Making content can be a bit of a slog. But you have to remember that you can and should be capturing content any way you can.
You may be a writer, you may not be, but the content does not necessarily come from a ‘creative’ person.
The Head of Recall can’t write or shoot a film but they are potentially a fountain of easily accessible and excellent raw content.
The key here is:
- finding content sources,
- reusing already existing content and
- taking advantage of real time.
Content Sources.
These are the industry specialists; there are definitely people within your own business who hold a lot of knowledge regarding a department they’ve been in for years. The problem is, they can’t write. But it’s no problem.
Interview them, film them, send them a bunch of questions in an email and ask them to write or talk about a subject in any way they feel most comfortable. You’ve now got plenty of raw material to create something.
You can make content from that yourself, or hire someone who can do it for you. Everyone you come across has a story to tell which can become great content. The editing process will turn writing or footage into something worth sharing.
Find and edit.
Reuse Content.
Perform a content audit. What content do you already have? Blog posts, tweets, white papers, presentations, photos, videos and more.
How can you reuse this content in a different format? Can you turn a blog post into an infographic or a white paper into a SlideShare presentation? Before you can ever determine what you need, you first need to figure out what you have.
What you have is probably plenty to be getting started with.
Real Time.
We all go to industry events. We all want to get a finger in the real time pie too.
The solution: when you’re attending these events, take photos and make videos. Create a live running commentary on things as they happen for your followers.
Don’t worry if the footage is on your iPhone and is far from professional. Mixing amateur video footage with professional will help to position your brand in a more down to earth light.
Then, later on, you can mix and match what you’ve captured with other pieces of content that you produce. Maybe a blog post (see 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts 1,000,000 Times Better).
Always be reusing.
Summary
There you have it. Find raw content everywhere you can. Create, within reason, as much ‘content’ from raw content as is necessary. As long as it is of high quality and abides by your company mission statement, you can’t really go wrong. Real time ‘reporting’ is ideal in so many ways.
See what works and what doesn’t and learn for next time.
