Creating custom content for your website, blog, newsletter or social media accounts can be a daunting and difficult task. Here at Blue Zenith we would be happy to provide your business or organization with quality content, but if you are committed to creating your own, there are a number of tips and strategies that can help improve the quality of your content creation process and results.
The Difficulties Of Writing Your Own Content
The Internet has democratized content creation and publishing in revolutionary ways. Anyone with an Internet-connected device can utilize their web browser or mobile apps and publish content instantaneously. However, creating the content itself can be difficult and tedious task for many business owners and managers.
What We Do
While some clients do provide their own content when we redesign their website, we always look over it and provide tips to help improve it. Blue Zenith can also write web content from scratch, and have developed strategies to help us along the way.
Inspiration Through Research
To begin, the easiest way to find inspiration for your own content is to find, read, and review your competitor’s websites, blogs, and social media accounts. It is very important to note that this does not mean you should copy and subsequently plagiarize the content of others. Instead, look to other writers as a source of inspiration in two specific ways.
Look For Common Themes
While you are examining multiple blogs or social media posts, be sure to look for common themes and topics that you can independently research and incorporate into your own writing. It is also just as important to look for what these other writers may have missed or excluded from their own posts. This can spur you to create and include original, informed content that may be missing completely from the existing pool of similar content.
Take A Look Within
Next, seek ideas and expertise for your content from clients, partners, colleagues and team members within your organization. These individuals can be great untapped sources of ideas and inspiration for your writing. If a colleague or team member is a leader or “evangelist” in your industry, they can be an incredible source of ideas and inspiration. Consider holding regular meetings within your business or organization and lead discussions on current news and trends within your industry. This can help with brainstorming ideas and formulating ongoing blog topics and social media strategies.
It Starts With A Conversation
When appropriate, strike up conversations with clients and partners and inquire about questions and concerns that they have about your industry or a product or service you provide. Again, it is important that you do not inappropriately use or “steal” an original idea or concept unknowingly provided by a partner, colleague or team member – be sure to specifically ask permission before appropriating their idea for your content, properly credit them within the content, or even consider inviting them to write or be featured within the content.
Create A Team
If a partner, colleague or team member has a talent for writing, has a number of interesting and original ideas, and is interested in participating, consider letting them create content for you. You can either invite them to participate as a “guest” blogger or social media writer, or you can consider forming a team to manager your blog, social media accounts and newsletter. Whether your content is worked on during regular business hours or after business hours, it is vital that you properly compensate your authors and have an agreement in place that the copyright on the content created is owned and controlled by your business or organization.
Our next blog in this series will discuss the what makes WordPress plugins so powerful.