What Flavor of Web Strategist Do You Need?

I've been working in web for 12 years now - I built my first community strategy for a client in 1996. If its one thing I have learned its that everyone considers themselves to be a "strategist". Having said that, when you are working on web initiatives of any significant size you are working as a part of a team, an eco-system of people who all bring something important to the table.

In a conversation with a client we were reviewing just how many different flavors of web strategists there are - and how do clients determine what kind of web strategist they need?

General Web Strategist - this kind of web strategist has a broad and deep experience base, has usually come from an agency or consulting background... has really "been there and done that" with almost any kind of web project or business model. They are experienced enough to be flexible to work on most kinds of web projects and the best ones have implemented their strategies.

Web Marketing Strategist - a strategist who is focused on outbound web marketing techniques. They live and die by data and results.

PR Strategist - a PR professional who leverages social media and web marketing as an integrated part of PR strategy. Could include monitoring conversations, identifying influencers, syndicating content using social media for PR purposes

Brand Strategist - usually focused on more of the creative, UI and brand elements of web. These strategists usually come from a creative or agency background.

Advertising Strategist (Media, SEO, SEM, WOM) Focused on media and online advertising.

CRM/ Web Strategist - a strategist focused on the customer contact strategy, customer touchpoints and CRM. A sub-set of this can be relationship marketers or database marketers. It will be interesting to see how this role evolves given how social media has changed the touchpoints companies have with customers.

Web Analytics Strategist - focused on the measurement and analytics of web. Could encompass everything from basic web analytics to rich media, community and social media analytics. Like web marketers, for this strategist - data is king.

User Experience Strategist - a strategist that looks at the audience in detail and optimizes the overall user experience. Often these strategists come from an information architecture or creative background.

Content Strategist - plans the overall content in a web site - which could include editorial, third party content or user-generated content. Considerations such as assessing audience content needs, publishing strategy, licensing, syndication of content are all considerations.

Technical Web Strategist - sometimes referred to as a "Solutions Architect" Looks at the technology and infrastructure needs, technical requirements and informs the development needs. Typically these strategists come from a consulting or developer background.

Subject Matter Experts - Web strategists focused on a specific industry (SMB), point solution (wikis. blogs) or audience segment (Gen Y).

Community Strategist - A strategist that understands the complex interactions between community members and the ongoing needs, opportunities and dynamics of online communites. A sub-set of this could also be Community Managers who are very hand-on yet closely tied to the strategy of how to build, grow and manage the community.

Social Media Strategist - focused on leveraging social media for marketing purposes. In my opinion the best social media strategists are those that walk their talk - they actually blog, they use Twitter, they belong to social networks and communities.

I don't agree with Steve Rubel that the need for these roles will eventually disappear - I think that’s a wishful-thinking PR perspective. I have seen increasing demand in our enterprise client base for web and social media skills. While I do agree that these skills will eventually become required for all marketers, I believe that there is always room for experienced, quality consultants. Jeremiah Owyang did a post on the need for the social media manager and two distinct roles that Forrester sees emerging: the social media manager and the community manager.

Most enterprise marketers are just beginning to experiment with social media and I believe its a long way off before they acquire deep skills. In the meantime, when leveraging the skills of a web strategist, its important to ensure that you are engaging the right kind of strategist to meet your objectives.

Comments

[tonym]

Great list. Hope all my clients read it!

Perhaps there should be a category for "Guerrilla Strategist" (aka "Startup Strategist") who puts the bare bones in place for smooth growth.

Oh wait, that's a "webmaster."

:-)

[Luke Harvey-Palmer]

Good overview here - Jeremiah pointed me this way over at Twitter! Nice to see you sharing some link love. When you read this, you realise just how 'big' the web space is huh?

[Stan]

Saw this on Jeremiah's tweet. Nice one.

[Moksh Juneja]

This is a good list, specially helps in making people understanding what is their exact role and responsibility. Glad i call myself a "Social Media Catalyst" I fit in two of them!!

[Andrea Hill]

This is a really useful post. We have "Strategists" and "Media strategists" at Resource Interactive, where I work. My role is 'Developer', but I like to fancy myself a more technical type of strategist, who is equally geared towards the "how" as the "what".

I think the "technical web strategist" and "social media strategist" are both good fits to describe the work I do, and love to do.

[Crispin Bailey]

Great overview! I agree with you that there will always be a place in the market for experienced strategists, especially ones with cool-sounding titles. Question: at what point do you start calling them Directors? :)

[Misha Cornes]

Great post that's generated some interesting discussion at Organic.

I think the more important distinction is what kind of strategist you are. The web/digital designation makes you an SME in-and-of-itself.

I think you can be a Strategist across any of the traditional business disciplines- eg an HR strategist, a mgmt and leadership strategist, a finance strategist. I’d lump content strategy and technical strategy into the realm of non-marketing strategists.

Within (Web) Marketing Strategy, which is where Organic plays, here's how I think of it:

Brand Strategy – working with creatives to translate elements of brand look and feel into marketing artifacts. At a higher level, defining brand architectures for line extensions etc., naming etc. To me this is a pretty old-fashioned way of thinking about Strategy, since it’s structured on the assumption that the client and the agency can define the brand and then communicate that outward.

Communications Strategy- working with media planning and buying to create strategic communications plans (ideally across multiple channels) at the level of right customer/right message/right channel- this would include qualitative persona work, quantitative segmentation, and basic analytics. A subset does more heavy data analysis, which in the web world includes SEO, A/B testing etc.

Customer Insights Strategy- the ethnographer, the social media miner, the focus group facilitator. We tend to focus less on this in the web world because we can repurpose research from Account Planning

User Experience Strategy – I like this designation. Within the web dev world we tend to focus on the strategist-who-thinks-like-an-IA, but I think the broader definition should actually be someone who creates a holistic experience across all customer touchpoints eg environments, packaging, product design, traditional advertising etc.

Digital Strategy- someone who can speak to specific trends in the digital space that clients should be aware of and working towards. I’m talking social media best practices, not e-commerce or landing page strategy. A subset is emerging platforms/non-web digital applications.

Misha

[Karen OBrien]

Hi Misha - thanks for your comments, I really enjoyed your insights - your designation of "Customer insight strategy" is one I had not immediately thought about. When talking with other strategists there are so many ways to bucket the "strategic" skill sets in web! The bottom-line is that web strategy is much more complex and multi-faceted than most clients understand.

I consider myself to be a combo of several of the above: a generalist (I've done over 90 web strategy projects), a community and social media strategist and an SME (I have specific expertise in a few areas).

[Andrei]

Just came across your blog through stumbleupon. Had no idea that there are so many specific web strategists. I think to be a really good 'any kind of' strategist you really need to understand all functions to some degree.

[seo sem services]

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[Cheap Jordan Shoes]

he bottom-line is that web strategy is much more complex and multi-faceted than most clients understand.