The “Blogging Fundamentals For Business” workshop continued today so as soon as we were settled with Jimmy John’s sandwiches in hand, we began Part III: Crafting Shareable Content That Creates Raving Fans.
Our “Lunch and Learn” meetings are imperative to the overall growth and success of our DFW social media agency. We wouldn’t be where we are today without our team collaborations and the knowledge of experts in the field, such as Michael Stelzner at Social Media Examiner. We’re halfway through the workshop so we will continue to summarize the highlights of each session for the next couple weeks.
Session 3: Crafting Shareable Content That Creates Raving Fans
“The key to growth is not to have yourself be at the center of it, it’s the content. And when you create something that’s really valuable to people that they want, then you grow,” Stelzner said.
For Stelzner’s content-focused session, he discussed how to best approach producing content for your blog. First consider what types of content you will create, which outside experts you can consult, who will write the content, what should be in the editorial guide and how to create an editorial calendar.
Having not just content but great content is important because it brings traffic to your blog, it’s shareable, other bloggers will link back to you, it’s FREE marketing and your readers will keep coming back for more. When you produce something that engages your readers, they’ll want to share it in their network and other bloggers will share and link back to you on their blog.
Shareable content has one of these six qualities:
- Meets readers’ needs
- Detailed
- Educational
- Easy to consume
- Visually appealing
- Pitch-free
And what should you avoid? Stelzner makes it clear: selling and complaining. Begin thinking of blogging as publishing and not blogging as marketing. When your content doesn’t have an educational component to it and it’s designed to sell, your readers will skip it. And while it’s occasionally appropriate to share your personal opinion, positive or negative, don’t let your blog become a place of constant griping because you’ll attract other complainers and your blog will become a hub of negativity that accomplishes nothing.
This summary is just a small taste of what you’ll learn from this extensive session, so if you’re interested in starting the sessions yourself, visit socialmediaexaminer.com. Based on our experience, we anticipate the last two sessions being extremely worthwhile and we look forward to sharing more with you.
