What is content? It is worth considering the concept of what content is today.
Content is the fabric of the Internet to which we consume and create.
Why do we need to ‘do content’?
With a great piece of content we can get engagement from a
huge audience, or an audience that is very niche and targeted. We are not
interrupting them and giving them answers- pull marketing. It is an antidote to
banners and adverts where you are immediately gaining trust and awareness.
Every company including the self-employed individual should be doing content
even if this means posting to their Facebook page or preferably a blog.
Content marketing is a new digital channel.
Content is multimedia; video, audio, image, text based etc. A curation of formats.
Content is now also a product of much more than PR or Marketing departments. Employees and other departments play a role as everyone becomes a creator and sharer of content.
Definition of a content manager
In the current digital content landscape there are a number of key skills that are required for this role. Not least of which is an underlying appreciation for why ‘content is king’. Content platforms such as YouTube or company blogs need to be thoroughly understood and what power they can give publishers. Certain platforms favour certain types of content. But if you think that YouTube is a video platform you would only be partly right.
Here are the most important skills.
- A content manager must strategize.
- A content manager must produce and organise.
- A content manager may need to write.
- A content manager must understand how URL’s work (a piece of content’s online address) in the eyes of search engines and indexation.
- A content manager needs to understand SEO – text should be able to be understood, readable and enjoyable; deliver a message. Understood contextually by AI e.g. Google.
- A content manager needs to understand file types
and media content types. Codecs video formats image formats etc.
Images- optimised images, responsive for the target devices and SEO friendly with alt tags
A content manager might need some knowledge of code- knowing HTML and formatting is critical to get optimised content that will render correctly across browsers.
Experience
I have worked videos, images and text across many roles for many years. I have also published websites and understood the role content has taken in their survival.
I have acted ‘editor’ for Style Review an online magazine, which ranks articles quickly for guest bloggers and provides a platform for content creation and adsorption. I have created one of the best online resources for the island of Antigua. I have created a running belt that sells on amazon. I have created a fully functional e-commerce store called Shop Style Review.
CMS familiarity- I have managed both Joomla and WordPress Content Management Systems (CMS) and have developed/curated content for both and also enterprise CMS.
Creativity- I am a naturally creative person with an abundance of continual ideas. Being able to be creative with a staid topic is something I am able to do.
I have a design background and so image manipulation and editing is second nature to me.
Accuracy- checking facts and working them into an article is a key part to good content. Infographics are an excellent kind of content.
Editorial- Brand message and understanding what that means keeping a publication or blog true to a style and message. It helps to be personally invested in the subject. There will or should be a target persona for a Brand that should be targeted. It could be necessary to have writers who befit the Brand
You need to be sufficiently technical to understand responsive content and why that matters. Devices such as mobile should be optimised for first (responsive delivery). There is an editorial effect with responsive image display. An image message can be lost with for example cropping or scaling.
A good piece of content is evolving. It is edited updated and kept relevant.
Copyright © 2019 Calvin Crane