11. Advocacy
NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE—practitioner, executive, manager, student, or curious bystander—it’s within your power to assume responsibility for improving the content you create and manage.
Don’t worry. We’re not going to tell you to buy a tour bus and hit the road with a Content Strategy Jamboree ... although we certainly wouldn’t discourage it. There are all sorts of ways you can advocate for content strategy, in the workplace or out in the world. You can:
Talk Straight, Not Tech
One inevitable challenge with the topic of content strategy—or any evolving discipline, really—is finding the right words to explain what it is and why it matters. Whether you’re a rookie or an old pro, there’s no getting around it: You’ll have to have this conversation over and over—with clients, with colleagues, or with your aunt at Thanksgiving who’s not going to let you get away with saying, “Oh, you know. I do Web stuff.”
Here’s a little demonstration of what not to do:
Person : “So! What do you do?”
You: “I’m a content strategist.”
Person: “Oh! What does that mean?”
You: “In many companies, the content lifecycle is totally undefined and ignored. Content is constantly getting produced in silos, and no one is fully accountable for its governance. And the problem is just getting worse, because no one understands that content requires strategic consideration and dedicated resources. So I analyze, strategize, and implement solutions that help businesses realize their goals while ensuring users are able to successfully meet their objectives.”
Person: “I think I’m getting a call on my cell.” [runs away, screaming]
This explanation consists of terms that, while perfectly familiar to the practiced content strategist, have the potential to immediately alienate someone who may, in fact, need help with exactly what you do. In general, unfamiliar words freak people out. Front-loading the conversation with insider terminology turns content into a hot potato. It doesn’t work. Also, you will never be invited to parties again.
Here’s a simpler way this go could down:
Person: “So! What do you do?”
You: “I’m a content strategist.”
Person: “Oh! What does that mean?”
You: “You know how, on lots of the websites you go to, most of the information is hard to find, or inconsistent, or totally irrelevant, or just really bad?”
Person: “Yes, it is! In fact, my own company’s site is straight-up embarrassing. I’m so frustrated that no one is fixing it.”
You: “That’s what I do. I fix it.”
Person: “And how might I acquire some of this so-called ‘content strategy’? Because I happen to be the CEO of this company, and we have millions of dollars that I would like to pay you as soon as possible.”
Plain English is powerful, isn’t it? Also, note that this conversation is actually a place where introducing content strategy for the Web makes perfect sense. Commiserating about how websites suck is an activity everyone enjoys. And why are websites so bad? The content. Boom! You’re in.
At this point, you have an opening to explain basic principles using constraints (website vs. company-wide content lifecycle) that make it seem achievable. Furthermore, when you’re talking to clients and colleagues, this initial exchange ends up being a very sensible, non-scary starting point for the much larger discussion that inevitably arises: “This isn’t just about our website. This is about the way content moves throughout our organization and the way we manage our content assets.”
Champion “Content Always”
Now and then, someone will post an especially egregious example of “lorem ipsum” placeholder text that was never removed from the final product. For example:
Hahahaha. Ahem.
While no one loves lorem ipsum fails more than we do, this all-too-common oversight has caused many within the design and content communities to take up the cry of “content first!”—which, in this context, translates to “get the copy first, then design for it.” Most designers will tell you that this is what they want to do, and they’ve been asking for content first their entire careers. Unfortunately, they rarely have control over when the content hits their inbox; this, of course, is a problem. And if designers always waited for real content, they might have to put projects on hold for years. (Some of them do.)
So, try to look at it this way, instead: “content first” isn’t “copy first.” It’s about considering content—its impact factors, goals, and lifecycle—from the very beginning of the design process.
Actually, now that we think about it...
This hits it. If there’s anything we’ve learned so far, it’s that content must be considered throughout and beyond any design and development project, no matter what the plan or platform is. So, not “content first.” Content always.
Facebook content strategist Tiffani Jones Brown wrote about this shift in thinking on her blog, in a post titled, “Toward a Content-Driven Design Process”:
One of the biggest and best side effects of content strategy’s activism is that it’s encouraging agencies to reorder their design process. It’s no longer: discovery, information architecture, design, templates, and development. Instead, we’re doing: content strategy, information architecture, web writing, content production, design, templates, and development—or some version of this.
The important thing is, we’re starting to think about content, early on. From a designer’s perspective, this means we no longer begin projects by evaluating the design of a site; we start by evaluating what’s on it. Text, videos, etc. Do they make sense? Do they achieve the intended effect? Are they interesting?
... It would be silly to think that every agency is going to upend its process in the name of content strategy. For most agencies, I smell a rapprochement, not a revolution: IAs, designers, and art directors will learn or enhance their content strategy skills.*
*http://thingsthatarebrown.com/blog/2010/05/toward-a-content-driven-design-process/
And who doesn’t love a good rapprochement?
Take to the Streets
Raise your right hand. Go on, do it.
Now read this aloud:
“I hereby swear never, ever, ever to say the words, ‘I can’t blog or speak at conferences or write articles or give a presentation to my boss or tweet or speak up at meetings because I don’t have anything interesting to say.’”
Once more. WITH FEELING.
When you work at a job day in and day out, you tend to forget that there are many, many other people out there who don’t know what it is that you do ... or that do what you do and need ideas about how to do it differently, or better.
You think you don’t have anything to talk about only because the stuff you do seems so dang obvious and ordinary. But it only seems that way to you. There are folks who would very much like for you to explain to them what you do, why you do it, and what you’re discovering along the way.
After all, you want to know what they’re up to, too, don’t you?
Be brave, people. Get out there and do something.
Blog it Up
Ever heard of WordPress? How about TypePad? Tumblr? Blogger? Yes. You have. This means you can have a blog—a free one, at that.
Go take a look at some of the blogs listed below. Some of these folks have been writing about content strategy for years; some of them just started blogs within the last few months. Regardless, every single one of them is contributing to how the field evolves, not to mention helping out their fellow content strategists with new insights and how-to tools.
Ian Alexander – eatmedia.net/blog
Rahel Bailie – intentionaldesign.ca
Clinton Forry – content-ment.com
Matthew Grocki – grassfedcontent.wordpress.com
Richard Ingram – richardingram.co.uk
Colleen Jones – leenjones.com
Jonathan Kahn – lucidplot.com
Corey Vilhauer – eatingelephant.com
Sara Wachter-Boettcher – endlesslycontent.com
Get Onstage
If the idea of speaking in public makes you want to throw up, please skip to the following section.
If you look forward to giving presentations at your company, or have dabbled in public speaking before, or even if you have a little theater experience, you might try your hand at giving a presentation about content strategy. Not only is it super helpful to your audience, it’s also a terrific way for you to work at shaping your own perspectives, no matter what the focus of your presentation may be.
Need some inspiration? Go to slideshare.net, search for “content strategy” (natch), and check out the dozens of decks posted there. Know that these presentations were given by expert and novice speakers alike. Slideshare is also a great place to gather ideas about where you might find opportunities to present (check the title slide for the name of the meeting or conference). If nothing else, start with your team or your clients.
Collect and Share Good Stuff
If you spend time online learning about content strategy—or go to a conference, or read a book (ahem), or otherwise experience something about content strategy—you have the option to share that resource or experience with others. It’s likely you’re already doing this somewhere with other topics or objects—Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, Flickr, and Tumblr, to name a few. Why not pick a place and do this with content strategy resources? It’s low risk, and it doesn’t require a big time commitment. People will love you for it.
All Right, Then. No Excuses
Because you have read this book, you have the opportunity—nay, the obligation!—to spread the word about this awesome thing called “content strategy.” When it comes to advocacy, there’s something for everyone.
What will you do?