When I first started learning the basics of SEO, one of the
central points of contention that surfaced was the idea that churning out
content on a consistent basis is one of the best things you could do to help in
the never-ending quest to increase rankings. The obvious assumption anyone
would make is that search engine spiders would crawl the site on a more
frequent basis compared to a static site, seeing naturally occurring – yet
purposefully inserted – keywords that are being targeted for non-branded
rankings, and increase ranking accordingly. The problem I had with the general
idea is the vague, unwelcoming designation of “content” as a mechanical,
production-driven asset that can be created and manipulated just as easily a
tube of caulk. You just walk into your local content shop, Content Content™
(pronounced kuh
n-tent
kon-tent), and approach the
man at the counter: “Good day, sir! Let’s see….. hmmmm…. Yes, I would like 500
words of ‘VoIP’ content please.”
As much as brand managers are risk-averse when it comes to social media and communicating candidly with their consumers, they are equally fine with passing their brand to the lowest common denominator and personally churning out boring junk that no one would want to read. While there’s plenty of value in optimizing and distributing your standard press releases and case studies in the hopes of getting placement, the idea of creating content just for the sake of having content is wasteful at best, and harmful at worst. The key to all of this is to loosen up and come across less like a staid corporate entity and more like a group of actual, living people (and Zombies don’t count - “undead” doesn’t qualify as living).
7 steps to make your company content people-friendly:
1. 1. Stop selling me things – Everyone understands that a business exists to make money from a product or service, but no one goes to your blog to read about why they need to upgrade to Windows 7.
2. 2. Tell me something I don’t know… – “Check out the new colors!”
3. 3. …and actually care about – “Umm… why?”
4. 4. Get rid of the advertisements – If you’re that desperate that you need to sell ad space to superbrightleds.com, then make sure your next post has an explanation as to why.
5. 5. Lose the corporate speak – If I had a friend start a conversation with “Every trip has its Kodak Moment,” I would slap him across the face.
6. 6. Be self-effacing – The most engaging companies are the ones who not only recognize their shortcomings, but understand that their target market sees their shortcomings too. “If you can’t laugh at yourself…”
7. 7. Learn to write – As scathingly hypocritical of a statement as this may be (did you even see that run-on sentence in the first paragraph! Sheesh), it’s appalling how many content creators for huge companies publish the written equivalent of a 12oz shot of NyQuil.
It’s easy for anyone to create relevant content – and many more organizations are taking their first steps – but what’s killing the movement is that too many decision makers seem fine on settling for C-Grade content, when a little more investment in that bona fide A-Grade would work much harder and longer for them.
It feels very Meta to write a piece of content about how only good content is worthwhile. However, it’s a serious problem that seems to befuddle an astounding number of very large companies who can’t understand why their blogs or twitter accounts aren’t gaining any fans. In some cases, readers are downright hostile. Understand that they can see through the thin veil of corporate oversight, which has the adverse effect of organically creating brand ambassadors. Just think about what you like to read online – is it fun? Funny? Informative? Headline newsworthy? Shocking? All of these? There’s your mission statement.
Brass tacks: If you create something people find interesting in any way, they will do all of the hard work for you. People will talk about it, on your splice of cyberspace as well as their own. They’ll share it through social media channels that are one click away (ask any lowly webmaster who happened to gain a top story on Digg how much word-of-mouth helped them). They’ll keep coming back for more. And it is that cyclical goal that all companies should be making measureable steps to achieve.