welterweightUX

Yesterday, someone on Twitter said that the buzz around Content Strategy flies in the face of the long-held idea that people don’t read on the web.

I replied as eloquently as 140 characters allows: “U think the surge in content strategy negates the Fact that ppl don’t read online? It really nurtures the fact by flushing junk.”

Ok, here’s the thing
People do read on the web, but people don’t Read on the web. The capital letter here is like the difference between “God” and “god”.

Content strategy is purging
Even though the name Content Strategy has the word “content” in it, we still need to approach our profession knowing that most users don’t care about the bulk of stuff we create.

In her book Content Strategy for the Web, CS diva (whaaa?!) Kristina Halvorson harps on the ideas that less is better than more and the need to “scale back on content.”

Why?

Because not matter how grandly curated and executed your content is, most of it is still a chore for your users. Especially on B2C sites.

Content creators must always strive to purge as much junk as possible and pare everything down to its essence.

This supports the idea that people don’t read.

Don’t be defeated
As a Content Strategist, don’t let the fact that people don’t read online defeat you. Instead, use it as impetus for learning more about your user and their goals. This will help you can scale back further, get to the point quicker, be more relevant.

It’ll turn you into a God of content.