We all know that in order to remain relevant, and to drive traffic to your premises (both physical and cyber), you need contents. Fresh and regular contents. But how do you create fresh contents if you’re too busy with your regular work? How do you maintain your momentum of regular content creation? And even if you do publish regularly, how do you even know if people are even paying attention?… If you have the patience, I’ll share the secret of content creation with you. But if you’re not, well, then I hope you have a lot of money to spend…
The (Open) Secret To Staying Relevant In Today’s World
We all live in a world that’s constantly bombarded with contents from all over. It could be anything from new product launches and news of business mergers to following somebody’s food blogs and cute kitten videos. So in order for you to stay relevant, you literally have to keep up with the Joneses… That’s right, you have to create and publish your own contents, and regularly.
You see, the world is dominated by content consumers, regardless whether professional or leisure. Have you ever seen the queue to the cinema ever getting shorter? Or have you ever seen the TV news running out of news to report?… Never on both accounts. Because if there’s ever a slowdown of new contents, the crowd will simply move over to your competitors instead. And you don’t want that to happen. If anything, you’d want to draw them away from your competitors, not the other way around.
“But I Can’t Reveal The Company’s Trade Secrets…”
Have you ever seen or heard of KFC revealing their famous eleven secret herbs and spices with the public?… Well, I have to admit that they do sometimes entice the public with attempting to reveal just what they are. And we’ve also come across “unnamed sources” revealing the exact recipe. Are they legit?… Who knows?… But one thing I’m sure is that these stunts sure draw in a lot of interests and traffic.
But back to the topic of discussion, you do not need to reveal any trade secrets in order to attract traffic. You just need to create excitement. And there are so many ways to create excitement without even mentioning anything about your trade secrets.
In your regular day-to-day business, you already have sales people visiting clients, and sharing information with them. Why not immortalise these information, and write an article on this? It’ll sure help you avoid repeating the same sales pitch to each and every potential client that you visit. Just guide them to the article of interest. And if they’re happy with your service/product, they might even forward your article to others too. More importantly, there could be potential clients who have yet to approach you to discuss exactly the same thing. It’s like opening the flood-doors to letting in more clients pour in.
Human beings are natural content consumers. If they’re interested in a particular something, they’ll search for it. So why not put up something that people will search for? It’s better for potential clients to read your contents than your competitors’. That way, they’ll associate your company with whatever it is that they’re searching for.
“Okay, But What If I Run Out Of Things To Say?”
There’s no such thing as running out of topics of interest to share. You’ll always have something new to share. It could be a new product you’re launching, a prototype you’re testing, or even a company’s annual trip to the beach. Heck, you can also plan up something that involves your audience, like organising a competition too. You want your audience to know that you’re a company that’s run by human beings, not robots. And human beings are social creatures. So there’s nothing wrong with sharing the fun you’re having while you’re off-the-clock.
The secret (at least to this portion), is to literary open the doors that are limiting your imagination. Nothing is off the table, short of revealing your trade secrets. Do not limit your creativity to only topics that are directly relevant to your business. Open up your imagination, look beyond your immediate surroundings. Who knows, you might even expand your business direction too, should there be demand for something that you never thought that you’d do.
“I’m Too Busy With My Job Responsibility To Create Contents”
Now that’s a common excuse… VERY common indeed… Unfortunately, this ugly beast doesn’t show its face until several weeks, or even months later. Often, at the commencement of a branding exercise, everybody is filled with passion. Everybody is committed to write about this and about that. Everybody wants to bask in the limelight as the author of the most number of articles written.
But as time progresses on, and complacency sets in, the participants will naturally start getting lazy. The rate of new content being created gets slower and slower. And before long, the phrase “Why should I do so much when XXX is doing less than me?” starts popping up on everybody’s head. The fierce fire of determination fizzles out. And everybody starts digging their heels into the ground. In the end, the finely tuned branding machine grinds into a complete halt. Everybody on the branding team folds their arms, and start looking at everybody else. The childish “I won’t do it if nobody else does it” attitude is so thick that you can almost smell it in the air.
It’s a sad fact, but true nonetheless. Many companies task their specialists to not only execute their expertise at work, but also to create contents out of their areas of expertise. And the biggest culprit is that management themselves are often blind to the fact that content creation is another area of specialisation on its own too. You don’t hire an automotive engineer to write about how to design a car. You hire a journalist to do that. Likewise, you also don’t hire an accountant to write about preparing your company’s finances for IPO. You also hire a journalist to do that too.
“And The Solution To This All Is…?”
It’s already an established fact that in order to stay relevant, you need to “appear” relevant to your audience. To appear like that, you need to be seen to be participating in the current affairs. And to do that, you need to keep fresh contents rolling out regularly.
It’s also an established fact that most companies hire specialists to do their specialised work. And since writing is also another specialised work, why not hire a professional writer to do it?
Hiring another specialist?… To do work that I’m not even familiar with myself?… Hmmm… Sounds like I could lost control over the whole thing…
Well, a more pragmatic approach would be to engage an external party. An independent content creation specialist that could work hand-in-hand with your in-house experts. A specialist in writing stories, your stories, for your audience to read about.
“Okay, But What Guarantee Is There That Articles I Create Will Be Read By Others?”
Well, creating the contents is one thing, but getting those contents out to the masses is a whole other thing. You need to publicise your publications. And what better media to host your publicity than social media?… It’s free, and literary everybody is on board social media of one form or another.
“Errr… Okay… But who’s gonna do that?”…
Well, you could hire a Social Media Management Specialist, and put him or her on your payroll. But then again, it’s the same thing with the content creation issue too. Hiring a specialist to do something that’s out of your scope of business? Not a very sound business idea.
The good news is that third-party specialists in mass media not only specialises in content creation, but also in mass dissemination too. And what better platform to spread your word than on social media? Besides, dealing with a service provider is so much more hassle-free than dealing with a full-time employee. Especially so when their job is so far removed from your business specialisation, right?
In Conclusion
If you want to stay relevant, you need to appear relevant. That’s a given. And the best way to do that is to be seen regularly publishing fresh contents. But then again, writing and publishing may not be your area of expertise. That’s okay. Whatever that you can’t do yourself, partner with somebody else who can, regardless whether full-time employee or a third-party service provider. Whatever you do, just don’t neglect it.
If you have any more specialised questions about this article, feel free to leave a comment below.
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