Content strategy

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Content strategy guides the planning, development, and management of content. It is a recognized field in user experience design, and it also draws from adjacent disciplines such as information architecture, content management, business analysis, digital marketing, and technical communication.

Contents

Definitions

Content strategy has been described as planning for "the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content." [1] It has also been called "a repeatable system that defines the entire editorial content development process for a website development project." [2]

In a 2007 article titled "Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data," Rachel Lovinger describes the goal of content strategy as using "words and data to create unambiguous content that supports meaningful, interactive experiences." Here, she also provided the analogy that "content strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design." [3]

The Content Strategy Alliance combines Kevin Nichols' definition [4] with Kristina Halvorson's and defines content strategy as "getting the right content to the right user at the right time through strategic planning of content creation, delivery, and governance." [5]

Practitioners

Content strategists are often familiar with a wide range of approaches, techniques, and tools. The perspectives that content strategists bring also depend heavily on their professional training and education. For instance, some specialize in "front-end strategy," which includes developing personas, journey mapping the user experience, aligning business strategy and user needs, developing a brand strategy, exploring different channels, and creating style guidelines and search engine optimization guidelines. Others specialize in "back-end strategy," which includes creating content models, planning taxonomies and metadata, structuring content management systems, and building systems to support content reuse. Both roles involve addressing workflow and governance issues. [6]

Many organizations and individuals tend to confuse content strategists with editors. However, content strategy is "about more than just the written word," according to Washington State University associate professor Brett Atwood. For example, Atwood indicates that a practitioner needs to also "consider how content might be re-distributed and/or re-purposed in other channels of delivery."

It has also been proposed that the content strategist performs the role of a curator. Just as a museum curator sifts through a collection of content and identifies key pieces that can be juxtaposed against each other to create meaning and spur excitement, a content strategist "must approach a business’s content as a medium that needs to be strategically selected and placed to engage the audience, convey a message, and inspire action." [7]

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A technical writer is a professional information communicator whose task is to transfer information between two or more parties, through any medium that best facilitates the transfer and comprehension of the information. Technical writers research and create information through a variety of delivery media. Example types of information include online help, manuals, white papers, design specifications, project plans, and software test plans. With the rise of e-learning, technical writers are increasingly becoming involved with creating online training material.

Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet or an intranet. Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, electronic businesses, and social network services. A more comprehensive list of tasks to which Web development commonly refers, may include Web engineering, Web design, Web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, Web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data management</span> Disciplines related to managing data as a resource

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A business proposal is a written offer from a seller to a prospective sponsor. Business proposals are often a key step in the complex sales process—i.e., whenever a buyer considers more than price in a purchase. When one person signifies to another their willingness to do or to abstain from doing anything with a view to obtaining the assent of the other to such act or abstinence, they are said to make a proposal.

Technical communication is communication of technical subject matter such as engineering, science, or technology content. The largest part of it tends to be technical writing, though importantly it often requires aspects of visual communication. Technical communication also encompasses oral delivery modes such as presentations involving technical material. When technical communication occurs in workplace settings, it's considered a major branch of professional communication. In research or R&D contexts, it can overlap with scientific writing.

The term cross-reference can refer to either:

Information Logistics (IL) deals with the flow of information between human and / or machine actors within or between any number of organizations that in turn form a value creating network. IL is closely related to information management, information operations and information technology.

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User experience design defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a company, its services, and its products. User experience design is a user centered design approach because it considers the user's experience when using a product or platform. Research, data analysis, and test results drive design decisions in UX design rather than aesthetic preferences and opinions. Unlike user interface design, which focuses solely on the design of a computer interface, UX design encompasses all aspects of a user's perceived experience with a product or website, such as its usability, usefulness, desirability, brand perception, and overall performance. UX design is also an element of the customer experience (CX), and encompasses all aspects and stages of a customer's experience and interaction with a company.

Digital curation is the selection, preservation, maintenance, collection, and archiving of digital assets. Digital curation establishes, maintains, and adds value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. This is often accomplished by archivists, librarians, scientists, historians, and scholars. Enterprises are starting to use digital curation to improve the quality of information and data within their operational and strategic processes. Successful digital curation will mitigate digital obsolescence, keeping the information accessible to users indefinitely. Digital curation includes digital asset management, data curation, digital preservation, and electronic records management.

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Website governance is an organization's structure of staff and the technical systems, policies and procedures to maintain and manage a website. Website governance applies to both Internet and Intranet sites.

A content inventory is the process and the result of cataloging the entire contents of a website. An allied practice—a content audit—is the process of evaluating that content. A content inventory and a content audit are closely related concepts, and they are often conducted in tandem.

The web content lifecycle is the multi-disciplinary and often complex process that web content undergoes as it is managed through various publishing stages.

Experience architecture (XA) is the art of articulating a clear user story/journey through an information architecture, interaction design and experience design that an end user navigates across products and services offered by the client or as intended by the designer. This visual representation is intended not only to highlight the systems that the end user will touch and interact with, but also the key interactions that the user will have with interacting the internal systems or back end structure of an application. It provides a holistic view of the experience, vertical knowledge of industry, the systems, documentation, and analysis of the points that should be focused on when delivering a holistic experience. The Experience architecture provides an overall direction for user experience actions across the projects.

Disciplined agile delivery (DAD) is the software development portion of the Disciplined Agile Toolkit. DAD enables teams to make simplified process decisions around incremental and iterative solution delivery. DAD builds on the many practices espoused by advocates of agile software development, including scrum, agile modeling, lean software development, and others.

In website governance, a content audit is the process of evaluating content elements and information assets on some part or all of a website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation technician</span>

A conservation technician is a specialist in conservation methods pertaining to cultural property, and who may work in museums or public or private conservation organizations. A technician may also work in conjunction with other collection staff, such as a registrar (museum) or collection manager.

References

  1. ↑ Kristina Halvorson. "The Discipline of Content Strategy". AListApart.com.
  2. ↑ Sheffield, Richard (2009). The Web Content Strategist’s Bible, p.35. Cluefox Publishing, Atlanta. ISBN   978-1-4414-8262-4
  3. ↑ Lovinger, Rachel. "Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data". Boxes and Arrows. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Kevin P Nichols and Anne Casson. "2013 SapientNitro Content Strategy Positioning". Sapient, Inc.
  5. ↑ "Content Strategy Alliance Charter". 5 July 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  6. ↑ "Why You Need Two Types of Content Strategist". 2016-02-22. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  7. ↑ Erin Scime (8 December 2009). "The Content Strategist as Digital Curator". A List Apart.
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