2. Content is king – 10 tips
1. Think like your audience
2. Be bold
3. Keep it simple stupid (KISS)
4. Help people share and distribute your content
5. User generated content works well
6. Emotionally engaging and visual content
7. Harness third party credibility
8. Issues jump
9. Be authentic
10. Always on
Read
on to
find out
more
3. 1.Think like your audience
This is the number one principle in
both journalism and marketing. Identify
what your audience wishes to
consume and then make it more
interesting and relevant than anything
else out there. It’s quite easy to slip
into producing content that’s from your
own perspective only.
4. 2. Be bold
Make sure there is talkability in what you
produce. Avoid blandness at all costs and don’t
expect much attention from sitting on the fence or
recycling facts. Going against the grain doesn’t
necessarily mean being controversial but you
should be bold and opinionated. It would be
naïve to think there weren’t limits to what an
organisation can and can’t say. If too many
people would say, “So what”, after consuming
your content then bin it.
5. 3. Keep it simple stupid (KISS)
The first thing they teach you at
journalism school. Be concise. Convey
important information upfront and don’t
expect your audience to work too
hard.
6. 4. Help people share and distribute
Make the most of the social web to
enable others to spread your content
to their networks. Offering up bite size
nuggets of information works well
considering most people are
overloaded with information and time
poor.
7. 5. User generated content
Gathering and sharing views from a range of
people interested in your specialist area can be
compelling if it’s well curated. Competitions for
ideas, photos, videos can be a great way for you
to “own” an idea or theme but it’s how you
organise that information and what conclusions
you draw from it that will set you apart from
“knowledge free-riders”. You’ll need to tread a
delicate line between sharing content that
contains a variety of viewpoints and material that
is completely off-brand.
8. 6. Emotionally engaging and visual content
There are basic human emotions that can
overcome even the most hard-nosed
reader or viewer. Pride. Love. Humour. Use
them. There are numerous stats out there
proving that people’s recall of visual
information is much higher than the written
or spoken word. Consider capturing
attention with graphics, photography and
video content.
9. 7. Harness third party credibility
Incorporate thoughts from other
external experts such as
industry commentators or
partner organisations. This will
lend greater impartiality and
credibility to your content.
10. 8. Issues jump
No organisation can set the news
agenda day in, day out. But that
needn’t stop you offering a timely and
interesting point of view on topical
issues such as the actions of
competitors or Government. It will
consolidate your association with your
specialist area.
11. 9. Be authentic
Don’t overclaim or pitch in on a subject matter
that you’re not confident on. Your rhetoric has
to match the reality. In a similar vein, have a
brand personality and be consistent with it.
You shouldn’t be dignified and reverential one
week and then “getting down with kids” and
slangy the next. It will confuse people, and
look inauthentic.
12. 10. Always on
There’s no such thing as out-of-hours.
For example, did you know that lots of
LinkedIn posts get commented on
over the weekend? There are systems
that can pre-cue announcements to go
out when you’re not online so you
don’t need to be a slave to the project.
13. Want to get creative?
Let’s talk
hello@thinkcomms.co.uk
