Many of you have been managing your digital workplace for a while now and may have given little thought to creating a strategy around content. You are not alone! It's never too late to start. Read on as Igloo's Content Strategist, Ashley Pergolas, guides you through some key areas of our new Content Strategy Handbook. 

 Ashley, let's start at the beginning. What is a content strategy and how does that differ from a content plan? 

Great question! A content strategy determines how internal and external content can be leveraged to help your organization reach its business objectives. When it comes to the digital workplace, a content strategy can provide overarching guidelines related to key messaging, tone, and style, as well as key content-focused goals that determine how content is published, organized, and maintained in the digital workplace. 

Content plans focus on the operational and tactical details needed to execute your strategy and often focus on specific areas, channels, or Solutions within your digital workplace. Your content plans can include details about who owns specific channels, how often you want to publish on those channels, and whether or not that channel needs to be moderated.  

What are the elements of a content strategy for a digital workplace? 

Your digital workplace content strategy helps you deliver valuable, purposeful content that helps your employees work more efficiently and effectively. To get started on a content strategy for your own digital workplace, we recommend focusing on the following elements that have an impact across your entire digital workplace: 

• Information architecture (location of content) 
• Nomenclature(taxonomies and naming conventions)
• Findability (labels) 
• Ownership (authors, subject matter experts, maintenance 
• Tone and style (brand alignment)

If you could share one key tip with our readers who are starting to think about creating a content strategy, what would it be? 

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when it comes to content is thinking more is better. It's not. Publishing content for the sake of having something new to push out is not the right approach to an effective content strategy. This is extremely important to keep in mind when it comes to your digital workplace. It's easy to get carried away pushing out content, overwhelming users and causing information overload. The following is one of my favorite quotes about where content is heading in the digital age. With the technology available to us, the nature of content is changing! 

"If you want content that's ready for whatever the future holds, it's time to stop making more content, and instead start building systems that allow you to do more." 

- Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Content Everywhere: Strategy and Structure for Future-Ready Content

Next Up: Let's get this content strategy party started