Think You Know Good Content?
Fuggedaboutit. Here's What Really Counts
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Finding Your Subjects
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Where Inspiration Strikes
• Mention, Talkwalker - take what Google Alerts used to do so well and do it 100 times better.
• RSS - whether through Flipboard, Feedly, Digg Reader, or wherever else, RSS lives on.
• Forums - people still use 'em. And love 'em.
• StumbleUpon - the easiest way to get content to come to you.
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Content Categories
Targeted Funny
How-to Commentary
Target photo by Ville Miettinen viaFlickr Creative Commons Owl photo by Doug Wheller via Flickr Creative Commons #smx #24A
Targeted
Any piece of news that relates to your niche/genre. They can be quickly recapped and take little effort. Industry happenings News releases Personnel changes and moves
Writing/Creation Time: LOWSocial Potential: LOWValue: Helps share important news, caters to your core audience, boosts SEO and helps keep the blog filled.
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Funny
A play off the news or something topical, but with an eye toward the absurd. Start from the topic, but focus on the funny
Writing/Creation Time: MEDIUM to HIGHSocial Potential: HIGHValue: Shows a light-hearted side; brings in traffic, boosts SEO and exposes you to new audiences.
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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 HIGHSocial Potential: HIGHValue: High shareability; establishes your thought leadership; provides value to reader (which makes them think better of you); boosts SEO.
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CommentaryCovering popular news stories or timely topics, but making 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: HIGHSocial Potential: MEDIUMValue: Establishes your thought leadership, boosts SEO.
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Content Types
Infographics Timelines
Video Photos
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Infographics
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DON’T: just throw up a bunch of stylized text
DON’T: Change color schemes for no apparent reason
DON’T: Mix and match fonts just because you feel like it.
Infographics
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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
Timelines
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“Evolution” (of a logo, a singer, etc.) Design is important Memes are still good Yes, this is a type of infographic
What happens if you Google “LEGO timeline”?
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Video
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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. Telly, Viddler – more players every day.
Video is getting bigger every day
It doesn’t have to be expensive
When it goes viral, it goes HUGE
Photos
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Use large, high-res, attractive photos
Slideshows need to be short, or very fast-moving (i.e., no reloading the page every scroll)
Encourage users to send in pics Then & Now “Separated at birth?”
This had 102K views on StumbleUpon
A few words about lists
#smx #24AThis had 166K views on Stumbleupon
People love lists. They really do. They complain about them
being linkbait, but they read them.
And share them. If you’re going to do a list,
cover the subject. BE COMPREHENSIVE.
Why do top 10 if you can do top 34?
People like learning things they didn’t know.
Did I mention that people love lists?
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(Just seeing if you’re paying attention!)
A COUPLE MORE THINGS
Do these things
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Be useful. Be relevant. Be consumable. Link out. People will notice, visit
and maybe even link back to you.
Illustrate whenever possible. K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple, stupid
(no offense). Emulate content you like. Look at your piece before you
post — would you read it if you happened up on it?
Photo by Matt Brown via Flickr Creative Commons
Thanks and Keep in Touch
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www.Facebook.com/AmyVernon
www.Twitter.com/AmyVernon
http://j.mp/AmyVGplus
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