Why Conte(x)(n)t Strategy Matters in a Mobile Age

Every year, content strategy is brought up as the 'next new thing' to be aware of. For years, however, many of us have been doing the hard work of curating the content experience. Now it finally comes together...

The Kristina Halvorsons and Rachel Lovingers of the content world are radiating in the glow from the content strategy buzz going on now, evidenced in Erin Kissane's new ebook The Elements of Content Strategy. But for years (since, like 1995), many of us toiled in the abyss of content management systems trying to figure out to how incorporate great content into new web sites, mostly to mixed success.

But a lot of what those folks are talking about has been practiced for years: branded editorial, qualitative auditing, curated publishing, blah, blah, blah. What's missing is a deep discussion about the game changer for content strategy: mobile.

Finally, technology and content strategy are working together because, all of a sudden, context has become more important than ever now that context can be instantly messaged to mobile users. So where does that leave content strategy?

In between the CMS and UX, right smack dab where content strategy should be. CS has never been entirely about either capability (cms/ux) but really borrowing from both. What does this mean for a company's content strategy? Start with mobile and work your way backward to more traditional web site content planning. If NNG is correct, and "killing time is a killer app for mobile", then content strategy should enable the dynamic, contextual nature of mobile content delivery to that device when a user wants to kill time (or even do some banking, e.g.)

How? Content snacks and metadata. More on this next time.