I presented these slides at Sisältöstrategiaseminaari 2012 (Content Strategy Seminar 2012) in Helsinki. The event was a co-production of Vapa Media and the University of Helsinki. The presentation addresses why Content Strategy is a practice of such particular interest right now. It looks at how we got to where we are today, why content strategy matters, and a few future trends to watch.

1. Content Strategy: Why Now?
Content Strategy Seminar 2012
8 February 2012
Rachel Lovinger @rlovinger

2. RACHEL LOVINGER 2
• Associate Content Strategy Director,
Razorfish, New York
• Co-editor of scatter/gather, a content
strategy blog:
http://scattergather.razorfish.com
• Author of Nimble: A Razorfish
Report on Publishing in the
Digital Age (June 2010):
http://nimble.razorfish.com
(@NimbleRF on Twitter)
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by Rohanna Mertens

3. CONTENT STRATEGY: WHY NOW? 3
• Where we’ve come from
• Why content strategy matters
• Where we’re headed
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

4. WHERE WE’VE COME FROM

5. First, a definition
WHAT IS CONTENT
STRATEGY?

6. “Content Strategy plans for the creation,
delivery, and governance of useful, usable
content.”
- Kristina Halvorson

7. WHAT IS CONTENT? 7
• Text on the site
• Images
• Video
• Audio
• Data
• User Comments
• Email
• Online Conversations
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

8. CONTENT IS THE REASON PEOPLE GO TO YOUR SITE 8
Photo by zandperl

9. CONTENT STRATEGY RESPONSIBILITIES 9
• Messaging: What are we trying to say, and to whom?
• Sourcing: Where is our content coming from?
• Management: How are we going to deliver and maintain it?
• Engagement: How do people find and connect with our content?
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

10. CONTENT STRATEGY ACTIVITIES 10
• Messaging
• Content evaluation
• Editorial strategy
• Content/Brand alignment
• Features & formats recommendations
• Sourcing
• Gap analysis
• Content specifications
• Content creation guidelines
• Governance plan
• Syndication strategy
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

11. CONTENT STRATEGY ACTIVITIES 11
• Management
• Content Model
• Editorial workflow
• Metadata & Taxonomy
• CMS consulting
• Engagement
• Platforms/channels recommendations
• Search strategy
• Social strategy
• Mobile strategy
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

12. THESE ACTIVITIES ARE INTER-RELATED 12
Messaging Sourcing
What are we trying to say, Where is our content
and to whom? coming from?
Engagement Management
How do people find and How are we going to deliver
connect with our content? and maintain it?
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

13. CONTENT STRATEGY IS INTERDISCIPLINARY 13
marketers writers
designers editors
Messaging Sourcing
What are we trying to say, Where is our content
and to whom? coming from?
strategy
& planning
Engagement Management
How do people find and How are we going to deliver
connect with our content? and maintain it?
developers
search information
social media
architects
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

14. A bit of history
HOW DID WE GET HERE?

15. MENTIONS ON THE WEB: 2000-2008 15
Results for "Content Strategy"
Google Results
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

16. 2000: CHECKLIST FROM INC. 16

17. 2001: JAKOB NIELSEN – “WRITING FOR THE WEB” 17

18. 2002: PAUL FORD OFFERS HIS SERVICES 18

19. 2003: ANN ROCKLEY – MANAGING ENTERPRISE CONTENT 19

20. 2004: CS FOR EMAIL NEWSLETTERS 20

21. 2005: AMY GAHRAN STARTS A SERIES 21

22. 2006: RSS IS THE “HOT NEW THING” 22

23. 2007: RACHEL LOVINGER – BOXES & ARROWS 23

24. 2008: KRISTINA HALVORSON – A LIST APART 24

25. MENTIONS ON THE WEB: 2000-2008 25
Results for "Content Strategy"
Google Results
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Year
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

26. MENTIONS ON THE WEB: 2000-2011 26
Results for "Content Strategy"
Google Results
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Year
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

27. MENTIONS ON THE WEB: 2000-2011 27
Results for "Content Strategy"
SOMETHING HAPPENED HERE
Google Results
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Year
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

28. CONTENT STRATEGY CONSORTIUM: 19 MARCH 2009 28
At the IA Summit, organized by:
Kristina Halvorson @halvorson and Karen McGrane @karenmcgrane
Attended by:
Ian Alexander @eatmedia Rachel Lovinger @rlovinger
Margot Bloomstein @mbloomstein Jeff MacIntyre @jeffmacintyre
Jennifer Bohmbach @evoljennifer Keri Maijala @clamhead
Shelly Bowen @shelbow Laura Melcher @lmelcher
Lorelei Brown @beezy Elena Melendy @emelendy
Christopher Collette @collettico Chris Moritz @chrismoritz
R. Stephen Gracey @RSGracey Melissa Rach @melissarach
Stephanie Hale @HaleStephanie Erin Scime @erinscime
Margret Hanley @magshanley Gene Smith @gsmith
Colleen Jones @leenjones Samantha Starmer @samanthastarmer
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

29. CONTENT STRATEGY FOR THE WEB: 22 AUG 2009 29

30. THEN: UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH 30
Photo by Jeff Myers

31. CONTENT STRATEGY COMMUNITY 31

32. CONTENT STRATEGY CONFERENCES 32
CS Forum
2010: Paris, France
2011: London, England
2012: Cape Town, South Africa
CONTENT STRATEGY APPLIED 2011 & 2012: MINNEAPOLIS, MN

33. ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS 33

34. OTHER CONTENT STRATEGY BOOKS 34

35. COLLEGE COURSES 35
 College Courses
 ContentsMagazine.com
©2011 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

36. CONTENTS MAGAZINE 36
http://contentsmagazine.com/

37. A bit about me
HOW DID I GET HERE?

38. RACHEL LOVINGER 38
• Associate Content Strategy Director,
Razorfish, New York
• Co-editor of scatter/gather, a content
strategy blog:
http://scattergather.razorfish.com
• Author of Nimble: A Razorfish
Report on Publishing in the
Digital Age (June 2010):
http://nimble.razorfish.com
(@NimbleRF on Twitter)
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by Rohanna Mertens

39. EDITORS: HOME PAGE 39
Screenshot via Wayback Machine

40. THE OTHER 10,000+ ARTICLES 40
Screenshot via Wayback Machine

41. HOW I BECAME A CONTENT STRATEGIST 41
Editorial Goals Business Goals
Technology
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

42. HOW I BECAME A CONTENT STRATEGIST 42
Tactics
Editorial Goals Business Goals
Vision
Technology
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

43. APPROACHES TO WEB CONTENT STRATEGY 43
Richard Ingram made
this diagram to show
how people bring
different skills,
backgrounds, and
experiences to their
work in Content
Strategy, and this
impacts the way they
practice, and the aspects
they focus on.
Diagram by Richard Ingram

44. HOW DID WE ALL GET HERE? 44
The following year, Ingram
surveyed content strategists
about their educational and
professional backgrounds. He
mapped the answers
from 265 respondents to get
an even more detailed view of
the paths we took
to get to Content Strategy.
Diagram by Richard Ingram

45. It’s not necessary to have “Content
Strategist” in your title in order to
practice content strategy.

46. WHY CONTENT STRATEGY
MATTERS

47. Content Grooming
CLEARING OUT THE R.O.T.

48. ROT = REDUNDANT, OUTDATED, TRIVIAL 48
• Criteria for
evaluating
content
• This article
is trivial
• These related
items are
redundant
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

49. CONTENT ANALYSIS & CREATION GUIDELINES 49
• Evaluate content quality
• Remove or revise content, as needed
• Prevent ROT in new content
• Relevant
• On-brand
• Periodic review
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

50. Content Creation
“EVERYONE’S A PUBLISHER”

51. NON-MEDIA COMPANIES 51
• Sourcing or writing
articles
• Creating videos
• Seeding social media
campaigns
• Monitoring
communities
• Etc.
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

52. EDITORIAL STRATEGIES 52
• Define messaging goals
“Encourage exploration and build
brand loyalty. Foster discussion among
existing and prospective customers.”
• Optimize the organization and operational practices
workflow diagram by Richard Ingram, via Intentional Design

53. Content Business Models
“PRINT IS DEAD”

54. PRINT IS AT RISK 54
Photo by inky

55. ATTENTION IS DIVIDED 55
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by me

56. CREATE NEW DIGITAL EXPERIENCES 56
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

57. CREATE NEW BUSINESS MODELS 57
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Source: The New York Times Corporation

58. Content Delivery
DISRUPTIVE PERSONAL TECH

59. READ ON OUR TABLETS 59
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by TheCreativePenn

60. UPLOAD PHOTOS FROM OUR PHONES 60
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by Mathias Klang

61. STREAM VIDEOS ON OUR TV 61
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by Dennis S. Hurd

62. TALK TO OUR CARS TO PLAY MUSIC 62
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by HighTechDad

63. Multiplatform publishing follows the principle:
Produce once, use multiple times.

64. OPTIMIZE: CONTENT CREATION & EXPERIENCE 64
Photo by cvander

65. Content Communications
THE UBIQUITOUS
CONVERSATION

66. ENGAGING ON MANY CHANNELS 66
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

67. SUPERFANS, DEEPLY ENGAGED 67
You don’t
control the
conversation.
But you can
participate.
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Fan Art by kidnotorious

68. TRACK SOCIAL ACTIVITY 68
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

69. WHERE WE’RE HEADED

70. FUTURE TRENDS & NEEDS

71. INCREASED CONTENT STRATEGY COLLABORATION 71
Marketing
Social
• Integrated Processes
• Commercial Tools

72. STRUCTURED DATA 72
• Markup that provides more meaning and context
• Ad hoc and standard methods of adding structure
<b>Madonna</b> Indicates that the text within the tags
should be bold.
<H1>Madonna</H1> Indicates that the text within the tags
is a headline.
<foaf:name>Madonna</foaf:name> Indicates that the text within the tags
is a name, as defined in the “Friend
of a Friend” vocabulary.
<amgID=64565>Madonna</amgID> Indicates that the text within the tags
refers to the recording artist
Madonna, as described on AllMusic.
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

73. STRUCTURED DATA IN THE CMS 73
Example: Drupal 7
• Open source CMS
• Native support for standard data structures
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

74. SEMANTIC TECHNOLOGY 74
Connect your content and data to
other rich data sources
<IMDbID=tt1193138>Up in the Air</IMDbID>
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

75. GLOBALIZATION/LOCALIZATION 75
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Photo by me

76. MULTIPLATFORM PUBLISHING 76
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.
Source: Fast Company

77. CONCLUSION

78. CONTENT STRATEGY: WHY NOW? 78
• Content Strategy has arrived
• It will continue to develop and grow
• We were doing Content Strategy without even knowing it
• Now we’re getting disciplined
• It’s work that matters
• Almost everything we do online involves content
• We’re almost always online
Content strategy is going to help us
make sense of this digital world
©2012 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

79. Thanks!
RACHEL LOVINGER
@rlovinger