content for 2015 and beyond by matt beswick, sem days 2015
TRANSCRIPT
Content for 2015 and Beyond
@mattbeswick
Let’s start at the end…
@mattbeswick
Most successful content comes down to three things
@mattbeswick
The story
The Data
The Production
An existing audience also helps
@mattbeswick
There’s all kinds of other stuff too. Like research,
validation, outreach and… luck.
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What is success? Links? Shares?
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Eyeballs and Engagement.
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Creating content is hard.
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Really, really, really hard.
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It looks so easy
Brainstorm
Choose an idea
Briefa designer
Publish it
Promote it
Live happily ever after
It doesn’t work like that.
Take this stuff seriously.
Your budget doesn’t matter.
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Look at what you’re up against...
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“Let’s throw a guy out of a spaceship”
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But things go back a LOT further than that.
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1857 – Polar Area Diagram by Florence Nightingale showing deaths in the Crimean War.
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1896 – “The Furrow” by John Deer
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1900 – First Michelin Guide
1906 – Jell-O Recipe Book
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2007 – The first Blendtec video
2007 – The first Blendtec video
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But then the SEOs came to destroy everything.
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We are often the problem
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http://terribleinfographics.tumblr.com/image/8936176180
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http://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/when-infographics-go-bad-or-how-not-to-design-data-visualization/
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http://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/when-infographics-go-bad-or-how-not-to-design-data-visualization/
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Do you think a creative agency would do that?
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Do I need to say it again?
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We laugh, but there’s a problem…
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Sh*t ideas sneak up on you and pretend that they’re
good.
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Often you don’t realise until it’s too late.
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What should I be doing?
It depends.
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Just because you have an idea doesn’t mean it’s a
good idea.
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You NEED a framework.
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Doing it consistently is the hardest part.
@mattbeswick
Our approach to these issues
We can build stuff
We worked on our processes from scratch
Recommended Reading
Remember - at heart, I’m a geek.
I like processes and reverse engineering stuff
Can I just reverse engineer what others have done and
do it a little bit better?
YES!
No one can guarantee results though
The whole process is actually really big
It changes all of the time, depending on the project / client / target audience /
day of the week / software we’ve just found / tool we
built / etc. etc.
I’m going to focus on a couple of key parts.
Feeding strong research into your brainstorming /
idea generation stage, and validating the ideas.
This is tough.It requires thought.It’s very rarely done
properly.
Why do it?
To reduce the chance of failure.
The process
Research
Read this post for the basics
https://moz.com/blog/generate-content-ideas-using-buzzsumo-and-apis
Look at (content) competitors
Scan the results
Look for the trends
Look for the trends
Run several competitors together
You can also use keywords
Export to CSV
Some pivot table magic…
Find the most linked to domains
Do a deeper dive for more insights
Does long-form content work?
What post types work well?
Order by linking domains
Can I do any of them better?
Can I make them more current?
Is there a different angle?
What else is out there?
Add all of this to your brainstorming brief
Ideation
Think about the intent.
Awareness. Discovery. Promotion.
Consider your formats.
Short posts = long-tail search(don’t forget your keyword research – I cover this
in more detail tomorrow)
Long form content to prove expertise.
Interactive content for digital PR
There are always exceptions.
Once you have a set of ideas, look for similar content.
Don’t overthink this
Can I do it just a bit better?
(this could be a restraint or an opportunity)
Has it been linked to?
Yep
What data could we use to make it better?
Know what’s available
http://www.statista.com/search/?q=travel%20destinations
Can we get our own data?
Try a little bit
This could be a restraint (£££)
We now THINK we have a good idea. But do we?
Validation
Skip this and you’re destined for failure
Pre-outreach (misunderstood)
Google Surveys
Focus groups
Friends and family!
Creation
Launch
Don’t f*@# it up!https://www.distilled.net/resources/the-consultants-checklist-for-launching-content/
Promotion
Don’t be scared of paid promotion.
This does not mean buying links.
Don’t be scared of outreach.
Don’t be scared of asking again.
Don’t. Be. Scared.
More on that tomorrow.
Review
Do. Not. Skip. This. Step.
One final tip on setting expectations
“I want 10,000 Facebook Likes and 500 Links per
content piece”
Fairly unlikely…
A takeaway for you…
www.aira.net/semdays
See you later!
