If you’re considering hiring a content strategy vendor, or a content strategist for your staff, I’d recommend you start by reading Rahel Anne Bailie’s recent posts:
- Content strategies: The skills conundrum
- Abilities and aptitudes for a content strategist
- The extraordinary world of content strategists
Bailie gives a really nice picture of what you should expect from a content strategist.
I’ve just got another thought to throw out there. There’s no certification for content strategy. No “professional content strategist” exam to take. No college courses. Basically, you say you’re working in content strategy, and voila, you are!
And I think that makes a lot of people nervous. I get it.
But here’s the thing. I’m thinking about all the people that I hire who are certified. Licensed. Bonded. Insured. People who have official, professional credentials.
In no case, ever in my life, have I asked to see those credentials. Now, maybe I’m just a naive consumer. But I think you’ve got to hire a content strategist for the same reasons I’m hiring those other people:
- They make you believe they understand your problem.
- They inspire your trust in their abilities to address the problem.
- They sell you on the value of their services.
That’s it. It comes down to trust for hiring a plumber, an accountant and a content strategist.
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I sometimes liken this to hockey players. You don't hire them on some Master's in Hockey. Instead, it's transparent how good a hockey player is, because you watch them play and can see their strengths and weaknesses. So you know who to hire as a goalie, a forward, a … whatever the other positions are. (I may be Canadian but when it comes to sports …) Same thing with content strategists. What kind of strategist? Look to their performance and match to need. And … they score!
I know exactly what you mean, even though my game is baseball [go Cardinals!], not hockey. Great analogy.