Content Strategy in Organizations and in Life

Reaching the third semester of my Content Strategy Master's Program all the bits and pieces finally start making sense. I know, I'm a slow learner. It's exciting when it happens, though. Just a glimpse into what content strategy can be about:

• We've learned much about auditing an organization's content, looking at the business needs and goals of that organization and determine whether goals and content fit together. 
• We dove into rules and best practices when it comes to creating written, spoken and filmed content, and even peeked behind the curtains by making first steps in coding (probably the least popular lecture, I feel sympathy for our enthusiastic and patient lecturer).
• Probably some of the most important lectures dealt with managing content. I think everyone is aware of the sheer amount of content around them and it is frightening when you realize that most of it is poorly managed. Thus content modeling will go a long way–soon hopefully. 

There is far more parts to the puzzle but this is what stuck with me most. I'm excited for what I can do with content now and I'm juggling ideas every day. I catch myself reading online articles with a content bias now: 'Have they modeled their content? That is, are all headlines defined? Is the author defined? What bits and pieces is it made of?' And it really soothes my mind when I can sense a strategy and a model behind a website's content. (Did I mention how much I enjoy a tidy home?)

Content Strategy I Learned from My Fellow Students

Foto: Sarolta Hershey // Edited in Canva

The best part of this Master's Program are my fellow students. We come from all over the world and many different industries. Thus I got to peek into companies, agencies and organizations I had no idea about before. And I learn from content initiatives there–as well as from the other students' ideas. Two examples:

• Since the podcast about establishing a newsroom in your company I can't stop thinking about how this might help the company I work at. 
• I'm also a graphic designer and thus approach design professionally. From Xenia I have learned how design can be done quick and dirty if a content creator is not a professional. Well designed templates are the key of course, we're not talking about sloppy design here!

The last thing we are learning from each other is not about the subjects taught. It's about life. Because let me tell you this: Going to work every day and studying in the evenings and on the weekends is tough. We need each other's encouragement and support. A few blog post have been written by us on the topic of managing professional and student life but Alexandra's New Year's Resolution has stuck with me: "Hand in the Master’s Thesis in June"–and don't wait until September. Wish me luck.