A short and sweet post for a Monday morning.
At the moment, there is a massive conference being held in the US call SXSW. The conference has an interactive stream (SXSWi), and I’ve been carefully watching the different content related presentations and panels.
The good news is that content strategy seems to be gaining more momentum as an important element of any organisation (about time really).
This reflects my own recent experience with clients. I’m beginning to have more conversations about how the content I write fits in with their overall goals, and also how they plan to manage the content that is already there. It’s something I’ve been pushing for a while, but now it appears the timing is finally right. It’s a very exciting time.
What’s your content strategy?
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It would be great to hear in more detail your thoughts on content strategy, Sally. For me, it is a strong, emerging topic in social media/public relations discussions and I think it has a long way to run before everyone is up to speed on it.
Some ramifications:
- this is where disgruntled, unemployed journos will find a home
- its importance is magnified by the importance of SEO and SMO, as well as the increasing amounts of social media platforms
- David Meerman Scott, in an echo of the above point, says corporate sites are becoming the centre of relevant info on their organisations, as opposed to traditional media
- possibly there are three sources of info/influence on an perceptions/knowledge/etc of an organisation’s stakeholders: corporate site, social media sites, traditional media (the online version) because the web is where everyone is most commercially ‘civilised’ countries goes to find out about organisations/products/services.
Thoughts?
.-= Craig Pearce´s last blog ..Working in PR: an experienced in-house leader talks =-.
Thanks for your comment Craig. I’ll put some thought into a proper answer later today.
Cheers
OK, here goes…
I’m a freelance copywriter (with a degree in PR), but I’ve also worked for many years in large organisations (mainly government) who all have massive content assets to manage. Many a time I’ve been giddy with excitement with an idea to improve said content, only to be beaten down with the ‘we don’t have budget’, ‘we’ll think about it’, ‘this isn’t on our program of work for this year’ excuses, or ‘we don’t have time because we are bogged down doing routine operational work’.
Or, I’ve seen wonderful things implemented, then slowly decay as no one takes ownership for ongoing enhancement or maintenance of the feature.
So for me ‘content strategy’ is a concept that is far broader than direct communication with stakeholders. It covers:
And that’s where your points come in. Once these foundations of true content strategy (and content management to a degree) are covered, an organisation can really plan and implement effective communication campaigns to stakeholders. Campaigns that have clear messages, are properly resourced, and are measured. No more ad hoc, random activities that don’t fit in with the overall picture.
Social media is a messenger, a tool. Sure it has changed the playing field from the traditional communication options we used to have.
And I agree with your point
so it’s even more important that there is some sort of cohesive framework that ensures a consistent voice for each of these sources.
(Also, check out Kristina Halvorson’s work at http://www.braintraffic.com)