The Content Strategy Land Rush

29 April 09

Joe Pulizzi at Junta42 recently interviewed Simon Kelly from Story Worldwide about Moving from Journalist to Content Strategist. It’s not the first time I have seen content strategy mentioned as a go-to career; Richard Sheffield suggests technical writers make good content strategists too. But what is behind this transition? The busted economy? The social media boom? Other factors combined? Simon’s interview begs a few more questions that content strategists — and content strategist potentials — everywhere may already be thinking about.

Even if you work in content production somehow, you may not know much about content strategy, or that such a job title exists. In fact, you may have content strategy qualifications and not even know it. I’m finding this to be true for myself as I learn more about what content strategy is. Many long-term responsibilities and short-term tasks I’ve had in the past map to content strategy in one way or another. But I wouldn’t say I’m hot to redefine myself as a content strategist; there’s a greater whole to content strategy than anything I’ve done, and I have a lot invested in other user experience areas anyway. Yet many people are doing just that, redefining as content strategists. No doubt about it, content strategy is both an attractive field and beginning to get wide recognition.

But what kind of skills and/or experience does one really need to be a content strategist, and why would journalists be jumping ship? It’s often said that folks with information architecture backgrounds are well suited for content strategy, and Simon suggests something similar:

…someone who marries the best practices of investigative journalism, magazine editorial planning, information architecture and marketing planning.

This is an interesting description, but if you only had experience in information architecture or journalism, for example, then you would only be 25% of the way there, seemingly. Also, the description doesn’t label the skills, per se, only the trades they are supposedly associated with.

That’s not saying Simon is wrong. I tend to agree when he suggests a good content strategy builds and maintains a narrative platform with the audience (you’ll need to read his interview for context), but his perspective is one based on a particular set of schema, his own. Notions of content strategy right now are likely as different as the backgrounds people have coming to it.

Content Strategy History

Web content strategy has been practiced since the middle 90’s by people like Richard Sheffield, who came to it from a technical writing background. In fact, many people who started out in various technical communication fields (tech writing/editing, content management, et cetera) now find themselves working as content strategists, and such experience probably lends itself well to content strategy after a bit of reconditioning to get out of the “numbered-list” mode and into one of narrative.

I first saw “content strategy” penned on the cover of Ann Rockley’s book, Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy, published in 2002. I never read this particular book because I was doing my Masters at the time and had plenty to read already, but I suspect it’s more oriented around content management as you would plan for the roll-out of an enterprise content management system, since that was a popular topic back then. The book is also clearly focused on enterprise-scale situations, but today even small web sites can benefit from a solid strategy. I dare say they need to have one.

Growing interest in content strategy, by my limited knowledge, starts appearing in 2005. A notable example was the intended series What is Content Strategy and Why Should You Care? by Amy Gahran. The series garnered respectable interest from the intro alone (judging by the comments to that article), but the series apparently died before it got momentum, and the first two parts of the series that were completed have broken links (at time of this writing). Not good content strategy, you could say.

Perhaps the real ice-breaker that launched content strategy into the limelight was Rachel Lovinger’s article published in 2007 at Boxes and Arrows, Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data. In this article, you now the game has changed. As Rachel says:

[A]s interactive experiences become more complex, so does the nature of content. A superficial understanding of content isn’t going to cut it anymore. Content strategists in the digital age need to become data philosophers and explore the metaphysics of content, starting with the question “What is content?

Rachel’s article triggered a chain reaction and the limelight got bigger. Other content strategists like Kristina Halvorson at Brain Traffic, Jeff Macintyre of Predicate LLC, Rahel Anne Bailie at Intentional Design and many more started publishing berg-busting articles of their own. In the issue of A List Apart No. 274, a pivotal issue for content strategy awareness, Halvorson and Macintyre publish two separate articles that have, arguably, brought content strategy to the consciousness of web professionals everywhere. Even big agencies now have content strategy positions, with design agencies offering content strategy as an integral part of their user experience packages.

Halvorson’s much anticipated book on content strategy will be out late summer 2009, if my Twitter sleuthing serves correct. Not to be overlooked is Richard Sheffield’s self-published book, The Web Content Strategist’s Bible. Among other great insights, his book outlines the various artifacts behind a comprehensive strategy — an impressive resource for sure.

Where’s Content Strategy Going Now?

I don’t have the answers. I’m sorry if that’s disappointing news and I have lead you this far to learn it. In fact, this is what we are all watching to see. Such things as the social web explosion and the recent economy crash will undoubtedly shape content strategy considerations. The semantic web, and web as a platform, are increasingly becoming a part of that picture too.

As evident by Simon’s interview, content strategy is a discipline being touted as the next big career for people with X, Y, Z training and experience. This should raise some interesting questions:

  1. What backgrounds really are suited for content strategy?
  2. Is the idea of content strategy as a single practice to general, too broad?
  3. Like we see with user experience, can/will more niche content strategist roles be defined, or will discrete, self-functional content strategy layers be revealed?
  4. Will we see cliques inside the field due to common backgrounds? Will bickering ensue?
  5. Can there be a holistic definition of content strategy? Should there be?

I’m keenly interested in getting a better handle on content strategy, but it seems to me there’s still much to work out, even among the thought leaders themselves. It’s an exciting time for content and people looking at content strategy as a field. If naysayers speak up, it can only be because content strategy is taking focus off their own game.

Learning More About Content Strategy and Getting Involved

If you think you have a place in content strategy, whether you are a budding student or a content practitioner with related experience, there’s various ways to get connected with like-minded folks to sponge or contribute. Here are a few key places to start:

There’s a lot more information out there, and it is growing daily. The resources above should get you jacked-in and discovering new information on your own. And keep an eye peeled for the new content strategy web site that’s in the early stages of planning; a collaborative project of the entire content strategy community.

Content Strategy Conferences

Of course you’ll want to go to a conference or two on content strategy, and the resources above will likely indicate when conferences are announced. The first Content Strategy Consortium was recently held during the IA Summit 2009. The complete series of IA09 podcasts are now available at Boxes and Arrows.

To close-out I would like to bring your attention to the STC France Annual Conference in Paris, spring 2010, which I am co-coordinating with other members of the STC France Board. The theme of this conference will be Content Strategy. We are hoping to have local French practitioners and industry thought leaders joining us for a two-day event in the wondrous city of Paris. We hope you can plan to join us, and if you’re coming from afar, why not make it a holiday at the same time? Bring that special someone for a few days of exploration and fun in la ville d’amoure.

We’ll be posting more about this conference, including a Call for Proposals, very soon at STC France and its various social sites, of course.

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