The benefits of content
We’re not just talking about words for words’ sake. Valuable content has the power to perform many tasks on behalf of your business:
Where is content found?
Content doesn’t only refer to words but also to photos, soundbytes, podcasts, videos and infographics. And where is it found?
The most obvious answer is: Google. But beyond the search engine itself, the next answer is: websites. On your business website itself, how much valuable content can you write without cluttering the pages and appearing overly verbose? Consider the following …
Blogs – Blogging is an invaluable way to serve up content that will be eagerly consumed by your fans, existing and potential customers and even those tyre kickers. Ideally, all content will be relevant to your audience but to a degree, you may also blog in a way that showcases your personality or your brand’s personality. Blogging is conversational so feel free to open up a blog page and let your fingers communicate to the keyboard what you’re thinking in your mind. Try to add keywords where they would naturally and intuitively appear (avoid repetition and ‘stuffing’). Talk to your audience. Save the dry, corporate writing for your web pages.
Social media – Twitter allows 140 characters of content per tweet. It might surprise you how much you can fit into such a short post and you might also feel empowered knowing that you don’t have to write epic pages of content to feed your audience’s appetite. You can also use Twitter to direct followers to your blog or website to read longer chunks of content.
Facebook – Facebook provides a content platform where you can also post photographs, videos and longer bursts of information. As with Twitter, audience engagement is easy and immediate so you receive instant gratification from reader feedback.
Pinterest – Somewhat of a new kid on the social media block, Pinterest deals with images instead of words. Be creative. For some types of businesses – fashion, food, interior design, landscapers, real estate – photographs and other forms of imagery are the best way to communicate content. Others need to come up with clever ways of delivering messages through pictures. A personal trainer could post before/after photos of clients; a musician might post ambient images of how his music style makes people feel. What matters is that the images are engaging and relevant
