I had a roommate in college who loved the rock band Pearl Jam.
Back in the day, a lot of people loved Pearl Jam. But not like this. His was a special kind of love.
He had every album. I’m not talking about studio LPs. That’s the stuff of pretenders—guys like me. I’m talking about bootlegs and B-sides, grainy live recordings from stadium shows and album release parties. Rare musical finds. He drove for hours, sometimes days, to catch a show. He graduated and spent a month following the band across Europe. He joined the fan club (they call it the “Ten” Club after PJ’s hit 1991 album). In two decades of fandom, the man has seen more than 200 live shows. Half his wardrobe consists of authentic Pearl Jam-licensed concert attire.
He’s a fanatic. Truly obsessed.
And here’s the scariest—or, if you’re in the content business, perhaps the best—part: He’s not alone.
As content marketers and editors, we go numb in the lips talking to clients about how to connect with target audiences via social media. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, wants their brand to ooze that endearing irresistible stickiness that keeps customers flocking back like concert groupies to a mid-90s grunge show.
So, what’s the secret to sustained content success? Short of producing a string of chart-topping albums, there’s several things you can do:
1. Find the Best of What’s Out There
I always tell clients that it’s impossible to write good headlines unless you have something good to write about. In the age of social media, our natural inclination is to post and share anything and everything that might be relevant to our audience. But be careful. The line between revered thought leadership and brand oversaturation is thinner than you might think.
My advice: Take your time.
Unleash your inner lead singer and brood a little. Your Twitter feed shouldn’t be a stream of consciousness about how great your company is. Think of it instead as a carefully written song. Exercise your editorial judgment and do the research. Filter out the clichés and been-there-heard-that cadences, and come up with something truly profound. When you’ve found it, you’ll know. And so will your readers.
2. Stop Going Back to the Well; Jump in the River
Everybody has different sources of inspiration. When we find an energy center that works, it’s natural to want to return to it time and again. But content creators who fail to evolve will flame out like a bad party band.
If you want to keep your audience coming back, you’ve got to give them something new to love.
That means broadening your horizons. When looking for story ideas, or content to share, you have infinite resources at your disposal. You can search on Google with the rest of the world, or you can use social search tools, such as Prismatic and Digg. There’s no shortage of ways to find shareable content. Be sure to regularly visit the home pages of your favorite blogs, associations, and news and magazine sites. Every publication takes a slightly different approach to content. Some publish long-form features; others focus on numbers, graphs and figures. Using a variety of sources and ideas for inspiration will ensure your content stays fresh.
3. Be Topical and Top of Mind
Some of the best songs are the ones that force us to confront present-day realities, good and bad. The best content marketing is no different. Always keep an ear to the latest pop culture and mainstream news happenings. And look for ways to contextualize that news for your readers.
The Center for Association Leadership (ASAE) does a killer job of this via its online publication Associations Now. Recent reports include a post about what Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s writing style says about association leadership and Angelina Jolie’s pre-emptive strike against breast cancer and the gene patent debate. The trick: Find a topic that has mainstream appeal and ask, “How might this affect my readers?” If you can identify topics people are likely to have heard about elsewhere, chances are they’ve already asked themselves that question. Now, you’ve got yourself a hook—and, with the help of a little old-fashioned journalism, a captive audience.
4. Break It Down; Keep It Simple
Walk into a room of print journalists and start talking about writing for social media and you’ll get your share of eye rolls. They’ll always be a place for long-form writing in journalism. But even the traditionalists among us have begun to bend to the notion that writing for the Web is a different animal.
Think pop song versus rock ballad.
In an age where it’s not uncommon for readers to visit half a dozen or more websites in an hour, your content has to be as quick as it is sharp. Shorter attention spans often mean shorter articles. Call outs and visuals, including charts, figures and custom infographics, are a great way to infuse shorter articles with some much-needed factual punch. If you’re tackling more complex topics, consider breaking the story down into easily digestible chunks. Ask yourself, what’s the issue, why does it matter to my audience, and what will it mean tomorrow. Section your stories off with catchy subheads that focus on the major points. You know your audience best. Write content the way they’d want to receive it.
5. Put the Why Up Top—Way Up
Every songwriter knows the value of a strong chorus—that catchy part of the song that compels people to hold high their lighters (or maybe it’s their iPhones) and sing. Strong news articles don’t have a catchy course, but a good headline can have the same effect. When writing headlines for your content, especially for the Web, think about the nut of the article—why is this interesting to the reader, or what about this piece will make people likely to share it with others? The online news site BuzzFeed is a headline-writing machine. Its editors are often direct and irreverent. And their headlines seem to always stand out in a crowd.
A couple examples: “The Ultimate Summer Bucket List for Bored Kids” and “18 Draw-Dropping Ocean Photos You Have to See This Second.” In almost every case, BuzzFeed’s writers focus on the immediacy of their content. They drop the heavy metaphors and double meanings often found in traditional print headlines and get to the meat of their content up front. In the social media age, headlines have to do much of the heavy lifting. Write them as if you were trying to stand out in a crowd of 20,000 screaming people.
6. Be Your Own Shameless Promoter
No band gets anywhere in the music game without a little shameless self-promotion. Good content is no different. I don’t care how good your articles or infographics are; if you want your content to catch on, you’ve got to take it to crowd. That means distribution. Get on Twitter or Facebook, or Digg, or Tumblr, or Instagram, wherever your audience is, and push your content out to them.
Do this consistently. I’m talking two to three posts per day for every piece of content you create for at least a week.
Try to catch your audience when they’re online. Consider using daily or weekly email newsletters or online digests or other options. Take advantage of every opportunity for exposure. If you’ve got good content and you build an audience, your breaks will come—eventually.
So will the groupies.
Do you have a favorite grunge band? Tell us in the comments.
[Image: _Jer_]
