Content Strategy: How to Get Grassroots Growth

Fast forward a few months: your product or service is booming and the social networks are alight with your name. How did you develop such a loyal following? How, without a PR department, an advertising budget, a big-name producer or professional marketing? The answer is simple: you told the real story of your creative endeavors to people who matter.

Transcript

1. Chris Dannen CONTENT STRATEGY: HOW TO GET GRASSROOTS GROWTH Monday, December 17, 12
2. INTRODUCTION CHRIS DANNEN 2 NOW ‣ FastCompany writer (tech, design) ‣ Partner at Dannen/White software consultants in Brooklyn ‣ Creator of Writebot, the research & writing tool Monday, December 17, 12
3. INTRODUCTION CHRIS DANNEN 3 THEN ‣ CBS MoneyWatch, Forbes, MIT Technology Review, The Atlantic, Inc., Rolling Stone and Discover magazines ‣ Microsoft Corp consultant ‣ ReD Associates consultant ‣ The Onion editorial staff ‣ Red Bull Energy Drink brand manager ‣ BIKE magazine photojournalist Monday, December 17, 12
4. INTRODUCTION CHRIS DANNEN 4 BOOKS ‣ The Narrated Startup (2012) ‣ Beginning iOS Apps with Facebook and Twitter APIs (2011) ‣ iPhone Design Award-Winning Projects (2010) ‣ Google Voice for Dummies (2009) Monday, December 17, 12
5. WHY ARE YOU HERE? CONTENT STRATEGY: HOW TO GET GRASSROOTS GROWTH 5 Monday, December 17, 12
6. CONTENT STRATEGY 6 YOUR COMPANY NEEDS ONE https://medium.com/jobs/77543ce0261a Monday, December 17, 12
7. CONTENT STRATEGY JOB DESCRIPTION 7 We want someone on the inside helping to tell our story... a great story can be the difference between a historic company and one no one’s ever heard of. On a daily basis, your job will be to write things... [for] users and soon-to-be users, people who work here and those we want to hire, journalists, and the world. You’ll also drive the production of materials, from Keynote slides to videos, that support our team and make them look good. —Evan Williams (founder of Blogger, Twitter and Medium) Monday, December 17, 12
8. CONTENT STRATEGY VALUABLE SKILLS 8 ‣Good sense of design ‣Technical savvy ‣Video production ‣Press wrangling ‣Tweeting (from Medium job listing) Monday, December 17, 12
9. CONTENT STRATEGY TWO BIG QUESTIONS 9 People won’t care about what you say unless they already understand: 1.Why does the world need your product or service now? 2.Why are you the people to create it? ? Monday, December 17, 12
10. Obviously You can’t give explicit answers without sounding like a politician. Monday, December 17, 12
11. But how? Monday, December 17, 12
12. Show, don’t tell. (Go behind the scenes) Monday, December 17, 12
13. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ WHAT ARE YOU GETTING ME INTO? ‣Every day, create several short, punchy status updates social networks you choose. ‣Comprised of curated & original content. ‣Once a week, digest some of these posts & ideas into razor-sharp blog posts that people will love reading. 13 1 Monday, December 17, 12
14. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ SHOULD I USE MY OWN SOCIAL ACCOUNTS? ‣Yes! Don’t have to sanitize your brains to fit behind a faceless avatar. Be yourself. 14 2 Monday, December 17, 12
15. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ SHOULD I USE MY OWN SOCIAL ACCOUNTS? ‣Why are you telling me to spam my friends? ‣Start with the people that already care about you. ‣Use self-consciousness as motivation to post something that will resonate with people. ‣The bar for a “good” blog post or Tweet is set incredibly low. 15 3 Monday, December 17, 12
16. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ WHY DON’T I CREATE GOOD POSTS ALREADY? ‣Too long, too vague, and too disconnected from the outside world. ‣Sensation of “staleness.” ‣Not enough information to be compelling. 16 4 Monday, December 17, 12
17. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ HOW DO I DO THIS EFFICIENTLY? ‣Post to social networks frequently; expand popular social posts into blog posts later. 17 5 Monday, December 17, 12
18. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ WHERE DID YOU COME UP WITH THIS STUFF? ‣This is the story of what works for the startups I’ve interviewed. ‣The editorial process comes from FastCompany and CBS MoneyWatch. Some underlying logic was inspired by Forbes concept of the “Content Continuum.” 18 6 Monday, December 17, 12
19. CONTENT STRATEGY FAQ HOW GOOD WILL I FEEL IN 90 MINUTES? ‣So fine! Your hazy ideas about social networks, apps, websites and blogging will become rarified and actionable. ‣Then: a clogging sensation will form in your brain as you realize all the stories you could be telling. 19 7 Monday, December 17, 12
20. CONTENT STRATEGY DON’T WORRY ‣This class is meant for people with limited time and limited technical knowledge. ‣This class outlines a workflow and toolkit. 20 Monday, December 17, 12
21. Principles of user-friendly content Monday, December 17, 12
22. CONTENT STRATEGY BE USEFUL ‣People care most about content that may help them alter their personal algorithms. ‣This means every post should have a “service” angle. 22 Monday, December 17, 12
23. CONTENT STRATEGY DISTRIBUTE PEOPLE, NOT CONTENT ‣Definition: “News System” is your schema of websites, social profiles and blogs ‣Social posts act as a lures. ‣Bounce people around your News System so they absorb as much as possible. 23 Monday, December 17, 12
24. CONTENT STRATEGY LET PEOPLE FIGURE YOU OUT ‣Give people the freedom to learn about you the way they wish. ‣People enjoy bouncing around the Web until something sticks out at them; your analytics probably prove this. 24 Monday, December 17, 12
25. CONTENT STRATEGY YOUR NEWS SYSTEM “STACK” ‣Official website ‣About.me ‣Facebook ‣Twitter ‣Instagram ‣LinkedIn ‣Google+ ‣Blog ‣Portfolio (if applicable) 25 Monday, December 17, 12
26. CONTENT STRATEGY BE SLOPPY ‣Each part of your News System draws a slightly different audience ‣Make your content available in different, overlapping formats on different, overlapping networks 26 Monday, December 17, 12
27. CONTENT STRATEGY DON’T X-POST EVERYTHING ‣Choose which network is appropriate for the content you’re posting. Let each of your timelines develop uniquely. ‣People who are on more than one of your networks will double- or triple- follow you, increasing the chance they’ll actually see what you post. 27 Monday, December 17, 12
28. CONTENT STRATEGY BE TERSE ‣Later, you will expand on posts that perform well. 28 Monday, December 17, 12
29. CONTENT STRATEGY WHAT “TERSE” BECOMES 29 http://prss.co/T6Zzyu Monday, December 17, 12
30. CONTENT STRATEGY DON’T BURY THE LEDE ‣Be brief but specific in the headline of everything you post. ‣This is simply good manners. 30 X Monday, December 17, 12
31. CONTENT STRATEGY PEOPLE CARE ABOUT PEOPLE ‣Don’t waste time creating blog posts about “what’s new in version 2.” ‣Tag people you write about in posts, and celebrate people you admire. 31 Monday, December 17, 12
32. CONTENT STRATEGY WHAT BEHIND THE SCENES LOOKS LIKE 32 http://prss.co/QRhfCa Monday, December 17, 12
33. CONTENT STRATEGY PREP FOR MEDIA ATTENTION. PLEASE? ‣If a journalist of any kind is going to risk their reputation covering something you do, then there needs to be ample evidence online that you are saliently awesome. ‣Journalists like covering people that have active social and blog presences; our readers benefit. 33 Monday, December 17, 12
34. CONTENT STRATEGY PROVIDE A WAY OUT ‣Nothing is less user-friendly than a Tweet or Facebook post that contains no link — it’s a dead end. 34 Monday, December 17, 12
35. CONTENT STRATEGY BE (SOMEWHAT) TRANSPARENT ‣Imagine your readers getting into a fancy hotel lobby by entering through the kitchen ‣Don’t show them the secret recipes; just the methods, the mood and the people 35 Monday, December 17, 12
36. CURATION FOR WRITERS CONTENT STRATEGY: HOW TO GET GRASSROOTS GROWTH 36 Monday, December 17, 12
37. CONTENT STRATEGY 37 THE CYCLE OF LIFE (OF CONTENT) Monday, December 17, 12
38. CONTENT STRATEGY PUT EVERYTHING IN A READING LIST ‣Get an overview of what’s out there before you spend time reading or writing anything. Tools: Safari, Instapaper, Pocket 38 Monday, December 17, 12
39. CONTENT STRATEGY SHARE STUFF DAILY ‣Share only things you think will be interesting to the people who follow you in those networks. Even if you think you’ll blog about something later, post it and see what kind of reaction it gets. Tools: Use Buffer and Tweriod 39 Monday, December 17, 12
40. CONTENT STRATEGY COLLECT IDEAS & RESEARCH TASKS ‣As you read and curate, you’re going to have all sorts of intellectual impulses. Ignore them; don’t panic and start reading or writing immediately. Tools: Use Fetchnotes 40 Monday, December 17, 12
41. CONTENT STRATEGY MONITOR THE DISCUSSION ‣Check response on Twitter and Facebook. (With Buffer, you get analytics.) Read the comments and respond. ‣Sift through the ideas and questions you logged in Fetchnotes. Validate them by posting to Quora, Branch, Facebook or Twitter. 41 Monday, December 17, 12
42. ‣PeekAnalytics ‣Bottlenose (connects to Buffer) ‣Gabi for Facebook ‣Undrip for iOS CONTENT STRATEGY OTHER AWESOME TOOLS 42 Monday, December 17, 12
43. CONTENT STRATEGY CURATION WORKFLOW (ILLUSTRATED) 43 Notes & ideas from social discussion (in Evernote) Blog post ideas & research tasks (in Fetchnotes) Stuff good enough to share (in social networks) Stuff of vague interest (in Reading List) Every link you click (in browser history) Monday, December 17, 12
44. COMPOSING CONTENT CONTENT STRATEGY: HOW TO GET GRASSROOTS GROWTH 44 Monday, December 17, 12
45. CONTENT STRATEGY 45 MANUFACTURING CONTENT (ILLUSTRATED) Monday, December 17, 12
46. CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 1: TOPIC ‣Select other links or media from your Reading List to help add context. Remember, the onus is on you to prove why this blog post is relevant now. 46 1 Monday, December 17, 12
47. 2 CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 2: YOU NEED A MESSAGE This event was interesting. ‣Boring. If you had considered the message beforehand, you might have decided to generate some press leading up to the event, which would have given me (the reader) a chance to go, or imagine going. Go to this event! ‣Way better! 47 Monday, December 17, 12
48. CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 3: YOU NEED MEDIA ‣If you don’t include media or links, you’re missing a huge opportunity to get attention. At FastCompany we never post an article without some media. 48 3 Monday, December 17, 12
49. CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 4: YOU NEED STRUCTURE ‣Having a familiar structure for a post can help people feel comfortable reading your posts. Some popular structures are: ‣Question & Answer ‣Mystery ‣How-to ‣Rant ‣Polemic (rational argument) 49 4 Monday, December 17, 12
50. CONTENT STRATEGY COVER ALL THE BASES INTRO ‣Explain wider relevance of the problem NUT GRAF ‣The problem domain. What’s tricky or non-intuitive about the space around this problem? ‣Open up the solution space: the candidate solutions that satisfy all ideal requirements. ‣What were the constraints? 50 Monday, December 17, 12
51. CONTENT STRATEGY COVER ALL THE BASES BACKGROUND ‣Why is now the time to fix this problem in the product? ‣Spec the technologies they’re working with THE RESULTS ‣Show how your team narrowed to the “ideal” solution ‣Illustrate the results in images, code, video, etc. 51 Monday, December 17, 12
52. CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 5: YOU NEED LIFE-SUPPORT ‣Keep your posts alive as long as possible; that is, don’t let them quickly flush down the timeline. ‣Talking back to comments, @replies and other activity will trigger algorithms on Facebook to promote it automatically to your friends. 52 5 Monday, December 17, 12
53. CONTENT STRATEGY STEP 6: IRRESISTIBLE HEADLINE ‣Consider the mediocre title: The Famous Person I Met on Vacation ‣Now consider a longer, more specific title: The One “American Idol” Judge You Do NOT Want to Meet in L.A. Way better. 53 6 Monday, December 17, 12
54. CONTENT STRATEGY OTHER TOOLS FOR COMPOSING ‣Cloudee ‣Soundcloud ‣TinyPost ‣Lightt ‣Photoforge2 54 Monday, December 17, 12
55. CONTENT STRATEGY FURTHER READING ‣The Clue Train Manifesto ‣How to Win Friends and Influence People ‣The Shape of Design ‣Solitude: A Return to Self ‣Forbes: The Content Continuum 55 Monday, December 17, 12
56. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? cdannen@gmail.com CONTENT STRATEGY: HOW TO GET GRASSROOTS GROWTH 56 Monday, December 17, 12
57. CONTENT STRATEGY 57 LEARN MORE http://prss.co/TImaP3 Monday, December 17, 12