At A Loss For Words

Content, Content Everywhere, But Who Really Cares?

Do you ever feel that everyone is trying to get in the last word? We are living in a world that content flows from everywhere. Whether it’s your Facebook update, Twitter feed, blogs, or just texting to a friend or business professional. Look at me, read me, help me drive traffic to my website - CONTENT IS KING! Yet, there is a difference between content that spits out words vs. content that educates, elicits emotions, creates awareness and a community of followers to generate something truly engaging for the audience. There is something to be said about the ability for one to string words along as a chorus that creates a memorable melody. This type of content may just be a few words on a page or a couple paragraphs. Not everyone has the skills or the desire to create it, but only a select few have a special talent.

Everything takes time, dedication and creative inspiration before one can put the words on a page.

Express Yourself

Madonna said it best in her song Express Yourself, and now everyone is craving regular content production in hopes a community will take notice and gravitate to their business. The search-engines love it too!

One can be recognized for their content and provide useful information to others. It’s about being a thought leader, standing up for your beliefs, offering value, or adding a new perspective to the ways in which we live our lives, as well as conduct business. Perhaps, it’s recounting an incident, or sharing an entertaining story that makes one feel good about his or herself. Be authentic in your approach when offering advice because the audience can see through someone’s dishonesty, disguise, as well as knowledge on a certain subject matter.

Are you at a loss for words? There are plenty of places to get inspired to start. Go to Google and start typing in keywords where an entire string of information will start to appear before your eyes with instant results. Also, try the Google Insights tool to gauge better what people are searching for across different categories, regions and more on the web. Watch current events and newsworthy stories that are creating buzz in the community, or could stir a bit of controversy with a new approach to a common issue. Review what others are writing and read what people are saying. It’s as important to express your thoughts, but more importantly to listen to others and take those insights to develop more compelling content. Still searching for the right thing to say or how to say it?

Content Rules, a book by Ann Handley (MarketingProfs.com editorial director and acquaintance of mine) and CC Chapman, wrote about some ways to get started to generate content for a variety of different channels. Take some of these recommendations from the book, as well as some best practices from myself to write your next blog post, or add content to your website:

• Set up interviews at an event and create written transcript, or video to be showcased online
• Write about your passion
• Do a how-to session to teach others your expertise
• Put a face behind your company with behind-the-scenes footage of your crew
• Make sure to design your blog in an easy-to-navigate and search-friendly manner to find articles archived
• Moderate your comments regularly and respond
• Write catchy headlines and use alliterations or words that rhyme together to catch one’s attention
• Provide a way for the audience to contact you and entice people to generate their own content, or respond to your questions.