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If I had to think about it, there's probably three key elements there, of what makes great content.
The first element is that it's got to be relevant to your market. It's got to be relevant to
your customers and your clients and what not.
And I see this mistake a lot because business owners now, sometimes they post stuff that's
relevant to themselves. And it has nothing to do with their target market.
And they seem to make the assumption of whatever they like their market likes too. And that's
a little bit wrong to assume that.
Go do your research. Find out what they think. You know.
One of our products, Social Biz Starter, is all about identifying what your customers
think, and how they feel and what are the emotions that go through their head before
they even buy your products and services.
So, you know, it's really about understanding how that works. And then producing content
based on that.
The first element is that it has got to be relevant.
The second element is that it has got to be engaging.
It's really got to make your customers think. It's got to really move the needle for them.
And really sort of look at, shed a different light on their products and services. On your
problems, on their problems.
Put a different spin on things. Make them think. Invite them to comment. Invite them
to share with their friends. It's got to be engaging. It's got to move their emotional
needle for them.
So that's the second element. It's got to be engaging.
The third element. and this is huge right. It has to solve a particular problem for your
target market.
It has to solve a particular problem for your target market.
Because people are so busy these days.
They don't really care about how great your products and services are.
All they care about is their problems and how you, as a business owner, can really help
them solve their problems using your products and services.
So your content should have some sort of a way of answering a question for them.
Or one little, if their problem is this big then how can you put a different spin on understanding
their problem, how can you help them understand their problem for them.
Things like that.
That's the elements of great content.
The first one is that it's got to be relevant.
The second one is that it's got to be engaging.
The third one is that it has to solve a particular problem.
And how, I'm going to give you an example of how to create great content using these
three criteria.
On stage at "How to Transform Social Media into Serious Dollars" we talk about a technique
called the 10 x 10 Content Creation Strategy.
What it is, is that any business owner has got an assumed level of knowledge, an assumed
level of skill in a particular thing. So mechanics know about cars, accountants know about numbers,
book keeping and all that. Lawyers know about law. If you're selling shoes you've got some
perspective on shoes.
So you have this knowledge about your products and services or industry knowledge or whatever.
And people come and ask you, frequently asked questions.
So if you sit down and you write down your ten frequently asked questions and you answer
them. That's huge!
So all of a sudden you've got 10 pieces of content there. And that's really powerful.
Start with that.
The second thing is that once you've got your 10 frequently asked questions, and the answers
to them, what you then should be looking at are those questions that people SHOULD be
asking you.
So there are questions that people come up to you and they will ask you, and you answer
them, but there's questions that with your knowledge and your perspective you know what
they really should be asking.
And how this works is slightly weird but it's incredbily powerful because the first set
of questions, the frequently asked questions, they indicate to your prospect, to your customer
and to your clients that you understand their problem and you solve their problem immediately.
Because you answered their questions.
But the second set. This is where it gets more powerful because the second set of should
be asked questions indicate that you understand their problem on a deeper level of understanding.
And you demonstrate to them that you understand them deeper.
And when you can articulate a person's problems and help them understand their problem better
than they understand it themselves that's incredibly powerful.
And what happens psychologically in their mind, they're thinking "okay this person really
knows what I'm talking about, and they've obviously got a deeper level of understanding
than me, they must obviously have a solution to my problem. I want to work with them.
And the real magic happens when you string the two together. Take your frequently asked
questions and you combine it with your should be asked questions, and you do something like
this.
For instance as a Social Business Consultant, if I were to do a video it might look something
like this.
Hi I'm AJ Kulatunga, the founder of Social Biz Academy where Smart Entrepreneurs learn
how to understand and leverage Social Media to grow and achieve their business goals in
12 months.
Now a frequently asked question that I always get asked around the place is "How do I get
on Facebook?" or "How do I set up a business page on Facebook?"
And the answer is quite simple, you go to Facebook.com and you fill in all your details
on there and you create your personal account. And then you open up a business page on there.
So there's a little section that says create a page, and you click on that link and you
go and you fill out the profile based on your business, whatever it does, and you set up
a page. Really simple.
But problem a question that you SHOULD be asking is what do you want to achieve from
Facebook? Are you looking to build a community? Are you looking to sell products and services?
Are you looking to engage your target market? Are you looking to influence your target market?
There are all these different things you can do on Facebook, but it really comes down to
what do you want to achieve on Facebook? Because that will help you dictate your strategy and
your tactics on Facebook, and it will give you stuff to really measure against when you
do your return on investment.
So try that out the next time you get on Facebook, go set up your page and really make it happen
for your business but understand why you are there in the first place.
And that's how that works.
So I open with frequently asked question and I closed with a should be asked question.
And I do that on stage all the time and it's incredibly powerful.
So that's the secrets to creating great content and I've given you a little taste of what
it's like when we do our workshops and you can create great content yourself.