I suppose every blog needs an awkward first post, and this is mine. I’m a bit late to the blogging party, but I figured it was time to add my voice.
“Join the conversation,” as the new cliche goes.
And what a conversation it is. Revelatory, really. For those of us who have been working as content strategists for years but have struggled to describe exactly what it is we do (project manager? yeah… writer? that too… editor? uh huh… brand manager? sort of… information architect? sometimes…), seeing the term “content strategy” was like the proverbial lightbulb (CFL, of course) turning on.
Content strategy?
“Oh. YEAH! Duh.”
It seems so obvious, now. So simple. If only.
For all of this revelation and relief among practitioners, a new term–and role–to add to the already confusing mix of new-ish web-related professions seems to have sparked even more confusion and sometimes, resistance, than expected.
Once upon a time, websites were easy. All you needed was someone with a little HTML savvy to put up your brochure, and voila! Everything your users needed was right at their fingertips.
It didn’t last long.
Now there are pages upon pages of content, plus videos, and images, and databases, and content management systems, and metadata, and social media, and hierarchies and taxonomies and governance and maintenance and relationships and conversations and on and on…
Your HTML guy doesn’t want to think about all that. He wants to write code. And he’s probably doing a heck of a lot more than just HTML these days, so he’s got his own endless list of items to learn and consider.
Same goes for your writer. And editor. And project manager. Do they care? Of course. Many of these issues probably cross their minds quite often. But how much time do they have to focus on them, given the other demands on their time?
Here comes the content strategist, to save the day!
And here come the questions, the skepticism, the need for the practitioners to step back and define and legitimize themselves and their role. Much the way (so I’ve heard) information architects had to, back in the day.
I’ve watched these conversations (and rarely piped up, admittedly) with interest, and much of the discussion focuses on differentiating the roles and responsibilities of the web team.
I must confess, sometimes the nuances of these conversations are lost on me. For all my lauding of the content strategy role, it is not all I do.
In my job, I am the project manager. Also the content strategist. Oftentimes the writer. Sometimes the editor. Many times the usability tester. The lines of these responsibilities blur because they all belong to me.
“Jack of all trades, master of none,” to add one more cliche to this entry.
So, while my love of content and interest in the emerging field of content strategy is what drives me to start this blog, it may not be the only thing that keeps me here.
Given my blurry lines, I may not prove very useful in helping to define the practice. For now, I’ll leave that to folks like Kristina Halvorson, Jeffrey MacIntyre, Richard Sheffield, and many others who have created excellent resources and so kindly held their conversations in public.
For now, I’ll just be one of many content strategists (among other things) down in the weeds, delving into the details, sharing my thoughts and experiences, asking questions, and hopefully making a small contribution to the big ideas being tossed around by those brilliant people mentioned above.
