“Content strategy?” Just write as well as you can.
Words matter and life’s short. Be clear, descriptive and confident online.

I toiled countless hours — running from side to side, scouring the Series of Tubes, and at last ascending the mountaintop — to learn all regarding ‘content’ and ’strategy’ for company blogs.

Here’s what I brought back.

Content = words.
Strategy = Make the words as interesting as you possibly can.

Observe, listen, respond
Before you set out to blog for your organization, first identify influencers out there in the greater world who already are writing on the topics you care about. Subscribe to their feeds, read them regularly and begin commenting on their sites. Commenting elsewhere first will stir your creative juices, build awareness and credibility and will give you a stronger idea toward your own weblog commentary.

The writing: Passion & opinion
Write to your passions and not to an egg timer. In other words, emphasize quality comment, regarding areas you are most passionate about, over rigidly scheduled topics or timing. Stay with the things you’ve got a definite point of view about and the timing and routine of the writing, and new ideas, will begin to click.

Be honest
Write with confidence and do not hesitate to give bold opinion, in your voice. Anticipate the predictable take on a subject, and then resist that angle. The key to effective persuasive comment is not in “making the novel familiar” (a new idea or product is introduced into the ongoing conversation), but rather in “making the familiar novel.”

Man bites dog
One of my favorite scribes, Tom Junod, advises, “Identify the cliché for the given story… and refuse to write it.” Instead take the item or trend that everyone’s discussing and turn it on its ear! Executed well, this is precisely how you will build an audience. Use action verbs, use large metaphors (large is smart — people always can relate to The Titanic), free associate, challenge the reader… all in your voice.

Kill jargon
For the love of Pete… Suppress every urge to write about “solutions.” (Every urge!) Direct all your writing so your mother will understand all of it. Instead, be descriptive. Tell stories. Resist the herd opinion, to find the angle on the topic that is uniquely yours… A wise man once said, “The acceptance of an idea is dependent on how it’s presented.”

Be smart
Try not to mix business with pleasure in your online writing. That includes the public and traceable current social media darlings Twitter and Facebook. The rule of thumb is: separate accounts for separate personas, but even then be mindful of confidentiality. (I found a helpful WSJ blurb on this.)

No ghosting
Yes, the hired writer just wrote that. True connection demands that your ideas truly be your ideas. That said: the process can result always in your own voice and still be a shared process. What this means is, you are permitted to a) have a great idea or the makings of one, b) be swamped, and c) hand off (either out loud or in print) your passionate thoughts or a partial-to-full list of your main points, which then can d) be “riffed upon” / examined, drafted and e) returned to you for f) further revision and quick, ultimate, glorious approval and publication. Include time in your schedule for content and soon the words and ideas will flow.

Patience, persistence
For the blog and its entries, real-life connection and relationships will develop over time. Since the idea of a professional blog is an online extension of relationship building (people exchanging tips, interesting commentary and noteworthy content), the key is to do this expecting nothing in return as the audience finds it way to you. Reaching the right people is important (and will happen), but what you say to them is equally, if not vastly more, important.

Be concise…This is the web, after all.
I’ve gone on long enough.