How producing and building content can help you connect

By Romany Thresher on November 8, 2011 with No Comments

The new buzz word “content strategy”. What does it mean?

In the world of online media you have a number of platforms and tools at your disposal which gives you the opportunity to put yourself in front of a wider audience which then has the potential generate new business. However, having so many options to choose from one can feel extremely overwhelmed and then also, what’s the point of using a tool or social networking platform if it is not going to reach your potential market. For example, no point using a social networking platform in Japan if you only cater to people in South Africa?

So when it comes to what is called “content strategy” there is a definite formula that can help you achieve what it is you are trying to do.

People like to buy from people they have a relationship with and the most powerful form of advertising is word of mouth. In a world where everything is moving at such a speed the average attention span is reduced to mere seconds, it’s time to get creative as to how you are going to connect with your target audience and this is where content strategy comes in.
Putting together a content strategy for you business can help you save time, and prevent you from making expensive mistakes.
Some questions you may want to ask yourself are:

What do you want to achieve?
What is it that I want my customers to do when they read my blog, watch my video, or connect with me in a social network?
How do my customers/audience engage?
Where do they hang out?
Which tools can I use that will help me to reach my intended audience?
What content am I going to put together?
Where and how am I going to distribute my content?
Who can help me?
What resources do I have available to me now?

However, where I really want to go with this is essentially talking about 2 key trends that we need to seriously consider and then implement it as part of our content strategy.

The two key trend factors are entertainment and relationship marketing.

Research shows that the number one trend in the world today is entertainment and the other trend is that customers want to know more about who they are dealing with, reputation, credibility and people behind the business. People want to engage and be entertained so whether you are a sales consultant, in professional services, a coach, freelancer, business owner, my question to you is how are you creating content that help deliver entertainment and engagement with you audience?

It is easy for musicians, artists, actors, comedians to create entertainment in and in a way establish that connection with their audience. Let’s take Brad Pitt being an actor; he is on radio, television, in magazines, newspapers. He is interviewed in talk shows where he is talks about what’s happening in his life, the projects his working on and his experiences. Now you feel like you know him, don’t you? If he had to walk into your life today and invite you to work on a project, you are more likely than not going to do it, not just because of who he is but because you have that sense of familiarity.

Let’s take Richard Branson, he has put himself in the media and again you have that sense of familiarity, you don’t know the guy personally but you are more likely to do business with him than go to a complete stranger.

So if you are an accountant, a lawyer, a plumber, sales consultant, freelancer, coach , in professional services, what can you do to create entertainment that will help you connect with the people you need to connect to and build relationships with them? What tools and opportunities can you leverage to help you connect?