Everyday Content Tips

A reader suggested today’s tip (thanks, Richard), which is a doozy. Cover “content strategy” in one tip? OK, you’re on.

Publishing content is an excellent way to promote your company, reveal your strengths, and communicate with your market.

The hard part is 1) knowing what content will work best for you, 2) creating that content, 3) coordinating multiple types of content, 4) making your content public, and 5) tracking and measuring your content’s effectiveness.

That’s content strategy.

If you don’t have a strategy, start at the beginning and work through these 5 steps. You’ll get there. Remember, too, that your company needs a variety of content, not just one type, in order to reach your market and establish (and sustain) your presence online and off.

Developing content in different channels without a plan for coordinating these efforts is not a strategy; it’s an impulse.

A content strategy is a blueprint you create that guides your content development and usage. It means you know not only what you’re creating, but why.

Get in touch if I can help.

(c) 2016 Margie Dana

Too often when I see blog posts, I whisper a silent “Ouch!” at minor imperfections in formatting.

When you’ve uploaded your content and are ready to make it public, preview it first whenever possible and check for these little things:

1. Proper spacing between paragraphs. Sometimes there isn’t any at all, and paragraphs are all smushed together. If you indent every paragraph, this is technically OK, but it’s easier to read if you use flush left formatting and a space between paragraphs. Sometimes I see too much space. It’s also annoying.
2. Proper spacing between sentences. And by ‘proper,’ I mean one. One space between sentences – not two. Manual typewriters used monospaced type, because every letter occupied the same amount of horizontal space. Today, computers use proportional fonts, so we no longer need to manually enhance readability with two spaces.
3. Body copy aligns cleanly at the left. Even when it’s off by one character, it jumps out at the reader. Usually this happens at the beginning of a paragraph.

If you can’t preview your content before you publish it, be sure to view it soon after you hit “Publish.” Check for formatting issues, then correct them pronto.

Don’t let a few formatting bloopers spoil your content.

(c) 2016 Margie Dana

When I search online for info on a topic that’s central to a piece I’m writing, I want to see a date on that article or blog post.

I need to see that date. If a post is too old, I pretty much discount it.

This is particularly true when I’m trying to make a point about trends (duh). Let’s say I’m writing a piece for a printer client about the resurgence of direct mail. I know that citing another article or two written by someone else, especially a well-respected authority, will support my post’s thesis.

Most of the time there’s a date associated with a post or article. It’s always somewhere up top. But sometimes there is NO date. Nada. Zippo. Why? Who knows?

Even if I respect the content in such a post, I can’t refer to it. It may be a decade old. (What if you’re the author? Are you kicking yourself now?)

That’s why I want a date.

Bonus tip: Add a date in the subject line of your enewsletter. This way, people who get it can instantly refer to it. Every post of mine has a date.

© 2015 Margie Dana

There’s a simple way to squeeze more use out of your existing content. Extract a slice of something that can stand on its own.

I noticed that within some of my blogs live juicy little nuggets that work very well on their own. These are typically paragraphs; sometimes, they’re single sentences.

Such short bits of content can be repurposed for other channels, like Twitter or Facebook. They can even inspire a totally new blog.

Good example: the 2-sentence intro to this post. Wouldn’t it make for a good social share?

Another example from an October blog: No matter what you’re selling, your customers are evaluating you by the perceived value you provide them.

And here’s a short paragraph from another blog of mine. It would work on its own as a LinkedIn post, as the basis of a PowerPoint presentation or a marketing video, or shared in my social channels:

“Your sales reps are not in charge of marketing. Somebody else has to be.”

Note: I don’t intentionally write posts so that pieces can be lifted and repurposed. After a blog is written, polished, and published, I often see content within that has legs of their own.

© 2015 Margie Dana