While plenty of people are writing about content creation and why it has to be done (Junta42’s Joe Pulizzi just issued his list of Top 42 Content Marketing blogs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg), there hasn’t been a whole lot of discussion about who exactly is supposed to plan, create, manage, organize and preserve all this content.
More and more, I’m seeing the term “content strategist,” but the work description hasn’t been all that clear—and there’s not a lot of mention of the value they bring to a company’s overall communications efforts. So I was thrilled to see Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum’s blog entry on fastcompany.com, “Filter or Be Flooded: Do You Need a Content Strategist?” It’s the most clear-cut explanation of what a content strategist can do that I’ve seen so far. One of the most important points he makes is when the content must be dealt with in the planning/strategic process.
“… content isn’t the thing the copywriter does at the end of the design and development phase of Web site development, it is the output of your site, fresh and evolving every day in a conversation with your visitors and your customers and your partners.”
Sure, a content strategist, particularly one with a background in writing, can write your site, ghost your blog, script your video; in short provide the actual content—much like a copywriter. But the greater value lies in their role in understanding your company, your customers and your expectations, and charting an ongoing, all-encompassing content development and delivery strategy from the start.
Says Rosenbaum, “As you dig into the Content Strategist world, you see that there’s a theme that develops. Once you get outside of conventional content makers (newspapers, magazines, books, etc.) the role of content is pushed down in organizations to copywriters who often have little say, little time, and little respect. But in the new world of content absorbing PR, Marketing, CRM functions, media relations, support, corporate and investor relations, Content comes out of the back room and moves to the front page–content is the “face” of the always-on corporation. So, Content Strategy takes on a mission critical role for all public functions.”
Which means that if you’re expecting your staff (including in-house copywriters, if you have them) to develop content, you can still benefit from including a content strategist in your overall online communications development team. While your staff may be able to write well enough to communicate your corporate message, can they deliver the right content in a compelling brand voice that will develop the right kind of relationship with customers? Do your in-house copywriters feel secure enough to potentially defy their colleagues when it comes to determining what customers want and need to know versus what marketing wants to tell them? And do you really think, considering current workloads, that you can count on even the keenest employee to blog or tweet regularly? Even if you are confident that you have the means of developing your own content, think of the content strategist as part coach, part editorial director, part long-term planner and sometimes, part referee. But definitely think of him or her before you get too far along in the content development process.
If not, you simply may not reap the full value of your investment. Kristina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web (and interviewed by Rosenbaum for his blog) admonishes businesses to “Treat Content like a critical business asset…if you treat Content as an 11th-hour issue, you’ll have bad content, unhappy employees, disappointed users, and budget overages.”
CONTENTional Thinking 