5 Ideas for Providing Relevant Content

As a blogger, and one who reads a lot of blogs (even blogs ABOUT blogs), I know that one of the most important aspects of marketing via social media is to provide relevant content. I have tried to do this, but often it is hit and miss, and social media is a process. Every day I learn more and more about what works and what doesn’t.

Whether you are blogging or creating social media content for a business, or just for yourself, the goal is to get readers, and engage those readers in a way that at least some of them take the next step. For a business, that might mean they become a customer. Or it might just mean that they subscribe to your blog and make it a regular part of their online experience.

Here are five tips on providing relevant content that will bring readers to your blog or social media site:

1. Step Outside the Box – For the most part, don’t blog just about your business or yourself. Blog about the things that interest your customers and potential customers. If you sell insurance, don’t blog about insurance, and above all, don’t use your blog to try to sell your services directly. Instead, give tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle. Tips on how to make your home more safe. Provide information about safe driving. Think about WHO your potential customers are and then think about what sorts of things might bring them to your site. Give them relevant content and they may become your customer when it’s time to buy insurance.
2. Find Needs and Meet Them – Don’t just assume you know what’s best for others. Find a need and meet it. This was brought home to me this past weekend after Facebook made changes to their user interface. As always, people were up in arms. I noticed several friends commenting about the changes in their Facebook status. I also noticed that there was a lot of misinformation going around, and that a lot of the “go to” blogs weren’t doing a good job of explaining the changes. So I blogged about it and tried to explain the changes for my friends. But I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. On the day I posted the blog, I received 5x the number of page views than my previous most popular post. On a Saturday! And the next day, I received 6x as many page views as a result of that same post. Because of my use of the Networked Blogs application on Facebook, my blog post was being read by people in other countries, and they appreciated my advice. And many of those people clicked around my site. I met a need and people responded.
3. Go Behind the Scenes – Is there anything that goes on at your business, or in your industry, of which your customers aren’t fully aware? Maybe you can demystify some of this for them. I spent six months working in a chocolate factory and was fascinated by the entire process, and learned a heck of a lot. I now have great appreciation for what goes into making that Milky Way bar. Blog about the behind the scenes processes that the public never sees. We spend a lot of time writing about WHAT to do and HOW to do it, but going behind the scenes often helps answer the question WHY. Perhaps you create a YouTube channel and offer videos of the manufacturing process. Educating your customers or potential customers empowers them, and they will thank you.
4. Frequently Asked Questions – A lot of websites have FAQ pages, but why not use your blog and social media to spend time really answering the questions that your customers ask. Are there questions that you hear more often? Use your online space to answer those questions. I’m a cheapskate, so it’s very rare (no pun intended) that I buy expensive cuts of meat. But when I do, I almost always have to ask the grocery store butcher what I should get for the particular meal we want to prepare. If you’re a grocery store or butcher shop, why not blog about the various cuts of meat and how they are best used, and perhaps offer recipes and cooking/grilling tips.
5. Takeaways and Visuals – I’m a very visual person. I like to have things illustrated for me. Rather than just blog about different cuts of meat, why not offer a video that explains them. Something people can link to and share on Facebook and other social networks. Or a downloadable PDF your readers can take to the store with them (even better, attach a coupon to the PDF to entice them to come to your store). We like free things and anything that helps your readers share your information is a plus.

Where do you start? By listening to your community (customers/members/clients). Find out what kind of information they would find useful, whether it’s related to your business or organization or not.

How do you come up with relevant content?

Tagged as: blogging, Social Media