The document provides tips for creating content that works well on social media. It suggests finding story ideas through tools like Google Alerts, RSS feeds, forums, and Twitter searches. Four types of stories are described: targeted stories about industry news, funny stories that play on current events, how-to stories that teach readers something useful, and commentary that expresses an opinion on popular news. The document also discusses using different types of content like infographics, timelines, videos, photos, and lists. It emphasizes making content useful, relevant, consumable, and keeping it simple.

1. How To Create Content
(That Works)
Amy Vernon, GM of Social Marketing
Internet Media Labs
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2. Finding the Stories
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3. Finding the Stories:
Tips & Tricks Tips & Tricks
o Google Alerts
• Set up alerts for your main keywords
• Google sends you an email once a day of links to appropriate
articles
o RSS
• Choose your feed reader (I like Google Reader) and subscribe to
appropriate blogs/news sites
o Forums
• Find forums in your niche/genre and join
o Twitter Search
• See what people are saying about what you’re covering
o StumbleUpon
• Continually stumble the appropriate category(ies)
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4. Story Types
Targeted Funny
How-to Commentary
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5. Targeted
Any piece of news that relates to your
niche/genre. They can be quickly recapped and
take little effort
• Industry happenings
• New releases
• Personnel changes and moves
Writing Time: LOW
Social Potential: LOW
Value: Helps share important news, caters to your
core audience, boosts SEO and helps keep the blog
filled
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6. Funny
A play off the news or something
topical, but with an eye toward
the absurd
• Start from the news/timely
topic, but focus on the funny
Writing/Creation Time: MEDIUM
Social Potential: HIGH
Value: Shows a light-hearted side;
brings in traffic, boosts SEO and
exposes you to new audiences
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7. How-to
• Teach your readers
something they don’t know
• Better yet, teach your
readers something they
didn’t know they needed to
know
• Can take many forms
Writing/Creation Time: LOW TO HIGH
Social Potential: HIGH
Value: High shareability; establishes your
thought leadership; provides value to
reader (which makes them think better of
you); boosts SEO
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8. Commentary
The approach covers popular news
stories, but makes it your own by expressing
opinion
• Covers the news from a specific angle.
• On a news release – is this a departure
from the norm?
• Has this worked in the past?
Writing Time: HIGH
Social Potential: MEDIUM
Value: Establishes your thought leadership, boosts
SEO
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9. Content Types
Infographics Timelines
Video Photos
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10. Infographics
• DON’T: just throw up
a bunch of stylized
text
• DON’T: Change color
schemes for no
apparent reason
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11. Infographics
• DO: Share interesting
information in an
engaging, informative way
• DO: Have some
information that people
want to know and share
• DO: Visualize data and
make numbers tangible
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12. Timelines
• ―Evolution‖ (of a logo, a singer, etc.)
• Design is important
• Memes are still good
• Yes, this is a type of infographic
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13. What happens if you
Google “LEGO timeline”?
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14. Video
• Video is huge
• It doesn’t have to
be expensive
• When it goes
viral, it goes HUGE
• YouTube is the biggest by far, but it’s not the only game in town
• Dailymotion is 2nd-largest in the world
• Vimeo has reputation for quality video
• Viddy, Viddler – more players every day
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15. Photos
• Large, attractive photos
• Slideshows need to be short,
or very fast-moving
• UGC (user-generated
content) encouraging readers
to send in pics
• Then &Now photos
• ―Separated at birth?‖
This had 102K views on StumbleUpon
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16. Lists
• Top 10 is played out. Try
top 9 or 17. Or 87
• Superlatives (best, ugliest,
smallest)
• Appeal to nostalgia
• Riff off current events
• Incorporate memes
This had 166K views on Stumbleupon
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17. Lists
• If you’re going to do a
list, make it cover the
subject. BE
COMPREHENSIVE
• Why do top 10 if you
can do top 34?
• People like learning
things they didn’t know
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18. A FEW MORE
THINGS
(Still paying attention?)
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19. Be Useful
• Help people do
something
• Give them
information they
can use and
actually want
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20. Be
Relevant
• Obvious link bait is
obvious
• Can be
funny, irreverent, b
ut not off-topic
• i.e.: Write about
topics that make
sense for your
audience
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21. Be
Consumable
• You can go heavy on
text if you break it up
with images
• Vary what you offer
• People have short
attention spans,
particularly online (darn
those kids and their
MTV!)
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22. THESE TIPS DIDN’T FIT
IN OTHER CATEGORIES
• Link out. People will notice, visit and maybe even link back to
you
• Illustrate whenever possible
• K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple, silly
• Emulate content you like
• Look at your piece before you post — would you read it if you
happened up on it?
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23. Keep in Touch!
avernon@internetmedialabs.com
www.internetmedialabs.com
www.Facebook.com/AmyVernon
www.Facebook.com/InternetMediaLabs
www.Twitter.com/AmyVernon
www.Twitter.com/InternetLabs
http://j.mp/AmyVGplus
http://j.mp/IMLGplus
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