Articles

What kind of content leader does your company need?

In a job interview for a mid-level position, I was once asked “When you move into a senior role, do you see yourself as a strategist, a manager, or a practitioner?” Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that there are different paths that people can take to grow their skills and build their career.

Now, when I’m working with large organizations to help them articulate and hire senior-level content positions, I often come back to a variation of that question: Does your company require a strategist, a manager, or a practitioner?

A problem of perspective

People are having a lot of exciting discussions about content strategy these days. Technology companies are advancing the conversation about product and UX content strategy. Agencies and consultancies (ours included) share advice, tools, and case studies to keep companies competitive in today’s digital, content-rich environment. There are great things happening and forward momentum, so what’s the problem?

Lure content: enticing but unwise

We recently had a client who referred to their glossy marketing content as lure content. Large enticing photos, minimal text, clear calls to action. Content designed to get people to bite so they can be reeled in. I have a big problem with the whole concept of lure content.