73% of consumers prefer to get their information about an organization in articles rather than advertisements. That means it’s more important than ever to include custom content in your overall marketing mix. Generating compelling searchable content that people want to consume can help drive traffic to your website, attract and retain a dedicated following, and greatly increase brand awareness.
In order to produce quality content you’re going to need a good source of raw material to continually draw upon.
Here are some tips to keep it fresh:
1. Follow Industry Experts
A great way to get ideas on what content you should be creating is to follow experts and influencers on Twitter. Use relevant hashtags for search and create lists on your top influencers. By tracking these tweets, you can determine what people are talking about and create content around those themes. Also, you can curate content on sites like Flipboard, so you can aggregate both news and social content.
2. Make every employee a content creator
Encouraging employees to contribute to your blog is a great way to generate content internally. Ask your customer service and sales teams about their most frequently asked questions then have them write blog posts about the solutions. By developing a blog template, you can make it easy for others to contribute.
3. Linkedin Today
Linkedin Today makes it easy to stay up to date with the most popular news, blogs, and articles relevant to your business. Think of it as your interactive real-time morning paper.
What shows up in your feed is generated directly from the network you’re connected to, bringing you the most relevant news about the industries and topics based on the industries and sources you find most valuable. Checking in to Linkedin Today can spark a wealth of content ideas based around trends and hot topics relevant to your industry.
4. Visualize your keywords
Building a word cloud based on conversations around your brand is a great way to visualize keywords most associated with your brand. For example, find a group of tweets that mention your brand, product or industry, and drop them into a tag cloud application such as Wardle.
You’ll often find new keywords you may not have thought of, as well as a few surprise topics of association. This is a great way to really stretch your content dollar and find emerging trends to blog about.
5. Eavesdrop
Be nosy. Listen in on conversations offline as well as online. Tune in to conversations while waiting in line at Starbucks or at the table next to you at lunch. Find out what people are talking about and what they care about. Use Evernote to jot down and keep track of interesting points you overhear and the ideas they spark which often turn into content and conversational blog posts.
6. Test and evaluate
Of course every target audience is different. When you are sharing your content on your social channels, you will want to test, test, test! What is your audience sharing? What are they experiencing as authentic?
The fun pieces encourage your audience to share, builds trust, and ultimately helps you develop brand loyalty. As you continue to further hone in on your social strategy, you will get into a rhythm of what content resonates for your audience.