Content Strategy, What’s In It for You? (SXSWi Panel Recap)
Margot Bloomstein is a content strategist who took to the stage on the first day of SXSWi. She provided a fantastic presentation about how content strategy underscores all aspects of a digital campaign:
Her presentation illustrated how content strategy creates:
- More airtight solutions
- Save time, budget, and energy on iteration
- More cohesive user experience
- Higher conversions
An organized and effective content strategy can inform the internal execution of every project:
Designers:
An informed content strategy can help designers to communicate a message more effectively. What is the message architecture of your brand? What are you trying to communicate? When you answer these questions before you begin to design, you come away with a better final product.
“Content and visual design that share a message architecture can foster a more cohesive, consistent and richer user experience.”
Words are cheaper than Photoshop proofs — they are also easier for clients to understand.
Copywriting:
Copywriting and content strategy are not the same thing, according Margot. For her, comparing copywriting and content strategy is like comparing photography and design. Photography is one part of design, but fails to describe the entire concept, much like copywriting fails to describe the entire concept of content strategy.
SEO:
User experience with content begins with the meta-data. While it is tempting to plug as many keywords into the meta-data as possible, don’t forget that meta-description is the first experience that a user has with your messaging. Hook your users with meta-data, and build the tone and brand of the website right away.
Project Managers and Information Architects:
Without an informed content strategy, it is extremely difficult for project managers to map out an entire project. How do you create timelines or benchmarks when you don’t know what it is you are going to say?
To develop a solid content strategy, project managers can start with a content audit that answers these questions:
1) Is the content appropriate? Does the content reflect the overall brand messaging?
2) Is the content current? Is the content an accurate reflection of what our brand is accomplishing right now?
3) Is the content relevant? Is our content useful to the reader? Does it answer the questions and respond to the interests that drove the user to the site?
Social Media:
Great social media interaction and engagement demands a good content strategy. Make sure that you allow for two-way interaction, and do an effective job of tailoring your messaging for different social media channels. Content needs to change based on the channel.
Hopefully this recap did justice to an amazing panel. For more resources on content strategy follow the hashtag #ContentStrategy on Twitter, sometimes shortened to #CS, the LinkedIn Content Strategy group, or ContentStrategy.com
You can see more of Margot’s presentations at Slideshare.com/mbloomstein.
After this panel, I don’t think I’ll ever scoff again when someone says “content is king“. Will you?
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