You have heard it and read it a million times. Content is King! It is king for many different reasons. You need content to build your target audience and you need content to express what you have to offer in an eloquent and exciting way, a way that attracts other people and compels them to interact with you.
Knowing how to write content that sticks
Interestingly, you may write content that you think is amazing. You may think that what you have to say and how you manage to express it is the best way that anyone in the universe can come up with. However, your perception may not be what the other person’s perception is. Some content has very interesting points to make but, still, people don’t go out of their way to reach out and interact with you after they have read your article. So, the questions are, why not and what do you do to change the result? First of all, it is a very good idea to examine what you have been doing with your content up to this point. If you can identify what you are doing wrong, you can fix it.
- Write content that grabs: Again, you may have written very nice, sensible content (kind of like sensible shoes) but it may not grab anyone. It may just be sitting there. People love something to grab onto. They love controversy and they love to be titillated. If your content doesn’t lead to further discussions, you are done. In order to engage people, you need to make the content about them, not about you. Your language should be clear and concise and you should focus on what is important to the other person. Your content should include what is new and exciting about what you are doing with your branding and your offerings. However, the spin of your content should be about how those offerings relate the needs and wants of the other person.
- Make sure that your message and your story are clearly understood: There is a distinct possibility that not everyone who reads your content gets what you are trying to convey. That is why it is so critical that you use language that is clear and concise. However, there will still be a percentage after that who don’t get it and don’t want to tell you that they don’t get it. With that concept in mind as a possibility, it is probably a good idea to examine the content that you have posted so that you can identify the possible trouble spots. You should be careful about your use of jargon. You will really need to use it in a discriminating way. It is also a good idea to keep in mind that you only have a short amount of time to capture the attention of your reader. In fact, if you can’t grab them with your title in three seconds, they won’t read any more than that. If you are lucky enough to get them past the title, you still won’t have a good chance of holding their attention if your content isn’t exciting and compelling enough.
- Avoid the fluff: As you are taking a long, hard look at your content, remember that it must have substance. If it is a bunch of fluff. People will recognize that very quickly. People have too little time and too little patience to be tolerant of fluff. You definitely have it in you to offer up content that is meaningful and valuable. It is certainly worth your time and effort to make sure that that is the level of quality that you produce and share.
- Be careful where you post your content: If your content is not well placed, you may not get the readership that you want. It is very important to employ a smart strategy when it comes to where you are putting your content. You want to get the most bang for your buck! This is one area where analytics are important. You can keep track of what is going on with your numbers and that will allow you to identify what is going on and then you will understand how to fix it.
- Watch out for apathy: Even though you believe that your content is very valuable and that it will benefit your readers, you need to watch out for the concept that the content that you are posting may not mean much to some of your readers. If that turns out to be the case, you will have to rethink the content. There is no way around it. Unfortunately, the hard part is identifying that.
Conclusion
If you follow the advice that was offered here, you will succeed at offering content that is compelling, valuable, exciting and that moves other people in some way. If you do it right, your content will not be ignored. Your readers will want to keep the discussion going for a long time. If your content is compelling and thought-provoking, people will want to read it. Remember to write in a way that makes your readers understand that your content, first and foremost, should benefit them. Not the other way around!
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Ensuring That Your Content Isn’t Ignored
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