While in a single blog post I can’t tell you how to be a good writer, photographer, or producer, I can offer things you can think about when you’re creating your content. Look at the following list as a checklist before and after you create the content. Always ask yourself, does my content achieve these elements?

Eight things to consider when you’re creating online content:

1. The headline sells the content

Your content’s headline is the advertisement to get people to open and consume the content. Don’t take it lightly. I often begin my blog posts with a headline idea, but then revisit it when I’m done with the post to see if I can make it more enticing.

2. Social networking is not broadcasting, it’s thru-casting

To get the network effect of social networking, your audience needs to pass along your content. If you create a piece of self-serving content that no one else would want to pass along then all you’ve done is broadcasted your message. You want to go through your audience. Want content can you create that someone wants to pass along?

3. People pass along content that makes them look good

People don’t forward content for egalitarian reasons. They share content for selfish reasons. Those reasons are often very subtle and that’s why no one calls it selfish, but if I share a piece of content about “The Celtics” I’m advertising to others that I’m a fan of the Boston Celtics. It makes me feel and look good to be associated with the NBA team. No one sees it as selfish, but that’s what prompted my desire to share the content. I’m not sharing it because I’m working really hard to get the Celtics more publicity.

4. Does the content have a purpose?

All good content does one or more of the following: it entertains, informs, or provokes an emotional response. If you can do all three, then your chances for pass along increase that much more.

5. Tell a personal story that others can relate

When you create story-based content you’re giving your audience the option to sympathize and relate. No matter what content you create, can you connect it to a story so that it’ll be memorable? Whenever I blog, my most popular articles involve a personal story. I get an even better response if that personal story is me complaining about something. But that’s just my brand.

6. Interview others

You don’t have all the answers, nor should you let your audience believe you have all the answers. If your audience sees you interviewing others it increases your sphere of influence. Through social media and search, the act of connecting your brand with others’ knowledge and stories raises your visibility.

7. Create a lot of content

You never know what piece of content is going to stick and people appreciate and recognize publishers who generate a lot of content.

8. Don’t follow models

Tons of people will tell you that you need to write in lists, create “how to’s,” or some other standard technique that consistently ropes people in to your content. Yes, these techniques work, but they’re tired. Your job is to find your own voice and brand and get people to gravitate towards that.

This is far from an exhaustive list of how to create good content. In fact, it’s just an initial guide of questions to ask yourself as you’re building the content. Are you addressing all of these issues? And to those of you creating great content, what questions did I forget to ask?

For more, read my article on Mashable, “HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer.”

Creative Commons photo credit to reinvented, christopher.woo, splorp.

If you want to be seen in search and traded in social media, then you need to make sure your digital marketing strategy, whether it has traditional advertising or not, includes at its core, a content strategy.

It’s easy to say you need to have a content strategy. The question is where do you start, and what considerations must you take into account as you’re building your strategy? Here are some of my thoughts, plus some additional thoughts I culled from a discussion on Quora (“How important is content in a digital marketing strategy?”).

1. Know the breadth of your audience

Your audience is comprised of potential customers, other knowledge leaders, those who see you as a thought leader and pass your wisdom along (a.k.a. “advocates”), and to some degree also your detractors. You want to speak to the needs of that entire audience because they all have potential to help you in their own unique ways.

• Potential customers – Revenue generators
• Advocates – Word-of-mouth marketing force
• Knowledge leaders – Source of more content
• Detractors – Passionate about the space. Can be converted to advocates.

2. Fill the knowledge gap

Your audience requires information to be able to move forward. The question is, “What is that information?”

“[It] rests in the gap between what they do not know, what they conceptualize but wish to understand, and what they understand but want to hone and refine,” said Bonnie Nadri.

3. Utilize content as a relationship builder

“It is said that content is king. I say instead that conversation is king. Content gives people something to talk about. Remember that media is not social, people are,” said Jon Yoffie.

Nathan Ketsdever, a social media & education researcher, echoed Yoffe’s comment saying, “Without content you don’t have any sort of relationship development with a potential customer.”

Years ago I asked the extremely popular blogger Chris Brogan why some of his posts get dozens if not hundreds of comments and others only get a few. He said that the posts that get more conversation are not finished. He purposely leaves them open ended, inviting conversation. The ones that get less response are often him pointing to content somewhere else, sending people off of his site.

4. Hit the street to find sources of content

The people at the highest levels of your organization are often the worst people to ask for expertise as to what are your audience’s top concerns today.

Charlotte Ulvros, CMO at Mynewsdesk advises, “Check with customer support, your experts in R&D etc and maybe even your internal communicators for ideas. They have so much knowledge about the product, the customers and the internal happenings but are often forgotten.”

5. Resist the urge to talk AT your audience

To deliver a successful content strategy you have to lose the marketing attitude of all corporate communications being about delivering your “message.” No one, and I mean absolutely no one, cares about your message. They care about themselves. To reach that audience, you need to lose the broadcast attitude and step into the conversational attitude.

Nadri echoes this belief: “Most business drivers seek to tie strategy to desired outcomes and this often either bypasses or obliterates the mutually beneficial exchange that most digital seekers crave. Anyone can talk AT them, some can talk TO them, but the core of a solid digital marketing strategy is to find the path to engagement and interaction–to talk WITH them.”

6. Extend your knowledge through curation

You can’t know everything, and if you do know everything you garner that intelligence through others. Always seek value from others. As mentioned earlier, look within your organization, but then look to your partners, experts, customers, advocates, and even detractors.

7. Map content strategy out for best SEO results

Just pushing out content with no actual editorial plan is the equivalent of flapping your wings and standing in place. You’re doing something, but it’s not aiming towards an end goal. Have a strategy as to what your voice and content will be, and actually work with an SEO team that can help you determine what those keywords and phrases will be to attract the most traffic over time.

8. Deliver content at time of need

“Content Strategy is not about pushing content into channels–there’s no shortage of content out there–it’s about anticipating needs and delivering relevant information that supports your business objectives,” said Derek Phillips, Content Director at Critical Mass.

Timeliness of messaging is an obsession in advertising and it should also be an obsession of content creation. There are simple things you can do to plan for content creation in time of need (e.g., “Last minute tax tips” in early April) and you can also be curating feeds of information (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, blogs) to see what’s top of mind right now.

9. Support your sales cycle

Content can feed all five stages of the purchase cycle:

• Phase 1: Discovery
• Phase 2: Research
• Phase 3: Purchase
• Phase 4: Use
• Phase 5: Additional Purchase

“Relevant content needs to be mapped to the journey the buyer takes from stage 1: uninterested and unaware in your firm to the final stage: loyal customer. Mapping what content is relevant at each stage and how you plan to deliver that content is the issue,” explained B2B marketer Chris Fell.

For details on how that works, read my whitepaper, “Be the Voice^SM” – Build Your Business by Becoming your Industry’s Thought Leader.

This is your job

This advice applies to everyone. And as summation, I thought I’d include this gem from Gary Vaynerchuk quoted by Timo Mouton, Online Marketing Manager at Explania.com:

“Regardless of what business you’re in, you’re really in the content business.”

Creative Commons photo attribution to Shane Kelly (2), Ed Yourdon, and Stuck in Customs.

1. Not only are you competing with others on products and services, but you’re also competing to be your audience’s primary information source.
2. As the quality of your competitor’s content improves, your audience’s expectations increase as well, rendering your content either obsolete or just average.

This article got me thinking about how hard we try here at Intertainment Media to create content and invent new formats. Whether it’s on the Ingaged Blog, the IndyCar fan site Social Racing Grid, or through our services KNCTR and even Ortsbo.

Needs, demand, and figuring out the next big thing in content

Each of the services Intertainment Media produces has different content needs depending on audience demand. But often the audience doesn’t know what it wants and we have to foresee what they want. For example, Apple’s products were not developed out of audience interviews and testing. Henry Ford famously said (or maybe not), “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Asking the audience what they want is often not a good course of action.

Content creation and distribution formats is a never ending game. We constantly have to concern ourselves with the form of content, how it’s being created and presented, plus we have to create the content itself. Each one is a full time job in itself. But to stay relevant, you have to be doing both continuously.

While our content could be very successful today, it could hold no interest tomorrow. We see this all the time as TV shows and bestsellers that were popular one day no longer hold an audience’s interest.

To maintain relevancy, I realized I had to always be asking myself:

• Are you distributing content via a means the audience is currently using and wants to consume (e.g., blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos)
• Are you listening to your audience’s concerns and delivering answers in a timely fashion?
• Is your audience listening to you as a leading voice for information and advice or are they looking to others?
• Are you creating new thought pieces that become pillars for others to create discussions?
• Are you experimenting with different formats of content production and gauging audience reaction and engagement?
• Are you experimenting with different formats of content distribution (e.g., new video sharing tools, chat applications, widgets)?

Uggh, that’s so much, you might think, and you’re right. It is a lot of work. But if you make it a part of your daily thinking then it doesn’t become additional work. It’s part of an ongoing process that’s necessary if you always want to be seen as current, relevant, and interesting with both the content itself and its presentation.

Creative Commons photo attribution to FontShop and Werner Kunz.

How often have you heard that? All you need to do is create “valuable” content. It’s just that simple. Why haven’t you figured that out?

I find that answer, “Just create valuable content,” to be rather dismissive. No explanation is given as to what is valuable content or how one goes about creating it. It’s either a situation of they don’t know how to do it themselves or they’re not willing to open the kimono and show their secrets of creating great content.

Here’s what I believe it takes to create “valuable” content.

Your production skills need to be up to snuff

Whether you’re writing, producing video, or a podcast, your skills need to be up to snuff. This article is not going to make you a better writer, video producer, or podcaster. If you do have your technical skills in check, then read on.

Linkbaiting has a short shelf life

There are certain techniques for getting people to click on and share articles. There is no automated formula for creating “great content.” While there are subject lines that people fall for a lot, it doesn’t necessarily translate into valuable information underneath.

In essence, you can’t “fool” people into thinking you have valuable content. Don’t try to succeed with the idea that people are lemmings that’ll fall for any linkbaiting infographic or top ten list you create. When people get burned they don’t keep coming back.

Build an argument and show your work

People respect and recognize well thought out research and work. One way to create valuable content is to simply research your topic and show you’ve done your work. Quote people, cite sources, and create evidence for your argument.

Share experiential information

If you had something that happened to you, and only you, and the knowledge you gathered from it could help others, that can easily be made into valuable content. Tell your story. People will be able to relate to it.

Interview people with more knowledge than you have

You don’t know everything and no one expects you to, but by interviewing others you build relations and extend your visible knowledge through association with your interview subject.

Deliver on what people are asking for

When I’m prospecting for customers, the number one question I ask is “What is the number one reason you’re losing sales?” They’ll tell me because people don’t understand X technology or we lose out to competitor Y. When I get that answer I always ask, “Do you have a piece of collateral that explains X technology or a side-by-side comparison explaining how you’re different and better than competitor Y?” Almost always they say no and then give a range of excuses as to why they don’t have it. But if this is the number one reason you’re losing sales, it should be the number one piece of content you’re creating. There should be no excuses.

Deliver on what people aren’t asking for, but want/need

Henry Ford was once famously quoted, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

The argument is people don’t know what they want until you create it for them. No one knew they wanted an iPod, iPhone, or iPad until Steve Jobs created one for them.

I’m not suggesting you invent the car or the iPhone. But what you can do is not constantly copy others, but rather offer some new ideas and new suggestions. You’ll have to test the waters many times before you get people to jump on board.

Engage people in an industry debate

One of the best ways to create valuable content is to crowdsource answers to a contentious issue in your industry. Simply ask many people the same question, and then edit their answers. This will start the flow of an initial debate that will usually continue in the comments section of a blog post.

What’s your technique?

Do you have a method for creating “valuable” content? If so, can you share it with us? Let us know.

Creative Commons photo attribution Tracy Hunter.

This got me to thinking, “Why do we consume media?”

I ask you readers this question (please throw in your two cents in the comments), but here’s my viewpoint to launch the discussion.

There are obviously many different kinds of media that all serve a different purpose. To simplify, I break all media into serving three purposes:

• Inform - It heightens our own knowledge and context. Gives us points of discussion, learning, and discourse.
• Educate – Some of the most popular content is “how to” based as people are using for pinpoint ways to learn.
• Entertain - We’re looking for any kind of story to get sucked into, or to be amused.

There’s often a bleed between these three, and if you can produce media that marries two or more of them together it can heighten the value of the content, as they’re serving multiple purposes. And obviously a piece of content’s ability to serve its intended purpose is mediated on the quality of the content.

In all cases of media consumption, the next step is to engage, which cycles back to more media consumption. We want to debate about something we saw in the news, or share the story we heard. If we learned something, we want to connect with experts who can teach us more. And if we heard a good story we want to share it, or point to something we saw that was funny.

We didn’t need the Internet to begin engaging in “social” media.

This all seems so ludicrously obvious, but it isn’t until you realize this is the purpose of media. While content has these initial intentions of informing, educating, and entertaining, its greater goal is to connect individuals and communities. Conversations happen around content.

This circles me back as to why we have these endless discussions about content and then later engagement. That’s the hope for a piece of content, but often content is instantly forgettable and there’s no desire or need to engage.

Is media’s purpose to generate conversation and connect people? If I consume a piece of content and I don’t share it with anyone, is it a bad piece of content? Did it not serve its purpose? Does media have a greater purpose that we should always strive for?

Your thoughts.

Creative Commons photo attribution to IceNineJon and roland.

It was announced today, http://selnd.com/qcySJG – that Walmart, bought One Riot, those with the “Killer Social Targeting Engine” (their words not mine), to better be able to connect with customers.  They speak of the intersection of social, mobile and retail being and how this will help give consumers what they want at any time.  Coming off of the idea that Social Business is the future, this acquisition by the world’s largest retailer, makes for some really interesting thinking.  Big Brands buying out development and research shops…is this what the future of Social business looks like or is it just a case of not being focused on the core business?
Drop up a note and let us know what you think.

This great article by Drew Neisser in @FastCompany (http://bit.ly/q0iOF2) should make you question whether your company is simply waving at social media as the blogs, articles, posts and tweets float by you, or are you truly committed to making your enterprise a social business.

The subject of the article, IBM’s Ethan McCarty, asserts that the time has come to move from social media to Social Business and that Social Business is the future even for companies, like IBM, who are aren’t even selling to consumers anymore. My takeaway…inherently you need to be committed to being social to have a successful social strategy. You can’t farm it out, you can’t set up a page and call it a social strategy. You, and your company as whole need to be engaged, and engaging, in a social dialogue, hey if IBM can do it….

So what do you think, are you a Social Business or a Social Bust? Drop us a note and let us know.

It’s Friday, and Aldous Huxley is turning in his grave…

In Brave New World, the author dreams a dystopian vision of the future in which man’s “limitless appetite for distraction” renders him passive and incapable of self-reflexivity. Media-theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman echoes this sentiment by drawing parallels between Huxley’s fictional world and the state of contemporary media consumption; in a scathing critique of the current media-ecology, Postman declares that “Huxley’s vision – not Orwell’s vision – has become our reality.”

Barely a week into virality, this music video from untalented aspiring teen pop-star Rebecca Black, has 16 million+ more hits than 2011 Grammy Winner Esperanza Spalding! This is a problem – not the actual video, but the social construction that permitted its virality. We’re at a precipice where even the unofficial “authority” on all things social media, Mashable, can’t stay abreast of the growing factors/variables that would permit a video like “Friday” to go viral. It’s remarkable how a “definitive” guide to going viral, published only months ago, needs to be revised to accommodate the phenomenon.

Times are a-changin’.

Here we are, on Friday, March 18th 2011, in a world that allows the spawn of the Arkmusic Factory to flourish in the digital-coliseum of the internet. With every Rebecca Black, are we losing our appreciation of true art? Are we eroding our collective and individual attention spans? Will there come a time where we’ll be incapable of watching such important works as Randy Pausch’s renwned TED Talk?

Media critic and entertainment lawyer, Bob Lefsetz (@lefsetz), certainly thinks so. In a recent blog post, he reiterated his perpetual rant of how “the rules have changed” – against the topic of Rebecca Black’s inevitably fleeting-fame, he states: “Real music requires inspiration and dedication and tons of practice and it lasts.”

We’re not in a homogeneously controlled media landscape anymore. We’ve made gatekeepers irrelevant; we spread the content. Let’s take ownership of our future. Before we completely devolve into a culture obsessed with spreading mediocre and trivial content like teen-sensations, Hollywood train-wrecks and LOLcats, let’s take a step back be critical of our media consumption. As with our nutritional diets, let’s demand better content, or at the very least, strive for balance. The disproportionate number of views between Rebecca Black’s and Esperanza Spalding’s videos are disturbing. There’s a real concern here that if left unchecked, we will desensitize ourselves into a jaded stupor where everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy.

Demand better content.

Because I pay for the “Never Not Funny” podcast, I make sure that I always watch it (I pay an extra $5 to get the video feed). I’m paying about a dollar per show, but that’s enough to get me invested into the show that I feel compelled to watch it. That’s not the case for any of my other free podcasts.

I feel the same way about watching films I purchase and download from iTunes. Or music I purchase from iTunes. Or listening to music on the paid service MOG for which I also became a paid subscriber ($5/month).

When I pay for content, I’m compelled to consume it before content I can get for free.

But as we all know, even charging a nickel for content can be a barrier for consumption. Some may see this as dealing with two mutually exclusive issues:

• If people pay for content they’ll be compelled to consume it.
• If you charge for content it will be a barrier to consumption.

I see the ability to overtake these conflicting issues is by not scaring people when you charge for content. Instead, get people excited that you’re going to charge for content. And I believe you can do this by creating your own form of scarcity. Give away a portion of content for free that leads people to want to purchase the rest of it.

How do you charge for podcasts?

While iTunes has an app store, a music store, and a movie store, they don’t make it possible for podcasters to sell their podcasts. Podcasts within iTunes must be completely free. That doesn’t mean you can’t sell your podcasts, you just can’t do it completely within the four walls of iTunes. You have to go outside and create a personalized RSS feed that requires a username and password for access. You can manage that through services like Premiumcast (read and listen to my interview with Premiumcast’s founder, Paul Colligan).

This whole discussion got me thinking about the role of advertising as marketing, as content, as helpful, and as a nuisance. The latter is not something anyone strives for, but it’s the way so many people describe advertising.

Why do they do that? Are they just being pests? Do they just like to complain?

Yes, that all may be true, but I think the truth of the matter is that advertising becomes annoying when it’s unwanted. And since it’s so difficult to effectively target advertising on a one-to-one basis, so much of it becomes “annoying.” Yet no one realizes when an ad is targeted well. No one announces, “Wow, that ad was targeted so well to me, I’m so glad they sent it to me at just this time.” Instead, they might say, “Oh, that’s just what I want” and completely not be aware of the wizard behind the curtain moving all the levers to deliver an ad to you at just the opportune moment.

So when advertising comes in at an inopportune moment, which is most of the time, how can we make it more useful? Many advertisers realize this and that’s why we see so many ads that appeal outside of their core audience. A purely entertaining ad, even if it’s not targeted to me, is no longer annoying.

But if we get to the point that we can hyper target every single ad right down to the individual, and perfectly time it, will there be anymore need for creativity? If I know at exactly this moment that you want to get a coffee, I don’t need to be creative, I can just tell you that Starbucks is selling coffee right now. Come on in. I don’t have to do anything else. Maybe I have to give you an incentive like a coupon. But really, what more do I need to do?

Could efficient targeted advertising be the end of creative advertising?

Creative Commons photo attribution to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/autohistorian/ / CC BY-NC 2.0