In our field you have a lot of trouble explaining what you do for work.
We’re part of content teams and sit somewhere in the middle of disciplines like:
- online content management
- writing and editing for the web
- information architecture
- knowledge management
- user research and UX design
- configuring Content Management Systems
- working within and leading teams.
From Wiktionary :
content wrangling (unaccountable)
All the various tasks associated with content management systems, especially the preparation of documents for posting on a website.
Until there’s a better name I’m calling it this.
Why Content Wrangling?
Managing content as a job can sound a bit dry. You mean you just update webpages? But as anyone who’s tried it knows, organising words and websites is the least of our trouble.
This is messy, multi-dimensional, fascinating stuff that needs all sorts of skills:
- Persuasion
- Convincing stakeholders and clients to trust you!
- Psychology
- Edit people’s words without hurting their feelings, and getting inside our audience’s head.
- Politics
- Making things happen in the real worlds of our organisations and industries.
- Marketing
- Justifying your work to people who don’t necessarily get it.
- Negotiation
- Being the go-between for business, technology and customers.
- Systems thinking
- Working out how to get lots of people working towards a common goal.
- …and lots more.
In this blog I’ll work through some thoughts on this work.
Are you a Content Wrangler?
Have a question or topic you’d like to see covered? Want to get in touch? Feel free to hit me up.