Top 10 Tips for Digital Content Creation
The online world is getting crowded fast, and it becomes more challenging to be heard in the noisy marketplace of words, images and videos. Businesses and individuals are creating tonnes of content online, and populating their websites, blogs and social media channels to maximise their presence online.
Content is king in digital marketing. The right content strategy helps us get better online visibility and engages our online community. To rise above the noise, here are 10 tips in digital content creation that you can start using right away:
1. More Than Words
Think beyond words for digital content. Explore the possibilities of digital media to inform, educate and engage your online community. Think photos, videos, animations, infographics and audio content. The examples include creating video tutorials, photo gallery of products or events, and webinars. The digital possibilities are endless.
2. Solve people’s problems
Stay true to the core reason you are creating content in the first place. Content that help people to solve their problems are always sought after. That is why “how to” guides, FAQs, product comparisons and reviews, and video tutorials that solve problems for people and help them make faster decisions are always popular.
3. Be More Human
The days of pushing “official” messages to your stakeholders and being a faceless organisation are over. Your interaction with your community is now real-time, two-way, and more personal. As interaction becomes more human-like, you need to re-evaluate on how you communicate with your community today. Are you creating content that encourages sharing and conversations? Are you responding in a timely manner to the interactions from your community?
4. Help people understand things faster
We are living in a noisy digital environment with data overload and too little time. You will be appreciated if you can help people make sense of the tonnes of information out there in a fast manner. Create infographics that summarises data in a pleasing way, write “top 10” articles that summarises key points, and don’t forget the simple glossary that helps people navigate jargons and terms.
5. Share unique ideas
Every organisation has unique ideas, solutions or information that can help other businesses or people in their daily lives. These unique ideas are most likely stored in some Powerpoint files in the company. Fish these information out, convert the files into presentation decks for sharing, and share them publicly on file-sharing sites like Slideshare, or article sites.
6. Give them the latest news
Major search engines, like Google, has placed more emphasis on “freshness” of content. In order to get more visibility on the search engines, you will have to churn out fresh content more regularly. So, get ready to update your websites, blogs and social media channels with more regular news, new articles and fresh ideas. This is the “new normal” in digital content creation.
7. Publish it everywhere
It’s no longer enough just to publish your new content on your company’s website or blog. The key here is to encourage community sharing of your new content. So, create content that people will share, and publish it on your social networking sites, upload the content to video sharing sites, and share images on photosharing sites.
8. Contextualise your content
Tap into the seasons – ensure that your content fits into the real life cycles of people. People get into the mood of the seasons, be it Valentine’s Day or Christmas, so make sure you tie your content and posts with the seasons.
9. Be creative and repurpose
One of the most common complaint I hear from businesses is their challenge in generating new content. So, let’s get creative. There are tonnes of good stuff lying somewhere in the office. There may be a nice report on a study done some interns, interesting survey findings or photos of events from last month that are not shared. Repurpose these content into Facebook posts, Youtube videos or blog articles. This will cost you nothing and you are not really creating new content from scratch. So, get going.
10. Continue learning
The digital landscape is new and still evolving. There are software and tutorials on the internet, but an effective way to keep up is to network and learn the latest best practices at training workshops. You will never be short of ideas for your businesses or projects.
By Eu Gene Ang
Eu Gene Ang is a Director and Principal Trainer at eAcademy Asia Pte Ltd, a training academy that is the exclusive organizer for the world-class digital courses powered by Econsultancy UK.
Contributed by Marketing Institute of Singapore
