I received the following question from a reader. If you would like to respond, please add your response in the comments below. I’m a college senior graduating this May with my degree in Technical Communication. Do you have any tips for an aspiring content strategist? What skills or knowledge set would I need to have to pursue a career in content strategy? I know that … more »

The Elements of Content Strategy (A Book Apart, 2011), by Erin Kissane, provides the most brief yet thorough treatment of content strategy that you’re going to find. In about 75 pages, she lays out the principles of content strategy, traces its origins, and then outlines her methodology for doing content strategy. It’s a well-written, easy-to-follow handbook that should occupy a space on the shelf of … more »

Hey podcast listeners, check out Content Talks, a new podcast by Brain Traffic on content strategy. The first episode features Kristina Halverson interviewing Ann Rockley about content strategy issues. It’s a great interview, and Ann sounds lively and engaged. Kristina steers Ann towards detailed stories and experiences as they make their way through a host of content issues. Kristina says they will be producing a … more »

Scott Abel has a good post on content curation strategies. He writes, In order to develop an active and engaged audience, you have to publish as much interesting and informative content as possible — as often as possible! He notes how tweets and blog posts are short-lived, so you have to keep publishing all the time: … Add to the mix the sheer volume of … more »

Over the past several years, I’ve trained a lot of people on WordPress, through individual one-on-one training, seminars, workshops, and conference events. Most of the people who want to learn WordPress have plans for blogging. They think blogging requires you to understand the technology before they can jump in. But the technology is easy — learning how to navigate and publish content with WordPress is … more »

I’ve been thinking lately about my brand. I’ve always hated this marketing term, but the word “brand” does help answer a question. When you think of me, what comes to your mind? I’ve written about a lot of different topics on this blog, everything from findability to podcasting, blogging, technical writing, flare, wikis, screencasts, project managers, content organization, and more. My content is diverse enough … more »

At a recent Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference, keynote speaker Avinash Kaushik said Mormons have done a “marvelous job” with the SEO for the word church. If you google “church,” lds.org is the third result after two wikipedia entries. The sixth result is Mormon.org, just after Church’s Chicken. You can watch the full SES video here. Avinash says, “One of the key strategies to win at … more »

I’ve noticed something lately. If you redesign your website, almost no one comments. If you make a cool graphic, almost no one comments. If you make a screencast or video, almost no one comments. But if you write a good post (which is 95% text), you get a ton of comments. I’ve seen this happen over and over. Why is that? In the realm of content, … more »

In the ongoing discussions about content strategy, one recurring idea keeps emerging: strategy versus tactics. The key differentiator between content strategy and technical writing is strategy. The content strategist develops a strategy; the technical writer carries out tactics to fulfill the strategy. The general develops the battle strategy, the troops carry out the necessary maneuvers to realize that strategy. Which is more valuable: strategy or tactics? … more »

Most users think help content is useless. It’s an almost universal perception that help content will be, for the most part, unhelpful. It’s a last resort measure, when you can’t figure it out from the interface, when no colleagues are standing by to assist, when you’ve reached a certain level of frustration and have nothing else to try — only then do you bring yourself to begrudgingly click the help button.

Today I have a guest post on the Firehead blog, run by CJ Walker. It’s called Finding a Content Strategy for your Blog. Here’s an excerpt: To have a successful blog, you have to push out content on a regular basis – several posts a week, if not more. Not only do you need frequency of content, but also consistency in the topic. Basically, you … more »

Content strategy is a topic more and more technical communicators are talking about. It’s one of the dominant conversations in the field right now. David Farbey recently presented on Content Strategy for Everyone at Tech Comm UK. Rahel Bailie talked about Creating a Content Strategy at the Lavacon conference. Scott Abel continually talks about content strategy — see this video series on content strategy he … more »

In a recent email to me, Jake from California (not his real name or location) writes, I’ve spent most of today exploring the world of technical writing, and I find that you’re very central and visible. I’ve read, listened to, and watched a good deal of content you’ve produced, plus viewed snippets of threads on the STC listserv where you either weighed in or were … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 50 min. In this podcast, Rahel Bailie, a content strategist from Vancouver, B.C., talks about content strategy in the context of technical communication. I briefly alluded to my conversation with Rahel in my post last week titled  Three Questions to Start Thinking Like a Content Strategist. In this podcast, Rahel goes into much more depth. … more »

Toward Content Quality :: UXmatters. In this article, Colleen Jones explains about ten specific principles that content strategists look at. This article does a nice job of making content strategy more practical (rather than a nebulous, hard to grasp concept). According to Jones, these are the points (beyond mere grammar and style) that a content strategist looks at: “testing content with users, monitoring content metrics, … more »