The Elements of Content Strategy - Erin Kissane [6]
That’s why we need to know our roots. If you know who you are—and how you got that way—it’s going to be much harder for someone else to define you into a corner. Not to mention that if you know at least some of the tricks and traditions and history of your tribe, you won’t have to reinvent it all by yourself.
The origin of the species
It’s nice to think of our field as a vigorous hybrid, but it often feels more like a Frankenstein’s monster assembled from spare parts and animated by deadline-inspired panic. Also appropriate: the ancient Greek creature called the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion on one end, the head of a serpent on the other, and a goat’s head growing out of the middle of its body. (I’ll just let you think about that for a minute.)
Designers have a pantheon they can point to: Paula Scher and Saul Bass, but also Bodoni and Gutenberg. Developers have cultural heroes like Alan Turing and Sir Tim Berners-Lee. These disciplines have legacies and shared principles. Design should communicate. Elegant code is better than sloppy code.
Though it lacks a goat head, content strategy also has a legacy. Several, in fact. And each has plenty to teach us. A complete genetic breakdown would require a separate book, so for now, let’s consider the four most influential fields: editorial work, curatorial work, marketing and persuasion, and information science.
Influence #1: The Editor
Editorial work is so closely related to content strategy that questions about the difference between the two often arise. From the outside, content strategy can look quite a lot like the sort of editing found in magazines and newspapers. The editorial world, and that of publishing in general, has a lot to offer us.
For people outside of the publishing industry, the title of editor may raise the specter of the cranky, scotch-drinking, overcoat-wearing, borderline dysfunctional editors played by the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. Alternatively, those traumatized as children by English teachers may expect an editor to pride herself on being a “stickler” and whack you on the knuckles when you split an infinitive.
It’s true that an ear for correct language is helpful and that a passion for getting the story told right is indispensable. But real-world editing is much more about crack organizational skills, a habit of developing practical communication ideas, and the ability to deal firmly and diplomatically with the whole crew of people involved in getting a book, newspaper, or website from concept to delivery. Editors don’t just assign stories and make margin notes in blue pencil: they develop themes and narrative arcs, orchestrate responses to other publications and outside events, maintain a balanced variety of articles or books, evaluate and manage writers and other content creators, and much more.
Leaving aside the knuckle-whacking, editors have plenty to teach us about handling content.
Content people work for the user
In publishing, if you don’t win, hold, and reward the attention of your readers—whether they’re fans of tabloid journalism or wistful MFA-program novels—you’re out of a job. Editors worth their salt work not for writers or publishers, but for readers.
Though content specialists must often mediate between product teams, marketing and corporate communication departments, special initiatives, and development staff, we too work for readers. In Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson