Wow! These last 8 weeks have been quite a whirlwind of learning and thinking more about digital content than I ever thought I would. In fact, when I started this course, I didn’t even realize that content strategy existed. How’s that for ignorance? However, a quote from Sarah Kessler, author of Fast Company, shared in the Module 1 lecture video made me think again about the pervasiveness of content, “Thanks to the internet, anyone can now be a publisher.”

Image credit: NathanKahle.com

In 8 short weeks, though, I have:

• learned plenty about digital content management and strategy
• met an actual client
• listened to client interviews
• audited and assessed that the client’s content
• conducted research on the client and their content situation, and
• produced 2 digital content reports, an audit/assessment and a content strategy roadmap

I’ve also collaborated with a team and worked individually to create those reports. I thought I knew something about Microsoft Excel, but my teammates showed me that there is so much more about spreadsheets and their functionalities that I never knew, and I learned about using Microsoft Word to make everything in a report look beautiful and professional. Oh, and I used new software like Microsoft TEAMs, Trello, and MadCap Flare to learn about team communication and collaboration, project management, and component content management systems (CCMSs). The more I reflect on the course, the more I can add to this list. This Digital Content Strategy course was completely packed with interesting information and experiences.

What’s the most important thing someone learning about content strategy should do?

Be iterative. Content strategy is where meticulousness pays off. When you think you’ve done everything, think it over and do more. Make a plan. Find out everything you can. Talk to every person that is willing to talk to you. Ask every question that you can think of. Approach the problem from all different angles. Do all of the research. Think it all through again. Walk back through it all again. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

As Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach write in their book Content Strategy for the Web, “Content is a team sport,” and with any team sport, practice makes perfect.

What’s the most important thing someone learning about content strategy should NOT do?

Don’t ignore the story. All things relating to content strategy can sometimes (well, a lot of the time) lean toward being a bit dry for the reader, and it can be challenging to hold their interest when perusing a report. While it’s essential to deliver accurate, data-backed, carefully thought-through results and analysis, it’s also necessary to win over your client’s interest and trust. This approach will build a relationship between you and the client, resulting in improved acceptance of what you deliver to them.

During our team project, my teammates and I were careful to tell the story of how we walked through the content data that we collected in arranging our spreadsheet. We presented the data in the order of importance to the client and grouped topically, which demonstrated that we listened carefully to her comments and thought carefully about what she would use the data for and how she would use it. We continued that approach with the assessment report, to maintain an interesting flow to the analysis prose. We also paid attention to the tone of the writing in order to strike a balance between professional delivery and a slightly more interesting friendly/familiar feel.

What was most meaningful about content strategy for your own career goals? Why?

I began this course because it is part of a graduate certificate program for Proposal Writing, and I wanted to volunteer to write proposals for nonprofit organizations. Soon after it began, I was overwhelmed and ready to drop it and go no further. However, the professor and fellow students were supportive and encouraging and helped me stick with it, and I am delighted that I did. Now I am strongly considering applying for the graduate program to get a masters degree in Technical Communication. I’m not sure where my path will go from here, but I am definitely more willing to take the next steps without really knowing what the outcome will be.

The biggest takeaway I have from this experience in the world of digital content is summed up by Colleen Jones, CEO of Content Science, when she says “Your content decisions are like poker bets, not chess formulas.” Poker bets are made without complete information; a lot of it is an educated guess. The more comfortable you get with putting together the puzzle without knowing where all the pieces are, the better you will be at content strategy.

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Reflections on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in my future career.

Until I began this course, I had not intentionally sat down to look at AI, how it works, its uses, etc. I’m certain I had encountered it but mostly by happenstance. Going through the processes of analysis and writing in this course made me curious about just how this AI writing thing works, so I went to try it out. There was a job listing to help fact-check AI-generated content, and I thought it would be a great way to get familiar with its use. It didn’t take long for me to realize that fact-checking of this content is incredibly vital, because it all looks and sounds intelligent, even if it isn’t correct. It made me want to stick to using AI writing to enhance what I produce, after it’s been produced, rather than use AI to generate content from scratch.