As a small business it is likely that you are trying desperately to keep abreast of all the content and the many ways to digest it at the moment. Blogs, podcasts, u-tube, social media sites and forums. Hopefully you are also asking what content should be creating for your business by asking a few key questions. What purpose does the content serve, what do my customers want and will find useful and what format are they most likely to use? Paramount to these thoughts is also the context that you give that content. What voice, opinion, personality are you going to give that content so it resonates and is likely to be consumed. Let's face we can all google any topic and anyone, what makes your content compelling.
Here are my top 10 tips around creating content with the right context.
1. Define your audience. I rant on about this so you know that identifying your key audience in marketing your business is key. Don't be all things to everyone, mean something to someone, so defining your audience is one of the first steps before you create a content stragtegy.
2. Have a content plan. Take some time to map out what you think would be information, ideas, feedback to questions, resources tools that your audience would love.
3. Define the mediums. It is impossible to communicate in every forum but it is possible to communicate the same content in several mediums. For example I do a blog on this site, I repackage it and send it our as a article and then I give more context to the content by creating a podcast. This is a simple way of leveraging the same content many ways. This also gives my audience several choices about how to consume what I am creating.
4.Have a voice. Gary Vaydnerchuk said it well when he said "Context is the new Content." I believe what he meant is that there is so much content out there what is going to make your content stand out from the pack. I believe it is having an opinion and a point of difference. I believe it is also having integrity so that people come to trust that you have their best interests at heart when you create content.
5. Do what you say you are going to do.Be consistent. Once you have an audience you don't want to disappoint them. Be consistent with the blog posts or podcasts you do so that the audience knows what to expect.Plan out your content over a 3 month period. It might be worthwhile committing to writing some key content in a short period and getting some response about how it is received and then have a review.
6.You don't have to do it alone. Your audience will find it valuable for you you collect and collate information that they would otherwise have to search for. So it is worth knowing sources for your content. This can be everything from other blogs, to looking at google alerts on topics to going to content systems like Niche Content and buying content. Again the context here is important. Some people have ghost writers to create blog posts and while this might be gaining some reads I really believe that people feel when there is a person they know writing the text so I would avoid this tactic. After all it is all about giving others a taste of YOU.
7. Be on the pulse. Listen, watch and engage with your audience so you are and remain relevant. Comment on other people's blogs, where your customers are. It is not just about creating or publishing content but having conversations. Follow experts in your industry. Check out the best blogs at Alltop.com and set up a google alerts on your areas of interest. Watch TED.com and other forms information that can keep you ontop of your world.
8. Care. Give something of value and expect nothing. It is a way of reaching out to your customers and audience and showing that you care.
9. Focus. Keep to your area of expertise so that your audience come back to you as the guru.
10. Have fun. People like to engage with they like, know and trust. Show a bit of yourself, your personality so that they get that chance to know you.