This week’s lessons in content strategy took us deeper into the process with assessment. Data, questions, research, analysis, quantitative versus qualitative; these are all words I’ve heard before when answering polls in the workplace about people. Applying these same concepts to content, a product of people, makes sense. As a producer of content a couple of things stood out to me.
- I’m surprised to learn I write more than the average technical writer. In one of the readings, Tom Johnson discusses what his day-in-the-life looks like, very little of which includes actual writing. Between answering technical support emails about our proposal management software, creating a presentation script, and working on step-by-step instructions for a manual, I spend an inordinate amount of time writing. Why is that? And, how do I answer, “why?” More importantly, is what I’m writing quality content? (I’m very excited to apply these TechWhirl poll questions in the coming weeks.)
- Successful content strategy research and assessment takes patience, a lot of questions, and time. Chapter 3 of Enterprise Content Strategy seems like a long tedious checklist of questions. However, the goal is to illustrate just how much information is available to a strategist. These questions show the many facets a strategist must consider when thinking about how best to plan for an assessment. Consistently knowing which pieces of data to consider for different clients takes experience and knowledge gained with practice over time.
However, the piece I found most interesting – and most applicable to my career trajectory – is this: there is no escaping metadata. I spent most of my early career working in libraries where metadata is the key to finding anything and everything. I believe it’s why I have a good grasp of SEO and anticipating customer needs, although I didn’t believe it would translate well into a new career in technical writing. Metadata is necessary for everything from organizing a blog to making a website accessible to developing a content strategy. Information about content guides a strategist in the analysis and development phases.
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