How to Create Great Online Content
I Like Your Content...Great Success!
In our last post, we tried to address the fear behind creating online content. We gave you the usual song-and-dance about how the rules of marketing have changed (they have) and how you need to focus on creating quality online content to keep up (you do).
All this left me feeling slightly guilty. On the one hand, I’m pretty sure I’m right and I provide this kind of content free of charge. So why feel (slightly) guilty? Because I haven’t given you any helpful guidelines for writing quality online content.
So here you go. To create great Internet content, use the following checklist.
- Embrace your role as publisher. With the advent of the Internet, the explosion of social media, and the growth of blogging platforms, we are all publishers now. Do you use Facebook? You’re a publisher. Embrace it.
- Get your story straight. Know your business and stick to your story. Know what your customers want and what keeps them up at night. For example, 417 Marketing helps small businesses in Springfield, MO get found on the Internet.For many of our customers, not being found on the Internet is keeping them awake at night. They know they are falling behind.
- Give people a reason and a way to act. It’s not enough to just publish content. Give people a reason and a way to act and react. If you post something on Facebook, ask for feedback. Don’t just preach (I’m guilty of this sometimes).
- Speak like a human. Your audience is human. Speak their language. No corporate-speak or buzzwords. People hate buzzwords. Like synergy. Ugh. Doesn’t that word just make you angry?
- Don’t sell. Share something useful or help people solve a problem. For example, I’m trying to take the mystery and the fear out of creating great online content. Is it working? Let me know in the comments. I love comments. Try to find me a blogger that doesn’t…I dare you.
- Don’t be boring. Mix it up. Do something unexpected every now and then.
- Stoke the fires. Don’t be afraid to throw your virtual elbows around. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid of controversy. Just don’t go looking for it. That would make you a jerk.
- Play to your strengths. You don’t have to use every platform for creating content. You don’t have to blog, podcast, use YouTube, write ebooks, and host webinars. Just pick 1 or 2 formats that play to your strengths and run with it.
- Don’t open 387 social media accounts. You’ll go crazy.
Did that help? I sure hope so. What did I miss? Let us know in the comments. This blog is for discussion, not lecturing. Let me hear it. Oh, and be sure to check that little box that says “subscribe to follow-up comments”. At least that’s what I think it says. That will turn this thread into a discussion, which is always fun.
As always, thanks for reading.
Can I add that if you want to be perceived as an expert to your clients, you need to write and publish like an expert? Sort of like how you should apply for the job that requires the skill set you wish you had.
You bring up an excellent point, Sarah Jo. Pardon me for using your point to talk about myself. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to relate that to my personal experience – and also attempt to hear your thoughts on this as well.
As the author of a marketing blog, I assume I’ll be held to a fairly high level of scrutiny by my small (but growing) audience. Why? Because I’ve never been afraid to challenge them. I’m sure I make people uncomfortable sometimes. After all, I’m the guy saying the old methods of marketing are (essentially) broken, and that the rules of marketing have changed. People don’t generally like change, so this idea may not be popular with everyone.
That being said, I think my tendency to challenge widely-held (but flawed) beliefs on marketing keeps me on my toes. I realize that if I don’t practice what I preach, I’ll be called out. Fear and anger are generally one in the same. Some of the ideas I advocate for on this blog are scary. Change is scary. Anger is a natural reaction to fear.
Therefore, the possibility of an angry comment such as “you told us 2 months ago to post videos on YouTube, but you only have 2 videos up…you are a hypocrite” exists. In a way, I’ve set myself up for it.
While I do my best to write and publish as an expert, I’ll inevitably fail along the line at some point to live up to an idea I put out there. It’s unavoidable. But in the end, if I can be a resource to my readers, I will have fulfilled the purpose of this blog.
Is this something you ever ponder? I’ve read some really insightful stuff on your blog – particularly your recent series on SEO. Do you ever wonder if – in an effort to be helpful – somebody calls you out on a small detail to say you didn’t practice what you preach?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t worry much about those types of people. Haters hate. There’s nothing we can do about it.
Thanks for reading.
Great post… I’d like to ask a question about point number 9. I can see why you wouldn’t want to manage a million different social media accounts, but should you at least claim them (to make sure your competition doesn’t claim them for you)? Or is the greater sin parking your username on a site without updating it ever?
I certainly find myself feeling like a hypocrite from time to time too. This marketing / seo / social media stuff is a lot like weight loss — we know what to do to make it work but it’s another thing entirely to do it!
I’m reading Godin’s ‘Tribes’ right now. If you want to be a leader, you have to take risks and challenge the status quo. Exactly what you’re doing!
Mike: Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. You bring up an excellent point, and you really have me thinking now. I suppose my immediate, unfiltered response would be this:
While I hadn’t looked at it this way previously, there clearly is risk involved in not parking your username at various social media sites if you have a common username that could be grabbed by an early adopter. If you owned Jim’s Pizza, for example, I’d recommend parking every username you can get a handle on. This strategy would pay off handsomely if a new social media site took off (think Twitter) because it’s such a common name.
On the other hand, yes…parking usernames can have a negative effect if that site takes off and you don’t use it. Brands that park Twitter usernames, for example, appear aloof (at least in my eyes). Sometimes I think companies that aren’t actively managing their Twitter account would be better off not being on Twitter at all.
I guess my broader points regarding #9 were that:
1) Trying to manage too many social media accounts is overwhelming.
2) It also introduces the possibility that you will do none of them well.
I’d be curious to see what you think of my response. I’ll be giving this more thought as well and may write about it in a future blog post.
Thanks again for stopping by and checking the blog out.
Sarah:
2 things:
1) I will definitely be reading “Tribes” now. For me, Seth Godin is hit-and-miss, but I keep hearing good things about this particular book and I take any recommendation from you very seriously.
2) I loved your analogy regarding weight loss and marketing/seo/social media. My thoughts turned to Tony Horton (the p90x guy) when I read that line. I’ve done p90x a couple of times. I can’t imagine being motivated to try it if he was out of shape, but the guy is 40-something and in incredible shape. He can run circles around people half his age. I want to aim just as high in my profession. My goal is to inspire business owners to adapt to the new rules of marketing. I suppose I’ll have greater success at doing so if I can show what it has done for me.
Incidentally, I’m #1 on page 1 for my keyword phrase on Yahoo. Google is still caching my new site, but I hope to see the same result with them in the next couple of weeks. I don’t mean to brag regarding the Yahoo deal, I’m just saying I’m glad that is the case because it will certainly lend more credibility to what I’m teaching.
Thanks for you very thoughtful comments. I’m really glad I added the option to subscribe to follow-up comments. It seems to be making this blog much more conversational.