“Do you know of any classes or anything on content strategy for beginners?” a friend of mine asked recently. “I’m interested in learning more but don’t really know where to start.”

I didn’t (and still don’t) have recommendations for classes — especially not DIY content strategy. But I was able to recommend the resources that I’ve come across in the past year. And she’s lucky — a year ago, I hadn’t heard of content strategy, so I wasn’t even able to articulate the question.

The resources I recommended:

• “Content-tious Strategy,” Jeffrey MacIntyre’s article in the Dec. 16 A List Apart.
• “The Discipline of Content Strategy,” Kristina Halvorson’s article in the exact same issue. (Dec. 16 is the day I fired up my RSS reader and soon afterward said “So that’s what I’ve been trying to articulate for the past few months! Content strategy!”)
• “The Content Strategist as Digital Curator,” Erin Scime’s article in ALA from Dec. 8 this year.
• Rachel Lovinger’s article “Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data” deserves mention for many reasons. But what I love most is the phrase “content strategy is to copywriting as information architecture is to design.” That’s the money quote so far as I’m concerned, but that could just be because I’m an often-frustrated copywriter.
• If those pique your interest, Kristina Halvorson’s book Content Strategy for the Web is the next step.

I posed my friend’s question on Twitter, as well, where I was reminded of two more excellent resources:

• The Content Strategy Knol kicked off by Jeffrey MacIntyre
• Karen McGrane’s presentation “Content is King: or, if you don’t have a content strategy, you’re living in a fairy tale,” which includes the brilliant art gallery analogy.

If you’re still interested, find a Meetup near you. If there isn’t one, do what I did in Seattle: Start one up.