable for different profiles of people. Therefore, there is a great possibility to concentrate on parts I am interested in, that is, on parts that are more familiar to me.
Recently, I have read the statement that the best content strategists have experience creating and editing all formats of content. At the beginning of my “Content Strategy journey” the aforementioned claim made me aware that I could be a part of the “Content Strategy world” regardless of my professional background and my specific interests. Previously acquired skills can significantly help me understand the content strategy discipline and lead me to the decision which part of the practice to deal with.
The Content Strategy area is a wide and multidisciplinary field opened to many people of different professional profiles. It requires knowledge of different disciplines as well as bringing all this knowledge together. Content Strategist as a person is a sort of reflective practitioner who solves problems in his work and is engaged in research. He uses and tests a wide range of model solutions that he has learned on his own or from others. With such extensive knowledge, a content strategist may be a “Renaissance man” of modern times.
A Content Strategist definitely succeeds only by mastering a number of disciplines and learning to engage across departmental lines. Look at the Content Strategy life-cycle, what I see is a continuous cycle of planning, creating, delivering and governing content. The life of a Content Strategist requires interfacing with many different types of professionals with a large and varied set of skills because in most organizations content is a shared commodity.
I would like to compare my current work process with Content Strategy life-cycle in order to see what work I am doing at the moment and if there is a possibility to compare it with Content Strategist work. My goal is to take a look at my present knowledge and what I have to learn, to see if I already possess some working experience useful for the Content Strategy work process.
- PLANNING CONTENT
In order to learn about the business objectives, the Content Strategist works with business experts, marketers, analysts and stakeholders.
At my everyday work, I need to plan content. I have to follow the business needs of my institution and align my concept of events with business goals, but also with experts' opinions because the cultural programs are funded by the Ministry of Culture as well. I need to be in touch with marketers to identify my target audience and provide analytics on users' behavior. Comparing my work with Content Strategist’s I can say that we have different goals of planning content. The main difference is that I do not plan content for implementing a new website but for promoting different cultural events. Finally, as a stakeholder in the process of planning content, in this case, I am more concentrated on providing expert and the right content with the users’ engagement than on providing a complete service for content usage.
- CREATING CONTENT
To make content engaging and useful a Content Strategist works with designers, information architects, writers and user experience professionals.
Organizing cultural events and City Art Gallery program I collaborate with designers, writers and translators in order to produce content that will be useful for users. As the editor of art exhibition catalogs, I deal with experts’ content that has to be written and translated, but also combined with visual elements and appropriately designed. Although I do not collaborate with information architects I have to provide the right and well organized content to the audience that has to be aligned with taxonomies and naming conventions from the practice.
Because of different media for content deliverance unlike Content Strategist, I do not collaborate with User Experience Professionals. It would be useful sometimes to have “a voice” for the users' needs while balancing the business goals.
- DELIVERING CONTENT
Content Strategist works with developers, web editors and SEO Persons in order to make it easy to track and repurpose the content.
On a daily basis at work, I use a traditional way of delivering content. Usually, content is published in the form of informational catalogues, whitepapers, leaflets, posters or it is digital in form of websites, announcements or social media posts. In order to provide information to users, I have to collaborate with web editors, but as a stakeholder in the phase of delivering content. However, I do not collaborate with SEO persons and developers.
- GOVERNING CONTENT
Content Strategist has to collaborate with stakeholders, analysts, curators to figure out how to communicate and implement guidelines for content.
The last phase of the Content Strategy lifecycle is the least applicable to my current work mainly because I am in the role of stakeholder as I emphasized earlier. After a cultural event is done I usually lose contact with the content. Content that is published is archived and is used on some special occasions, for the purpose of celebrating some anniversaries for example. When content becomes outdated, it gets a new role and it is used to describe former activities of my institution. In that phase, content gains historical significance.
There are some similarities in my current work process compared to the Content Strategy life-cycle, but definitely there are differences as well. Differences occur mainly because of different content types, usage of different media and not similar ways of content deliverables.
Another difference between my current work and Content Strategist’s work is that I develop content with the purpose of educating the audience about a specific topic and I am less focused on how to provide service for content and how to improve the service. From that point of view, I would be the right person for my institution to provide excellent content for a Content Strategist. After this brief analysis, I have realized that I already have some Content Strategy experience without knowing that.
Finally, I provided this brief comparison with the goal of becoming more familiar with the Content Strategy workflow, to determine my current knowledge and practice in order to see what I already know and what I should work on further.
Content Strategy is a really multidisciplinary discipline and it is needed in almost every field or practice to achieve the right business goals.