Making Content its Own Department: A #CMWorld Twitter Chat with Amanda Todorovich

Cleveland Clinic is known for its commitment to the patients they serve. Not only do they care for the sick, but they provide information for those in their community. No one knows this better than Senior Director of Health Content Amanda Todorovich. (She was also named the 2016 Content Marketer of the Year.) Her department is responsible for creating content patients need to improve their healthcare journey.

When Amanda first started at Cleveland Clinic, she had a three-person team. Under her leadership, it has since grown tenfold. As the team grew, Amanda knew she would need to reevaluate the department’s approach. And that’s what she set out to do early this year. I wanted to know more about her efforts and the new structure, so I invited her to be a guest on the #CMWorld Twitter chat.

In one hour, I overheard some amazing conversations. Some people disagreed and didn’t think content should be its own department. Others believed it wasn’t a feasible model for organizations. But the one thing we could all agree on was marketers need to be truly focusing on our audiences and their needs.

Below, I share just a handful of tweets from the chat. If you’re looking for more from our Q&A, check out our Twitter Moment.

How do you know when it’s time to branch out and be your own content marketing department?

A2. You should always be your own content marketing department, regardless of size. No matter how large or small your company is, there should be at least SOME consistency in content being created and distributed. Consistent content engagement is better than none. #CMWorld

— Patrick Delehanty (@MDigitalPatrick) July 9, 2019

A3: Hold on there, I don’t know if I’ve decided that #contentmarketing should live outside of #marketing just yet. 🙂 #CMWorld

— Mike Myers ? (@mikemyers614) July 9, 2019

A2: When your day to day ops no longer match that of the organization (too niche, too many lines of inquiry, too broad), it’s time to consider giving content the specialized attention it requires. #CMWorld pic.twitter.com/SdCAAQHRXI

— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) July 9, 2019

A3: I wouldn’t do that! I might put content CREATION outside of marketing, but not the rest of it. #cmworld

— John Cloonan (@johncloonan) July 9, 2019

A3: Personally, I don’t think it should “move out” of marketing.. But instead be another team within the marketing atmosphere.

Separating the two will take your eye off the prize and lead to miscommunication ?‍♀️#CMWorld

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 9, 2019

Content marketing can be valuable across an organization, but that sometimes means more departments trying to help. How do you address matters of scale?

A4: Scale is hard but critical. Help generally has come through integration of teams and aligning resources against content priorities. My team today is quite different than even a few months ago. Evolution & being open to change so important. #CMWorld

— Amanda Todorovich (@amandatodo) July 9, 2019

A4: Departments can be leveraged for their subject matter expertise.

Every department is built to support business, organizational, and customer needs or they wouldn’t be a department. #cmworld #contentmarketing #socialmediamarketing https://t.co/obCT0pu7m4

— Buddy Scalera (@BuddyScalera) July 9, 2019

A4 #CMWorld

The best way to address matters of scale is clarity. Take the extra cooks out of the kitchen. Make sure each person knows exactly what their role is, and what it isn’t, to avoid confusion and frustration.

— Christian Lowery (@clowerycontent) July 9, 2019

A4: You can address scale by having a sort of “Content Council” or a board made up of key stake holders. Usually the board is led by a strategic team. #cmworld https://t.co/BGNuUafBzI

— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) July 9, 2019

This is a topic Amanda is passionate about. In fact, she has spoken at Content Marketing World several times about her content team.

Creating a department around content marketing is something that is evolving. What model are you using? What has your experience been? I’d love it if you left a comment below or join the discussion in our LinkedIn Group.

Do you work in healthcare and want to dive deeper into the many facets of content marketing? Hear Amanda’s keynote at the #CMWorld Cleveland Clinic Health Summit. There’s still time to register for this day-long event!