Content strategy seems still to be a nascent discipline that folks are catching wind of. We kind of know that it lives somewhere between web writing, web editing, information architecture, SEO stuff, web analytics, and production. We know that it (and content in general) are often overlooked in the web design and development process, despite everyone’s insistence that Content is King. And we know it’s all about planning for what content will go where, who owns, authors, and maintains it, how the content relates to a company’s business and other goals, how it fits within a larger matrix of technologies and constraints, etc.

In other words, we’ve got a good sense of where content strategy lives, who might do it, what the deliverables might be, and what outside elements deserve consideration. But do we know how to do it, and do it well? I think this is the essential question.

How we do.I’ve not done enough content strategy to be able to teach people how to do it, but I think we can all safely agree on the following:

A good content strategist has to understand Information Architecture. In other words, he/she needs to know how and why things like sitemaps, wireframes, and process flows matter—and be interested in how the way information is designed and presented on the page affects not only the beauty and cohesion of a website, but also a businesses’ bottom line.

Ergo, a good content strategist should have a solid understanding of basic marketing. Ideas like what “differentiation and positioning” mean, how to track analytics and think about conversion, what social media is, etc.

And of course, a good content strategist should know how to write, and for the web. This doesn’t only encompass copywriting; it also involves writing for SEO, metadata, technical and regulatory specs, and more.

This means that a good content strategist will not only have great writing skills—she’ll also have the technical chops to work within the constraints technology imposes on the the content. Knowing various CMS’s, understanding databases, etc. is paramount.

The Key?Seems to me that good content strategy requires much more than the ability to create and compile great content—it requires the ability to lead projects, attend to larger concerns and constraints that are outside the scope of just web writing, kick ass documentation skills, and an understanding of every aspect of building and designing a website—since, in effect, the content strategist sits smack dab in the middle of all the disciplines, and mitigates between them.