Chapter 15. Conclusion

I would love to tell you that being a content manager is easy. Straightforward. That you will be able to focus on what is most important and leave everything else aside. But a lot of it is learning to create something compelling in the middle of an absolute whirlwind. Learning to use a huge list of tools that need to be sharpened every day. It is about zooming out when you need big-picture thinking, and zooming in when the details need to be ironed out. Managing content, business expectations, and human beings—all at once.

All in all, it is a pretty incredible job. The quintessential twenty-first-century role, if you ask me. We are all, or will soon find ourselves being, tiny walking media companies. Or big ones—it is really up to you.

Before you venture out into the always-exciting world of content production, I would like to share 10 beliefs that help me stay afloat in the best and worst days of this job. I have collected the best insight I could find in the pages you just read, but what it all ultimately comes down to is your ability to execute. And more than that, your motivation to execute. That is where these commandments truly save the day: they are constant reminders that, however challenging, this is an incredibly rewarding path.

1. Do not antagonize numbers

They are most certainly not the enemy. Instead, they are the only guarantee that you are not building out a content machine in the dark. Get data, make sense out of it, use your informed judgment, and grow.

2. Scale yourself

Go beyond what you can do and what you know. Look at your content machine and make it work nonstop, seamlessly, and at scale, with or without you.

3. If you would not spend time looking at it, don’t ship it

One of the best quality assurance rules of thumb is to avoid publishing content that you would not consume. Simple, yet so difficult to execute. My audience deserves my very best. Repeat that to yourself every day.

4. Grow the channels you own

Email lists, website spaces, and social profiles are all yours to keep, optimize for, and control. Any investment you make there has a direct impact in your platform. Even though earned and paid distribution are important, nothing matches the freedom to experiment you get with owned channels.

5. Make content friends

That being said, it will take a village to share your stories. Don’t forget to nurture relationships that you can tap into for earned distribution.

6. Don’t confuse location with direction

Location is where you are; direction is where you are going. It is your job to figure out a content strategy that is prospective and takes into account both internal goals and external changes. As a content manager, you need to understand scenarios like where search is right now and where it will be moving. Where social is now and where it will be within the next 12 months. That is exactly how your machine will stay relevant.

7. Track progress

Cover your bases to ensure that the work you are doing can be tracked. You should be able to gauge the impact of your tactics at all times and adjust accordingly.

8. Relive your content experience multiple times

You need to know what it feels like to interact with your content with a fresh pair of eyes. Assume you are looking at it for the first time and connect with actual new audience members whenever possible. Don’t detach yourself from the content experience to a point where you fail to spot changes that could radically improve it.

9. Join the conversation

Content experiences are not meant to be monologues. Instead, you should be responding to your audience as if it were sitting right next to you.

10. Never stop researching

Industry trends, content personas, competitive landscape. For all intents and purposes, you are a scientist. You spot opportunities before they are readily apparent because you keep your finger on the pulse.