Where to Start
It can be daunting to find content. We understand this dilemma completely. But as you begin creating your content strategy, this is an important piece to identify. Without a clear understanding of where you are sourcing your share-worthy information and who is creating it, your content strategy will fall flat.
Content can come from one of three places. Let’s explore the pros and cons of each choice.
From Within
Selecting a member of your staff to create content is a great way to share first hand experiences about your subject matter. Your staff’s exposure to the ins and outs of your business allows them a complete understanding of what makes you unique and successful. Unfortunately, what makes them a good employee doesn’t always make them a good writer or communicator. Additionally, if their job does not allow them enough dedicated time to produce content, their other responsibilities may suffer or they may fail to create content in a timely manner.
Pros: * First hand experience
Cons: * Requires staff member’s time. * Staff member potentially doesn’t have the necessary skills to communicate effectively.
Externally
Hiring someone externally is a great way to delegate. It allows you and your staff to concentrate on your daily tasks while providing valuable, share-worthy content. Additionally an external person can bring a fresh perspective to your business. Their lack of hands on experience can be an asset when you want to translate industry jargon into laymen’s terms.
While an external content producer does allow you to delegate, it does not completely eliminate work on your end. To ensure high quality, accurate content, you will need to set aside time to answer questions, provide facts, and review content to ensure it aligns with your company.
Pros: * Delegating Tasks * Fresh Perspective
Cons: * Lack of hands on experience
Content Curation
Becoming a content curator sounds like the easiest option. You find other relevant pieces from outside sources and share them. In reality, it is the hardest. Successful content curation doesn’t just copy and paste an article. That’s called content scrapping. Not only does this practice not give your audience added value, it hurts your Google ranking. Rather, successful content curation builds upon each relevant piece, providing things such as a short synopsis or opinion. It provides a diverse range of content the audience wouldn’t otherwise have seen.
To be a good content curator, you have to understand your business, be an exceptional researcher, and a strong writer. More often than not, content curation takes longer than creating an original piece.
Pros: * Building upon other’s ideas * Giving your consumers added value through relevant information
Cons: * Additional time and skills required
Where to Go Next
Regardless of where you choose to source your content, whether it’s strictly one of the three or a combination of them, it’s important your content is always in line with your content strategy. To ensure this, one person needs to manage the entire process. Throwing two or three people into the content creation mix without a clear calendar and set of objectives, leads to mayhem. Make sure you allocate someone to guide the ship and maintain consistency.
Curious which type of content sourcing is right for your business? Contact RWL Design to discuss which option is best for your content strategy.
Artwork by our good friend, Enjoli Izidor
