1 Let the client help

I only speak to those that are working with client’s sites. To me, the information architect is the content liaison between the client and the designer when you’re working with clients. It’s there job to get the client to deliver content that fits the big picture, and to then figure out what belongs where.

posted at 12:21 pm on December 16, 2008 by jupiter florida

2 Untitled

From my experience as a designer/developer, clients generally either think they know how to write good content themselves, or else expect the designer to write good copy for them. I’ve only had one client who saw their need for someone else to look over their content and format it for the web. The rise of the content strategist would be a great thing for the web – if clients will begin to see the need for them.

“From a recently launched blog?” Doesn’t the author deserve a little link love?

posted at 07:01 pm on December 16, 2008 by Chris Huff

3 And I do Content Strategy now ...

Until this post I had no idea you could put Content Strategist on a business card and mean anything.

I work marketing for small businesses, which often entails wearing several hats at the same time. I didn’t even know I had this hat on!

Isn’t it funny how some people think that content just appears?

posted at 03:01 am on December 17, 2008 by Justin Williams

4 Cool

Hmmm… Content Strategist! Interesting. I guess I qualify for the title too.. N I’m so glad I can do away with something like.. “has written many articles..” ;)

posted at 08:42 am on December 17, 2008 by Maneet Puri

5 I think you are on to something :)

Hi Jeff,

I like the diagram! I’ve tried this myself several times using Vin diagrams and multi-variant charts. I’ve flipped through Tuffte looking for inspiration and come up empty. The biggest problem I’ve had is in showing how the various content skills needed change over time during a typical project lifecycle.

Analysis skills are needed during the early phases of a project (deciding WHAT to do). Slowly they give way to writing, editorial, and project management skills as content development work takes over. Then the analysis comes back as the project winds down to work on forward-looking editorial calendars, maintenance, and governance issues. Wildly different skills are needed at different times.

I’m frustrated as well, but it does seem that the title Content Strategist is gaining some traction. As I look at job postings, I’m seeing more companies seeking content strategists by name in job ads. Not just the usual agency suspects like Razorfish and Sapient, but more large companies that do their own, internal Web development projects. A good sign I hope!

posted at 11:46 am on December 17, 2008 by Richard Sheffield

6 Article was right on time!

It’s amazing when I look into my RSS reader and see just the article that I need right now. We’re helping several different organizations who are just beginning to see the values that business blogging and social media can bring to the table.

With each meeting, their recurring questions have been what content will be valuable to our target audience? How do we begin to understand what content is already available in our organization?

Working with each of these medium-sized businesses has really opened my eyes to the fact that ‘content strategy’ is service that I already provide to a certain degree – defining what it is specifically will help us sell it in terms of it’s value.

Food for thought on my part… I must dig deeper.

posted at 08:10 pm on December 17, 2008 by Philip Downer

7 The Most Inappropriate Content Strategist... The P

I’m sure many would shudder at the idea of it. However unpleasant, it is a practice of some companies with limited resources and a lack of understanding about the importance of content on the web.

I know of a few companies that have their project managers draw a mockup of what they want the site to be, write the content, and think out the IA. It isn’t there fault, there just isn’t anyone else to do it. One of the many issues with this is that it obviously doesn’t fit their strengths. A project manager was hired for their ability to organize people and make timelines. A project manager could potentially be hired on this alone and have never used a website before in their lives. Yet they are often put in a position to make all of the important decisions around a website.

Of course it is backwards thinking, but it happens more often than we may realize.

posted at 01:33 pm on December 18, 2008 by Chris Meeks

8 Untitled

Being industrious is swell and all. But it’s been a drag how a particularly driven work week kept me from such thoughtful discussion here!

Thanks to you folks for your $0.02 in comments and email, and a fresh round to the ALA staff for the hospitality they’ve extended Kristina and myself. Colour me all kinds of flattered. They’ve done us a good turn by shining their spotlight on the content community—which can seem, at times, a candelit affair by comparison.

That’s all changing. Now, to your questions…

• Content strategist = Writer + Editor + Publisher Chris, I’d tweeted and blogged the fellow my props before, but you’re correct: Terrell Johnson’s Jobs for English Majors is the inspiration for this article’s kicker. More importantly, his definition of content strategy has chimed with more people than anything I’ve ever seen or heard. It’s my going portmanteau for explaining what we do. Terrell: Patent pending, I trust?

• Diagramming the content strategy landscape: Richard, this is something we’ve discussed before, but I’ll be happy to see a very limited shelf life for my napkin scrawls. I’m all for organizing principles and they can’t get here fast enough, especially when you consider all the interesting intellectual property content folk have cooked up in their respective camps. (But that’s another article.) I want my grand unified theory already! And I hear you on the Tuftean drive to visualize the disciplinary field. Allow me to direct any readers interested in this venture to the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods, post-haste.

• Customer as CS, PM as CS: It happens; but, sir, it ain’t natural. Shouldn’t clients and project managers be holding the steering wheel? Of course, if they have the competency, organizations needn’t ask for content know-how in the first place. (Sometimes surprises occur on that count, particularly among the publishing set, whom consider their perspective on content their strong suit.) One of the most interesting professional developments for me in the past two years has been the racing speed at which clientele have become acclimated not just to their need and appetite for content strategy deliverables, but to the lexicon itself. Which means digital publishers are getting—hold the phones!—digitally literate. Bully for us all, I say.

• All I know about content strategy: You can genuinely fit on a single page .

Now, go read that darn Kristina Halvorson article again and dig the flurry of feedback!

posted at 06:39 pm on December 20, 2008 by Jeffrey MacIntyre

9 Call me old fashioned, but....

What happened to the ‘editors’ out there? Did that label get binned? Or is it too darn unfashionable…? The skill sets you describe are totally necessary, but I’m not convinced we need to create a whole new terminology around it… I work with a stack of great web editors who know their onions and do all this stuff… and – bonus – clients even seem to understand their value.

posted at 05:33 pm on December 22, 2008 by roger warner

10 Hooray! Content Strategists Unite!

I’ve been calling myself a Web Content Consultant — how else to say end-to-end content manager, Web editor, persuasive copywriter? — but this title is much more fitting. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shared Web content best practices and benefits with marketers (and potential clients), only to have the content strategy and plan still be questioned as necessary. Re-purposing content from a variety of sources (old syndicated articles, print marketing campaigns, TV commercials, etc) seems to be the most common go-around. As if the designer or developer can make that content work. Trying to explain the Frankenstein user experience that would result from this stitched-together path is really tough. I’ve book-marked your article; it will be a tremendous help with future proposals. Thank you!

posted at 02:53 pm on December 23, 2008 by Shelly Bowen

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