"The average organization is responsible for continual and increasing content demands of 178 social media properties, to say nothing of a myriad of other owned media properties, from websites and blogs to live events," according to Rebecca Lieb, with Chris Silva and Christine Tran, in the Altimeter Group's recent report. Despite all the content being produced for various channels, however, most companies don't manage their content well.

To help businesses manage content and determine how to set up a content team, Altimeter Group published the "Organizing for Content: Models to Incorporate Content Strategy and Content Marketing in the Enterprise" report today. The company created the report based on 78 interviews with executives actively engaged in the evolution of content strategy and/or content marketing in their organizations.

Before organizing content, however, a company needs to be clear in how it defines content.

"Content is owned media created by the brand and published or distributed on media channels the brand controls. Content marketing is the practice of creating and publishing it in owned media channels, as opposed to advertising, for which media always rented time or space." (Altimeter Group)

After defining content, the report makes the case for an organizational content structure then discusses the organizational content requirements. For example, it covers the elements that need to considered for every piece of content.

• Strategy



• Authority/management



• Staff



• Technology



• Measurement



• Audit



• Unified guidelines and playbooks



• Training

To meet those requirements, a content department is ideal. So, the Altimeter Group covers the different types of enterprise models. The six scalable organizational models are...

• Content Center of Excellence (a consortium of experts from various organization divisions)



• Executive Steering Committee (a cross-functional strategic group comprised of senior executives)



• Editorial Board or Content Council (content creators and/or marketing executives from divisions, including marketing, communications, PR, and social media)



• Content Lead (an executive who oversees an organization's content initiatives; also known as the editor-in-chief or global content strategist)



• Cross-Functional Content Chief (chief content officer, also known as head of digital strategy; the senior executive who presides over content)



• Content Department/Division (in-house or agency)

To find out more about incorporating content strategy into your organization, check out the embedded report below.