by Lucie Hyde on Thursday 22nd March 2012 08:16:20 AM

Meeting more than 100 content fanatics during Content Strategy Applied at the beginning of March, I was struck once again by the sheer amount of content strategy that is going on.

Organisations large and small, local and global, public and private, they’re all doing it. In fact, it’s reached epidemic proportions, and as technology allows us to weave an ever-more complex tapestry of communications across websites, social media, mobile applications, tablets, smartphones, (and God knows what next) content professionals everywhere are working against the clock to stop it all unravelling at the edges.

Three weeks after we closed the doors on CSA 2012, I’ve finally got my breath back, and paused long enough to reflect on the main themes of this year’s conference.

We don’t consume content the way we used to

“Every 60 seconds, there's over 600,000 status updates on Facebook, 6,600 images uploaded to Flickr and 600 videos uploaded to YouTube (Source: Google).” Bian Salins, British Telecom

If you want to build a feasible content strategy, it’s no longer enough to know what content users will consume – now you need to know how they consume it, when, with whom and, critically, on what device.

The vast array of smartphones and tablets on the market, with no standardised platform or operating system yet prevailing (despite the perceived dominance of the iPhone) make this a daunting task. But make sense of it we must, because with information more portable than ever, our users are consuming content at an ever increasing rate, in ever more diverse ways.

Social Media and Mobile really have changed the world (and it is possible to buy pink football boots on a Sunday afternoon while driving around a safari park**)

Think what you like about Mark Zuckerberg, the website he designed while still an undergraduate at Harvard has gone on to change the world. Democratising the web still further, social media has allowed our users to connect with people  globally and start their own conversations. Uninhibited by traditional one-way marketing practices, our customers have forced us to evolve the pursuit for brand worship into the more egalitarian practice of brand relationships. This means content has to work harder than ever before to retain credibility and claim authority.

Mobile now accounts for a staggering proportion of the revenue in many global companies, despite the fact it was commercially nascent only three years ago. This revolution allowed me to buy pink football boots on a Saunday afternoon during a drive around a safari park, and millions like me to choose more than ever before when and how we want to shop. Challenging given the diminutive scale of device, conciseness and clarity have never been so important as when developing content that can be read on a mobile phone.

**for the sake of clarity, I'd like to point out I wasn't actually driving while using eBay's mobile buying app!

Content Strategy is a broad discipline

One thing that really struck me during this year’s conference was the sheer breadth of skills and expertise on show. Much like engineering, I believe content strategy as a discipline will evolve to include a very broad range of capabilities, from the heavily technical to the thankfully fluffy. Come, join us, there’s a place here for everyone!

A few people can make a lot of noise

It’s not often that I’ve wanted to be in the same place as Justin Bieber, but for a few short, glorious minutes, there we were, trending globally on twitter, alongside the teen wonder. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not usually one to search for the spotlight, but what struck me was how engaged only a few more than 100 people need to be in order to generate enough noise to attract global porn tweets. If only we could generate the same noise and engagement every day back in our organisations, we’d have this practice cracked! Which brings me neatly to my final point …

We’ve found our self confidence (I think!)

We did have the usual self-flagellating conversation around whether or not content strategy is “real” and whether we’re valued.

Well, time for me to get down off the fence on this one. I’m done with this conversation.

I can tell you that it is real. It is happening right now, in a content-producing organisation near you (and I don't just mean eBay).

It’s also increasingly valued. In fact, it’s a commercial imperative. If organisations don’t engage in content strategy (at least in the digital space) then best case scenario there’s a missed opportunity cost. Deleting content is just as important as producing it – producing good content first time round is better for all concerned.  

Building an integrated strategy around the content an organisation produces across all of its channels  is, in many places, the only thing stopping communications degenerating into commercial tourettes.

So please, I beg you, no more. No more existential questioning of our very existence, or insecure machinations around whether we’re loved.  You’re not alone. We do exist. We do add value. And I for one love you all.

So now we’ve resolved that, please put all your energies into doing more great content strategy, and we look forward to you sharing the results with us at CSA 2013.

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