As of May 6th 2010, the only person to have mentioned the word “customer” in this thread has been Julio Vazquez, and he mentioned this word in passing about three months ago.

It is here that I look at strategy as the connecting thread between great overarching vision and the singular experience of a customer.

If there is no customer for this content is content strategy a treatise from Sun Tzu “Art of War”?

What is the value of intellectual edification around the word strategy (never mind content) if the sum total of what we think about it has no relevance or regard to the existence of a recipient or value creation that is meaningful to a customer.

Perhaps then, content strategy is actually content wisdom. Yet I find that we have more information in this world of ours than we know what to do with, and more content is quite pointless, if it simply substitutes the mountain of content that has already been deposited from the libraries of the collective human imagination.

The idea that less is more means to me a sharpening of the saw, so that strategy – that connecting thread between a grand vision and value creation (let me account wisdom here as valuable as money), then I feel that discernment trumps definition.

A realized vision, the magic of value creation, a result that differentiates itself from the madding crowd, now that is the hallmark of something that transcends the mass market of content.

If strategy then is the connecting flow (rather than thread) between vision and value creation, it becomes more than the science of method to deal with a customer and more than the art of giving birth to a vision. Strategy therefore is a thread that can be easily broken or a flow that inspires purpose.

From this I simply would like to deduct that strategy is for the most part a connecting thread, but if we are really mindful of it, it might become a connecting flow.

I must take my leave here now, for thinking is not strategic, strategic is the practical wisdom of having a great vision and strategy is the connecting flow or thread that transforms imagination into innovation and innovation into value creation.

What I am highly blessed with is not to know what strategy is, but realize what strategy can do.

[Em]

Excellent post Kristina (As usual)

What's interesting is that over 10 years ago we started as a content company and only now are we hearing clients talk about content and strategy in the same sentence

My personal answer is no.

Worse still, in this present moment I find that I am not able to define “leadership” either.

Having already read the quality of this blog, I have a feeling that by the time I have spent quality time lurking here, I may finally arrive at personally suitable answer that will satisfy this newly found curiosity.

I am glad to have found this place, and henceforth until I have an adequate answer that I have also “field tested”, I will observe from a respectful and appreciative distance.

I pass my compliments to all who participate here for I am presently witness to a splendid community of thinkers and doers. My online journeys take me here, there and everywhere and so this observation I have made is itself “field tested”.

[Em]

As you have argued, it has to be a holistic approach, but how do we do it for corporations, given this new world of superconnectivity, and being all about one to one conversations, with authentic folks, nurturing relationships and building towards trust. For me, personal branding is the key, and even corporations will need to start hiring/training Engagement managers (across the entire corporation. It could be anyone) in order to optimize RORI (return on relationship investment) with target communities. In fact, one of the titles of my post is “Why Personal Branding is your Social Media hub”. Would love your feedback ) http://ow.ly/12L14

Look forward to participating in this fascinating conversation )

Cheers,
Prince

She created something she called the RISE framework. Each letter stood for a layer in a content framework: Recognition, Image, Specifics, and Enactment. All documents have these components even if you haven't given any thought to it. That last thing, Enactment, includes call to action, contact devices, contact addresses.

The web came along and Information Architecture spans the document set, some of it organized, the enactments measured. But, the architecture really reaches well beyond the internet document set.

It turns out that if you have five stakeholder groups in the buy, you need to market to each. Each needs its own enactment chain of linked documents building towards the buy.

This stands as my model of marketing w/content.

Your knowledge on this topic really comes through in this post. With grace you address two views from other voices on the topic without being harmful (we can all benefit from this example). You provide clarity on a subject that many are skipping and are putting the cart before the horse. And finally, you provide a clear, helpful definition for those of who need it: marketers and agencies alike.

Well Done!