Most of you might already know what content is. We mostly think of blogs, videos or social media content when we think of the term content but in reality this term covers a way bigger array of different content types. Your company’s internal memos? Content. Newsletters? Content. Presentations? Content. Product announcements? Also content.
As you already see we live in a world that is flooded with content every second, day or night. Even scrolling through your Facebook feed it can be hard to find that one video you thought was interesting, once you reload the page. In 2019 over 500 hours – yes, you read that right – were uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s some binge watching to do, if you ask me. Forget Netflix.
But this statistic opens another question: How do I find which videos on Youtube or Facebook or Netflix is interesting for me personally? This question also extends further to every business out there: How do my customers find my content? The answer is simple: Strategy.
You might now sit at home (or in a bus or on a public toilet) and think:“But Carina, algorithms find that content for me. What does that have to do with strategy?” And you’d be right. Well, not completely. You see, in order for those algorithms to match your preferences and to find new content for you, the content needs to be filled with visible and invisible information that these algorithms can read. That means there might be the perfect tutorial on how to get rid of blood stains out there for you and you would never know about that, because it does not use the right title, (hash)tags or metadata. So YouTube might just not know that this video might fit your search. By the way, why are you looking up videos on how to clean blood stains out of your carpet? You know what? I don’t even want to know. You do you.
As a content strategist, the thing that interests me, however, is how to get the right content to the right user. That and also how to keep track of the used content. A big company or even your favorite blogger might produce so much content every day that a strategy is absolutely necessary. If not, they won’t know what is published when. And if they decide not to use some of their content now? How do they know where it is stored so they can find it later? Even if you only own a small business or just a just-for-fun blog page. Having a strategy will save you time and even money.
Content strategy is the best way to ensure that you and your audience know exactly what’s going on.
That strategy starts by defining your target group, touches aspects like design and text guidelines, ways to archive your content, customer journeys, editorial calendars, metadata and honestly never ends. Navigating our modern digitalized world can be overwhelming and sometimes frustrating but Content Strategy sure helps with not getting stranded on a lonely island with no water or food. Figuratively speaking.
If you want to learn more about how to make the best out of your content, or have any other questions, feel free to contact me on my LinkedIn:
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Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
carina mayerhofer 
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