DJ Francis | Critical Mass Chicago

“Content strategy is brand new and we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”

-Kristina Halvorson

This was the seminal quote from†the Web Content 2010 conference held a few weeks ago here in Chicago. People (read: clients and bosses) are giving our work credence, despite an ever-evolving struggle to plan for, create, monitor, and evaluate online content.

This sentiment gives voice to both a frustration and excitement surrounding content strategy.†And thus practitioners of library sciences, taxonomies, copywriting, sociology, psychology, and content strategy, itself, came together – to learn, commiserate, and plot a way forward for our burgeoning profession.

Smart Folks, Smart Lessons

Learning was central as it should be, with insightful presentations by content strategy notables like Kristina Halvorson, Rachel Lovinger, and Jeff MacIntyre. A few of the lessons that impacted me and the work we do at Critical Mass included:

• A content strategy methodology is beginning to firm up. Whether you call it “Plan, Create, Govern” or “Audit, Plan, Build, Grow” or another variation, the building blocks of content strategy are starting to become almost universal (pointing to the maturation of the practice).
• Content governance is a huge missing piece, especially for agencies. While it’s getting easier to sell the planning and creation elements, content maintenance seems to still be getting short shrift.
• There is a great opportunity to bring in younger content strategists. Spending my 32nd birthday at the first day of the conference, I was one of the youngest attendees and most certainly the youngest full-time content strategist. It will be interesting to watch an influx of Millennials†during the next few years who come naturally to social media channels and distributed content, but perhaps lack the “publishing” experience brought by the Boomers (and the potential sweet-spot offered to Gen Xers).

Despite those learnings and many more (I will be referencing the materials shared at this conference for a long time to come), I was struck by the perfect blend of vexation and opportunity, to get back to Pulizzi’s quote.

A Time of Huge Opportunity (And What To Do With It)

We are at an amazing cross-roads where our audience is receptive to our message. Now is the time to be selling.

Conferences like this offer the opportunity to commiserate, but I thought speakers and participants at Web Content 2010 were wise to acknowledge this sentiment, but quickly get back to the business at hand (namely: growing our businesses).

Use those 15 years to your advantage. Read More