Here's how you can apply creative thinking to solve complex problems as a content strategist.

Ask "why?" Curiosity is the driving force behind creative thinking. When faced with complex problems in content strategy, don't stop at the first answer—continue to ask "why?" until you uncover the underlying insights. Often, we are just three to five "whys" away from a true insight. This depth of inquiry can reveal crucial takeaways that transform your content. Furthermore, nurture your curiosity beyond the content problem at hand. Becoming a well-rounded individual enhances your ability to generate unique ideas. Read books on unfamiliar topics, talk to new people, and engage with diverse perspectives. This enriches you as an individual, making you a more creative and innovative content creator and strategist.

I apply creative thinking to solve complex problems by approaching challenges from multiple angles and considering unconventional solutions. I start by thoroughly understanding the problem, breaking it down into manageable parts, and identifying the core issues. Then, I brainstorm ideas without limitations, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and leveraging diverse perspectives. By experimenting with different content formats, storytelling techniques, and engagement strategies, I create unique solutions that resonate with the target audience.

Complexity can be broken down in various sub components that are easier addressed individually. As a content strategist, one has to understand a multitude of aspects, before and during the designing of content. Best solution is to keep things simple. Start, one at a time, interweaving elements together to build the final output.

Applying creative thinking as a content strategist to solve complex problems involves several key steps. Start by embracing a curious mindset, questioning assumptions, and exploring different perspectives. Brainstorm freely without judgment, allowing for wild ideas that can spark innovative solutions. Use storytelling techniques to connect disparate ideas and make them relatable. Collaborate with diverse team members to gather varied insights and approaches. Experiment with new formats, channels, and tools to find fresh ways to engage your audience. Finally, stay open to feedback and be willing to iterate, refining your strategies until they effectively address the challenges at hand.

Here's a simple first step to get into your creative mind space: Go for a walk. By yourself. Preferably someplace with some natural beauty, but a city street works just as well. Let your mind wander and soon you will be flooded with ideas that you can organize in your head as you continue to wander along. Always works like a charm for me!

As Victor Hugo famously said “Nothing else in the world, not all the armies, is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” But for the idea to take birth, most important learning is to democratise its origin. Broad base the creative process. Ideation has to be bottoms up rather than the other way round. Many years ago (97-98), I was designing a budget show on then nascent news television in India. We had everything but not a killer takeaway. As we broad based creativity, the idea to rank and rate the Union budget and have a cumulative scorecard was born. It was not my idea as the Editor. It came from a bright youngster who shines brighter today as a global commentator. Ranking budget as an idea became a new benchmark worth replication.

Se o trabalho for em equipe, a etapa do brainstorming é importante para captar insights e estruturar o caminho. Muitas vezes uma boa ideia nasce de um insight pequeno, às vezes mal exposto que precisa de um pequeno ajuste para ser brilhante. Precisa, portanto, aten??o nos detalhes. N?o é preciso romper com a estrutura já existente para se construir um novo processo. Mas é preciso estar atento para n?o permitir que essa estrutura seja uma barreira intransponível para que ideiais brilhantes fiquem represadas. Estar atento aos detalhes é o melhor início para se alcan?ar uma abordagem amplificada.

Diante de um desafio pense nas diferentes possibilidades de resolver. Há diversas técnicas para isso. Pensar a partir de recursos disponíveis, na perspectiva de cada público, entre outras.

Embrace people that think boldly and have a unique spin on things. Make them part of your personal and professional life. Take in lots of different kinds of media. Write a long first draft and then edit. But re-read your first draft at the end of the editing process to make sure nothing of consequence was lost.

Unless you're extremely rich already, it doesn't matter if you love something if the rest of the world hates it. Anecdotal evidence is useful, but metrics drive success. Take a scientific approach to A/B testing. Follow a check list. Give A and B an equal opportunity to succeed or fail. Don't hesitate to run with B, even if it's not your favorite.

Creating a good content strategy is all about: - knowing your audience - giving your audience what they want - testing your content again and again As you test: You find out the messaging and content your audience responds to the most. Then you double down on your data. Keep testing. Keep adapting.

Balance is one of the most important things in the history of human kind. If you are so creative but not practical/logical thinker, there will be always a question mark. If you are a logical thinker but not creative, you'll not be able to represent your logic in a nice way. One should evaluate all concepts while creating the content before finalizing or publishing it. As a content creator you'll be responsible to those who consume your content and concepts. Analysing always helps to reduce the errors and increase the accuracy.

If you don’t have time to conduct research, increase the volume of content for a broad range of audiences. It’s not amateur, it’s just pure audience based selling.

Research phase is the best phase to discover more ideas. When you take time to analyze your content strategy, your audience, platforms, and their data. Data analytics are the gold mine to get information, then brainstorm and kickstart ideation. You must have a passion for research. This phase will help you discover a new path, help you refine your content strategy, and think critically.

I find the concept of creating a content prototype as part of the content strategy very appealing. In my experience as a marketing and content strategist, the "visualization technique" has been extremely useful, not only for imagining the end result but also for helping my team visually understand my ideas and thought process. This approach has always enabled me to transform the idea (as part of content ideation and review) into a simple prototype or skeleton structure and present it to the stakeholders. Feedback, suggestions, and revisions help refine the intended outcome and avoid unnecessary investments.

When you apply creative thinking to your content strategy, speed is necessary. - Learn how to demonstrate ideas in written format. - Create drafts of your ideas for further review and brainstorming with your content team. - Use minimum viable content to share on social media and see how the audience engages with your idea. - You'll know if the content works or not without significant time & resource investment. - Use the result to go all in with the idea and integrate it with your content strategy. You can use social media, short articles, or newsletters to test these ideas to see if they resonate with your target audience and from then you can move to integrate them into content strategy.

Turn your best ideas into prototypes quickly to test and refine them. Create mock-ups, drafts, or pilot versions of your concepts and gather feedback from stakeholders and target audiences. Prototyping allows you to experiment with your ideas in a low-risk environment and make necessary adjustments before full-scale implementation. This iterative process helps you hone your solutions and address any unforeseen challenges early on.

Prototyping quickly has both positives and negatives on its own. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so from my experience and perspective - if you’re one of the decision makers at your company, club or startup etc, or have a good voice in your community, my advice would be to identify the ones who are most likely to daydream and visualise their ideas in their head. Iterative thinking and creativity is prime when it comes to content strategy development, Which has the potential to create enterprise revenue.

Implement rapid prototyping to test your ideas quickly. Create minimum viable products (MVPs) or mockups to gather feedback early. This allows you to iterate and refine your ideas based on real-world responses. Quick prototyping helps you fail fast, learn faster, and improve continuously.

"Once a fool always a fool" Do not act foolishly and try to work alone, form a team, or make connections with others to bring in different viewpoints.

When your brand is at launch stage, collaboration becomes important to make your presence visible. Now a days we are in an industry where collaboration creates win-win situation for stakeholders. Don't hesitate to discuss your perspective on topical issues or issues of your industry concerns with others. Partnership with right set of people creates synergu for your startegy.

The key to creating valuable content is working with SMEs. "Our product is technical, and our content must be precise." I've seen this while: Running my LinkedIn agency As a marketing lead at Bothrs With Fullfunnel.io clients Here’s a solution that works: 1?? Collect relevant topics from marketing & sales. 2?? Interview experts for technical accuracy. 3?? Post the content on one profile. 4?? If it performs well, repost or expand it. For effective interviews: Capture the initial challenge, consequences, obstacles, solution, examples, and main lesson. Interview tips: Prepare prompts, keep meetings short, make them recurring, and meet different profiles. Make it rewarding: Publicly thank contributors, explain impact, share results.

Foster a collaborative environment where diverse perspectives are valued. Encourage team members to share their ideas and insights openly. Use collaborative tools and techniques such as brainstorming sessions, workshops, and cross-functional teams. Effective collaboration combines different strengths and viewpoints, leading to more innovative solutions.

I often get tunnel vision when tackling big issues. For instance, figuring out a process to make content more consistently as a team. I'd be more concerned with frameworks, organizing Notion databases and putting everything into neat little categories, than whether we had anything relevant or interesting to say in the first place. Not even joking, put a literal reminder in your calendar from time to time to ask yourself if what you're doing still makes sense.

Reflection helps make the creative process more rightly aligned. It keeps taking in the strengths and the weaknesses of the project and helps propel the perspectives forward.

Creative thinking is essential for overcoming complex challenges in content strategy. Here's how I approach it: Break Down the Problem: Divide the issue into smaller, manageable parts to better understand and address each component. Engage in brainstorming: Collaborate with diverse team members to generate a wide range of ideas and solutions. Utilize Data: Analyze data to identify trends and insights that can inform and enhance your content strategy. Experiment and iterate: test new ideas on a small scale, gather feedback, and continuously refine your approach based on what works best. By applying these creative thinking techniques, I effectively navigate and solve complex problems, driving successful outcomes in content strategy.

Continuously reflect on your creative process and the solutions you generate. Evaluate what worked well, what could be improved, and what lessons you can apply to future problem-solving endeavors.

After implementing your solutions, take time to reflect on the outcomes. Analyze what worked, what didn’t, and why. Use these reflections to improve your future strategies. Continuous reflection and learning are crucial for personal growth and for refining your problem-solving approach.

Curiosity is key to creative thinking in content strategy. Start by asking questions that challenge the usual way of doing things. Look at data to understand your audience and explore different industries for new ideas. Don’t settle for the first solution; use brainstorming and mind mapping to generate many ideas. Evaluate these ideas carefully to see which ones fit your goals and resources. Create quick drafts of your best ideas to test them with your audience and improve based on feedback. Regular reflection on what works and what doesn’t will help you continuously improve and innovate.

Si tienes un bloqueo, algo que todos deberían hacer pero pocos hacen es ver qué están haciendo otros sectores en ese mismo canal. Muchas veces podemos ver formatos nuevos que se están aplicando en sectores cercanos o con características similares y utilizarlos en nuestro propio sector siendo los únicos que trabajan el contenido de esa forma y consiguiendo una ventaja sobre el resto.

Try to stay as current as you can in digital marketing and always keep learning. Creative thinking requires lots of tools and ideas in your content strategy toolkit. A healthy dose of experience helps, too. My approach is to listen to either a podcast or part of a book every day when I go for a walk. The insights I gather provide different perspectives, include apps I may not have used and suggest recent studies or articles to read. I often have a to-do list by the time my walk is over and another podcast to add to my list. Solving complex problems requires creativity and an understanding of your options. Working to remain knowledgeable and current in your field is an essential part of the process.

Excel at Excel? It might sound odd at first, but mastering Excel and PowerPoint will equip you with the tools to analyze data effectively, manage content efficiently, and communicate strategies persuasively. Whether you get creative with Excel macros to boost productivity, or incorporate some design flair into your deck, Excel and PowerPoint skills are indispensable for driving informed decision-making and ensuring the successful implementation of content strategies.

Ditch the creative brief. Instead, focus attention on selecting the right creator who is both familiar with and a personal fan of your brand. Then challenge them to tell your story in a way that will resonate most with their audience (don’t tell them what you need, ask them what your brand needs to really connect with their audience). Then give them flexibility to create a killer video and share it with their audience… that’s the key to great content strategy in the influencer age!