Content Strategy Insights

Anika Anand loves engaging with her readers, not just giving them "fly-by content." In her role as a startup founder, she always asks, "What do we want people to do with what we're making?" This approach gives Anika plenty of opportunities to engage in one of her favorite activities: nerding out about content strategy.

Andrew Himes was one of the world's first digital content strategists. Working at Microsoft in the early 1990s, he helped found the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and helped build the first content management system, dynamically generating hypertext documents from a database.

David Fried integrates content strategy throughout his branding work at the digital agency EFM. Whether he's crafting a branding strategy from the ground up or executing a campaign for an existing brand, content is always a key element.

Russell Sparkman has been doing content marketing for almost 20 years. We talked about purpose-driven content marketing, how not to commit "random acts of content," and the neuroscience of storytelling.

Morten Rand-Hendriksen is a broadly accomplished web designer and educator. He is very active in the WordPress open-source project and is widely known there for his strong opinions on topics like the Gutenberg project.

Natasha Banta McDermott began her content-strategy career in 1997 at Clement Mok's Studio Archetype. Mok, who had been the creative director at Apple in the 1980s, put content right alongside design in their clients' web projects, creating some really cool opportunities for Natasha and her content team. Natasha and I talked about content strategy, creative collaboration, and team building in a visionary agency at the dawn of the dot-com era.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. As I prepared for this 13th episode, one scheduled guest fell ill and my back-up guest's kid got sick just as we were about to start the interview. Rather than risk the health of another guest, I recorded this quick overview of the podcast to this point.

Melanie Seibert is senior content strategist on a UX team at WillowTree, a mobile-focused agency that creates apps chatbots, websites, and other digital products for some of the world's best-known companies. She also teaches content-strategy courses both online and in real life. Melanie and I talked about both her work at WillowTree and her work as a content-strategy educator.

Warren Etheredge can help you find the stories you need to generate the content your customers crave. I talked with Warren about his Storyfinding method and about the art of conversation in general and interviewing in particular.

Journalism veteran Peter Herford talks about how little the management principles that underlie content strategy have changed since he began his career at CBS news in 1962.