Last week, I tweeted what was important when creating online content, be that on your blog or social media. From originality and quality to consistency and variety, we will share with you what you need to keep in mind for your whole approach to writing great tweets, posts, and articles.
- Originality
The most important attribute for writing blog articles or posting on social media sites is originality. This means you did not just steal it two minutes ago without quoting them. It also means that you do not retweet everyone else and not have a thought of your own. At the same time, you need to write great blog articles that came from experience, personal reflection, and research. The bottom line is people want to hear something new and creative. If we become lazy and rip other people off, people will not keep following or commenting you. Remember, people are visiting your site to hear your words. If we want to read someone else’s rules, we would visit their site. - Quality
Updating your site regularly will lead to more traffic and thus more money or viewers, but if the content isn’t worth reading, many people will click off your site very quickly. To ensure complete traffic, you need to have quality content to keep them visiting your site. The key to quality articles is to show your knowledge in the niche you’re writing about. If you have done your research, it will show that you are competent and a good voice to speak into your website. The more credible you become, the more advertising you will get from retweets, Facebook shares, and other social media marketing. - Clarity
Knowing what you are writing about and conveying that completely and effectively to your viewers will increase your repeat readership and long-term traffic. (Note: This does not translate into short-term traffic) Make sure your articles are to the point, the titles effective, and the flow of the article makes sense. At the same time, do not underestimate the power of simplicity. If you can get to the point, share some research in bullet-points, and successfully communicate what you wanted to in under 500 words, you will have a clear and effective blog article. - Professionalism
It is one thing to create a website like Mashable that provide professional material about gadgets and research and a completely different thing to write articles that spew anger at companies or people, opinions not supported by facts, or grammatically incorrect articles. You need to create and sustain a level of professionalism in your articles that promotes good journalism. No, you are not writing to win a Pulitzer, but you should still create the best material you can. - Community
Building a community of like-minded readers and other bloggers or social media users could be the greatest core viewership for what you have to offer, but this does not happen overnight. You have to develop trust between your readers, engage in their world of content constantly, and in months or years, you will have a community that will be the basis of those that come to your site. Much of the time, your involvement will require a challenge at the end of your article or some kind of interaction that will happen in the comments. The key is to follow up with that interaction by replying to what they have to say. Be open-minded and fair in what you have to say back to your readers so as to not drive them away. - Consistency
When we state that a reader needs to be consistent, it does not mean that their frequency of posting content needs to be every hour or even daily. But if you have established that every Friday at noon you post a great ten minute article, you have set a level of expectation and standard for yourself that you need to keep. Do not over extend yourself. If you cannot keep up with a daily post all of the time, do not start with it. But if you can do everyday 3/4th of the month and nothing one week, it might be wise to consider posting every other day and getting ahead of yourself. - Variety
This variety can come in many forms, including the topics that you write to the medium you present from (words, photos, and videos) to the length and structure you give out the information. This variety may become a common theme on yourself and something that can actually attract new visitors that you might not otherwise reach. The problem with this is that there may be a learning curve. For those that have written blog articles for two years and want to add variety, it might take them some time to get in the habit of taking photos or learning how to video edit. Yet, the rewards could be very high. - Quantity
As stated in the section on consistency, this does not mean every hour., but if you only post something on Twitter every week or update your blog every other month, you will not be getting a lot of followers. Most people will stop because they think that the website is dead. In fact, marketing has proven that it is better to not have an online presence than to have one that is NOT updated enough. We will leave it to you to define what is enough, but remember that this might be the only medium that some will interact with you and a higher quantity will be needed.
The key to quality articles is to show your knowledge in the niche you’re writing about.
The key is to follow up with that interaction by replying to what they have to say.
What do you think I missed? Would you rate some of these attributes differently?
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