Your company is considering whether to publish its own content – on a blog and on social media, let’s say.
However, your team has lots of worries: You don’t know where to start, you see some risks, and you worry about not having the time or budget to oversee the process.
These doubts often come out in my first or second conversation with a company’s marketing manager, or whoever else is taking responsibility for content.
Some of their specific objections include:
- “Nobody will care about what we publish.”
- “We’ve tried it before and it didn’t work!”
- “We don’t have a unified message anyway.”
- “Social media is too risky.”
That’s not total hogwash because it’s all understandable. But at the same time, it sort of is. I’d urge you to think about content differently – to look at both the downsides of not publishing and the easy ways to get started soon – like this-week soon.
Here are four principles I follow when I urge companies to start publishing content:
1. Use what you already have
Your company already has a bunch of data on your market – so why not turn that data into insights? These insights are sitting at your fingertips – they may be the easiest way to write some meaningful posts. And, yes, some people will care about it. You have insights into your market (whether that is gold bullion or health care software) and lots of people want to know about that market.
For inspiration, take a look at what OkCupid did with its data on how we lie in online dating (they’ve written lots of data-heavy posts like this). You may not be able to produce posts on subjects as universal as dating but you can still write something relevant that people in your market care about.
2. Focus on substance over keywords
When I start talking to folks about content, some begin by talking about SEO – how to write content that lands their website on top of search rankings. However, the best way to improve your search ranking, according to Google itself, is quality. Not to mention that customers and visitors will appreciate content that is smart and/or useful, return for more of it, and tell their friends about it.
And don’t just choose content because you think it would be irresistible click bait. Figuring out how it will get eyeballs on it is part of content strategist’s job. But before we tackle that question, let’s figure out how to create something good. (Note: the best content is both super smart and clickable).
3. Take risks
To companies on the sidelines, starting from scratch on social media seems overwhelming. There’s a big mountain to climb to build followers and there’s also the worry that if you Tweet something that could be construed as offensive, you may be dinged for it. You do have to be careful what you Tweet but you don’t want to be too careful because then your creativity gets stifled and your content gets bland.
More importantly, the risks of not being on social media are much greater than the risks of being on it. If you’re not on Twitter and Instagram, your potential customers are going to ask why that is, and as a company, you never-ever want people doubting whether you have your shit together. You will end up not having as much credibility as you deserve.
4. Start soon – preferably now.
Since you’ll be working on publishing content for the first time (with the help of a content strategist or copywriter), it will take some time to learn how best to edit, where and when to post, how often to post, how long posts should be, and so on. It’s okay to learn and improve as we go along. If this is new to you, learning is unavoidable and you can refine your process as you go along. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good!
These four tips are some of my core values as a content strategist – some of the key things I tell clients in a first or second meeting. If you’d like to talk about how I can help your team save time and win fans, get in touch.
(Photo: Max Pixel)