Content is King!

Practical Ideas

In this Chapter I want to give you some practical ideas for creating your own content. It’s certainly something we hear a lot about and something I’ve mentioned several times already!

In simple terms, when approaching this topic, it’s important to think about content in the context of; it’s all the ways you tell your company's stories and express your brand personality online and off.

That includes your website or blog, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter updates, and it includes a YouTube video, a photo on Instagram, or a digital ad. Content also includes non-digital assets, like brochures, signage, sales material, trade show booths, and so on, and they all work together to give your customers a picture of your brand's personality.

The secret to creating great content is stepping into your customer's shoes and figuring out how you can help them.

Start by writing down all the problems they face or the questions they ask. Then group them into themes and write down the answers. As you are considering the format of the content, consider what platforms will also work best for your audience.

Say you are a local personal trainer, you may want to consider a series of how-to videos to help provide training or dietary tips that are optimized for a mobile device. You might write a blog post to introduce the series, and craft several social media posts with a link to the how-to video.

For instance, a cake shop could produce a video with cake decorating tips and promote that on Twitter. You don't have to spend a lot of money on a super slick production, your customers are looking for authenticity over Hollywood production values, but you still need to create something of quality. For example, you can produce a simple video using your smartphone, just remember to use a tripod to keep it steady, get an external mic for better sound, and pay attention to framing and light.

You’ll be pleased to hear you also don't have to create everything yourself! In fact on social media you can curate content to share with your audience. Start by discovering posts your audience are interested in and sharing those, just be sure you provide context to your audience and give credit by linking back to the original author.

Who knows, if they like what you are doing, maybe they'll notice your post and link, share or mention you to their audience! This is one of many ways you can network, collaborate and grow your audience.

When it comes to curated content, try to cut through the clutter so your audience doesn't have to. Again looking at a cake company as an example, they could curate content about event planning because they know many of their customers are planning parties and events. Whatever niche you are in, take a moment to think outside your bubble and put yourself in the shoes of your customer and consider what they would like, find helpful or relevant to them.

For content curation Follow these three simple steps:

Find, Filter and Share. Find interesting stories, filter to make sure they're relevant, and share them to your network. The best content helps your customers and showcases your business's personality.