How to instantly create better content
The bar for posting content online is at an all-time low. If you have a phone, you’re posting content. It’s that simple. So how can you create great content that grows your business or builds an audience when EVERYONE is posting content?
It’s not as hard as you think.
Most people just post content without much rhyme or reason to it.
When there are a million cars on the road, you’d think to stand out you’d have to be driving a Lamborghini, right?
Nope. Not at all.
Check out this vehicle.
Photo Courtesy of Pixabay (Creative Commons)
Yep, that’s a Jeep. But Jeep drivers aren’t like regular drivers, they are Jeep enthusiasts. When you buy a Jeep you become part of the Jeep club. That’s why you see those stickers that say “It’s A Jeep Thing.”
You must know who your content is for — and get really specific about it.
And you must inform and entertain those people. It’s that simple. It’s easy to overthink things and worry about SEO and social and all that stuff.
At the end of the day, content either resonates with people or it doesn’t. If it does resonate, they will share your content with others. If not, they will move on.
So… who are you creating content for specifically? You can’t say everyone. You need to get really, really specific. You need to know these things or you’re just going to create content for no one.
Get opinionated. Don’t worry about offending people. I recently went to the bookstore and saw this.
Photo by author
Almost every single one of these books is a self-help book with a profane cover. (Have to wonder if the 50 Cent book in the middle was there by mistake.) And this is an endcap right in the middle of the book store. It’s not an endcap in the back corner of the store. It’s hard to miss this display.
That tells me a few things. First, these books sell. I’ve also seen these same books on the endcaps at Target too. People love it when you are opinionated. For as many people who are offended by profanity, some people buy a book with it on the cover.
The internet changed everything
There is clearly enough space for anything and everything. This is the concept of the Long Tail. Most of us will never compete with celebrity influencers like Oprah. But we are all content producers that have the ability to be micro-influencers.
Image by author
You must pick a niche or topic. Most people never pick just one thing, and that’s why they don’t become micro-influencers. They don’t plant a flag anywhere.
It’s when you stand firm and say, I stand for ______, ______ and ______, that you can stand out from the rest.
Your content must stand for something bigger than just you. It needs to be something that people can gather around. Something you can build a community around.
Let’s look at a few content creators who are absolutely killing it.
The art of manliness
The Art Of Manliness is a website and podcast by Brett McKay. Think that this website is mostly visited by men? You’d be wrong. I’ve heard that more women visit this website than men. I don’t have a direct link to back that up, but I believe it. Notice the “Best Christmas Gifts for Men” post at the top? Both men and women are going to read that post. Having great, clickable headlines is so important.
On the website, there are a ton of articles, a podcast, and even a fitness community. Let’s look closer at what this website is about.
Did you see it? The Strenuous Life is the fitness program that is going to be a huge revenue generator for this business. Just wanted to point that out. Since this website is huge, the focus doesn’t have to be just on fitness. But if they were starting out — the scope of “a man’s life” wouldn’t likely cut it, in my honest opinion. But this website has been around since 2008. (12+ years online is a long, long time!) Showing up over the long haul often solves a lot of problems.
Let’s look at a specific example of the content.
First thing that jumps out to me is the image. The headline is great too. But the image is bold and the blog post has a lot of images as well.
See how the images make such a better experience than a big old block of text? This is huge! But they are always on-topic. And you can really see how you can build a community around these topics.
The Art of Manliness also has a very popular podcast. And they also have a YouTube Channel with over 1.2 million subscribers.
So that’s The Art of Manliness. Brett McKay has been creating stellar content for years. The bar is lower for entry, but you must keep raising the bar for content. If I could summarize it into just a few words, “insanely useful and entertaining,” would probably be it.
I know that is a really high standard. But so many people just toss some words on a screen and the hit publish and then wonder why they aren’t getting a response. Or they put a photo up and wonder why people aren’t interacting with it.
Back to you and your content
What does all of this matter? You need to find your peeps. The folks that care about the same things that you do. Whether it’s Jeeps, Lamborghinis, survival knives, or your love for the f-bomb, it really doesn’t matter. There’s SOMETHING out there that deeply moves you. Something that makes you seriously stand out from others. Use that. It’s your connecting point. What do I mean by that?
A connecting point is that same thing that other people will look at and talk about too.
When you have that connecting point, you’re well on your way to creating better content. So how do you find it? Well, you need to be willing to think like a scientist. Are scientists right all the time? Of course not. They experiment. They try new things.
They ask questions like: what if? Ask some questions. Try some new things. If ain’t broke, break it. Shake things up. Assume nothing.
Do some research by trying things out — not just, “thinking about things.” That’s almost always procrastination or it just leads to overthinking. Publish some work and see how it resonates with others.
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