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Amber: Creating Killer Content Part 2

most people think block post photos and videos and stop there. But there's lots of really cool things that you can do in some really great examples that I have seen. The 1st 1 is interviews. I absolutely love to read interviews with interesting people all the time. I think there's something. And there's a reason that publications mainstream news. There's a reason that magazines still do interviews because were captivated by other humans. We want to understand what makes them tick. One of my favorite thing is in, Um, I think it's Vanity Fair magazine that doesn't they focus on one particular person, and they ask them a bunch of different questions like, What kind of sheets do you have on your bed? Where do you go on your last vacation? And it's mostly fluffy, airy fairy stuff, but it gives you a glimpse into that person's life. So interviews there's a way to kind of showcase members of your community, do an interview with one of your customers and for you guys. Gosh, I can think of a 1,...

000,000 things right off the top of my head or people to interview, and it gives you kind of ah sense of personality. And the great thing is that interviews air really easy to do because you can do them an email, which means you don't have to do them live. And in real time you can edit them because you get email back and you actually have a chance to assemble that content. Make it look pretty. Make it sound good. Uh, before you publish it and you can do this audio, you can do it in text. You can do it on video. You could do it any number of different ways. But interviews are great ways to tap into the community that you have. People love to showcase their expertise, and you have a lot of people around you that probably no in love what it is that you do in the health and fitness world. I can think of millions of people who have opinions and thoughts and ideas around all that stuff and gosh interview possibilities there completely endless. So it's a great source of content and it's one that's relatively low maintenance for you to dio, and I promise you everybody's always flattered to be asked for an interview. So when you reach out to somebody and say, I'd like to interview you for my blogger. I'd like to do a video interview with you. You'd be surprised how Maney yes is you get even from really big, important people. The next is curation, which is the art of collecting other people's content and then paring it down in a way that provides a filter. So I want to make a distinction between collection and curious in because curation does not mean just pile a bunch of somebody else's stuff on your block and say, Here's the links for this week and here's all the stuff. Curation, by very by its nature means that you've applied some kind of, ah, filter to the information and that you're promising your audience or community that you've actually used a discerning eye to see this stuff and say, I think this is going to be a value to you. But curation is a great way. Teoh collect and find great content on the Web and share it with other people so they can see other people's work. One of my favorites on Twitter, um, her name is Maria, and she goes by the handle brain picker. She shares the most amazing fat. I mean, her whole world is all about curating incredible content. So she goes out there and shares the most obscure random all over the map. But she is an outstanding curator because she doesn't just share randomly. She usually adds some kind of commentary. So she'll say, Here's why I found this interesting. Or here's why I thought this would be fun to watch her something that you would enjoy. Um, and she always does it. I absolutely click on almost every one of her links because I know it's going to be good. So when you get to be a really good curator of content, people come to trust that you're doing the work for them to filter through all the stuff that's out there and find the best to give it to them. So curation is not a short cut, but it's a great way to showcase other people's content and even some of your own. Yes, ma'am. Well, she now has 355,267 followers because I'm now just following brain picker. Oh yeah, some other folks, she is so fantastic. And you you'll get addicted to her stream. And what happens is you get in one link and then you go back and you're like, Oh, gosh, oh gosh, Oh gosh. So I go down the rabbit hole of her stuff all the time, but that's just the power. I mean, it really is. And it's the power of really smart curation, because I think there's a lot of people that say we just curate content, which is an excuse for we don't want to create our own. So we just do a quick search on Twitter and then share a bunch of stuff, and we've curated. But that's that's there's no editorial I to that. And I'm a bit of a purist. I think if you're going to curate content, you need to do so thoughtfully and with an eye toward what your community would find valuable, because over time they might. The first couple of times they may think great. You collected a bunch of stuff, but 456 times later they'll tune out because if they don't think that you're giving something unique to the process, they can find that information anywhere on their own, So give them something that they couldn't get before and show them that you know how to look at this information in a way that they might not have thought off. Another one of my favorite secret secret weapons is Keep track of the questions that people ask you about your work, your professional life, your how your business came to be. And then that answering those questions becomes pieces of content, whether it's a two minute video or an interview you do on your blog's or whether it's a post that you write. Answering people's questions is by far by number one favorite thing to do with content. And sometimes that is, Ah, short answer that I can do in a quick little video. And sometimes it's a really long answer that becomes an e book, so you never know. But answering people's questions back to that will be useful and helpful and all that stuff This is magic, because then people think you read my mind. I totally had that question and you answer it for me, and then you look super smart, which is the goal stories I love when companies telling you stories and there are some companies that do it brilliantly because they're not afraid to show stories off their employees, their customers, and they're telling it to us. In a way that's a narrative. It's not just informational. It's something that can express to us a reflection of why they're in business in the first place, which all of you presumably either have customers, prospective customers or somebody who believes in your idea. And those are stories to tell. I started this business because this person inspired me, and this is why. Or here's a story of a customer that overcame something really cool in their business, and I wanted to showcase their success story using our product. So there's really great ways to share stories in a non obtrusive, non sales he kind of way that that really showcases success of the people around you. Um, we do this. I mean, you do this all the time in your day to day life and don't realize how much storytelling is woven through the marketing and the content. You get one of the examples that we used in our book. You guys are all familiar with Jared, the subway guy, right? Everybody knows Jared's story. Everybody you know that this is a dude who was overweight and he went and ate subway sandwiches and walked and lost a bunch of weight. And yea, Jared. He is a story in the making, and their subway has lived on the back of Jared, for I don't know how long now, but I mean, those are the kinds of things we connect to because they're really human, and they're very relatable in a way that we can understand. So storytelling is a great thing to do in your content because it kind of does the marketing for you. It doesn't need to be an explicit marketing message. It's kind of a marketing intent, like Look how awesome we are because these stories come out of our business every day. You guys are all better at this next one that I am. I am so bad with visuals. I can't take a photograph to save my life. I'm not really good at video, but I love watching and consuming those things. So I'll tell you, from a perspective of someone who's in an admirer of those things and not a good producer, that individuals Oh my gosh, visuals. And there's so many amazing media coming out right now, and so many social networks that leverage great visuals that it's incredible the potential for that. So don't shortchange the idea that you can make a pretty picture, and that's content right there. Question. I don't agree with you that you about it. Visuals because your visuals are really good. Thanks. Ah, slide is probably different than making a painting. Just follow that. Quite a few comments about how great your visuals have. Oh, that's right. I have sort of a philosophy you're owned on. This actually applies to the content world. Teoh. Um, I'm a big fan of slide share. Do you guys know? Slide share dot net. So those of us who do a lot of public speaking and presenting slide share dot net is where you can share slide presentations. But every slide presentation I've ever seen it a corporate conference is laden with bullet points after bullet points. After really bad fonts and templates that Microsoft office, it's just it's just horrible. So I think slide shares a really powerful medium for people to get information and share content, but I don't want to look at a bunch of bullet points. I want to look at something that is pleasing to my eye. Can read the notes if I want all the nitty gritty. But when you're doing, you know, presenting content like this, it should be visual because you want people to pay attention to what you're saying not having to read the stuff that's up there. But if you don't know slide share dot net It's a great place to share things like E books, and you could even make a slide. So off photographs in a slide deck you could put on slide share. And there's a huge, powerful community there that shares Ah, lot of stuff. Ah, lot of stuff. And they're very, um, what's the word? I'm looking for their very organic. So slide share. People who know and love, slide share, share lots of content from there. And you can get some great ideas because people have put up lots of presentations like this on how to create great content. So is metta is that gets there's a lot of great things to look at over there. I'm a big fan of the series as well, because here's what happens to me, I will get an idea for content and I'll think, Gosh, I should really I should really write a book about how to hire a professional speaker, like are opposed about how to hire a professional speaker, which then turns into a second post, which is too long for 1/3 post. So eventually what happens is I go great. I'll write 10 posts and I'll spread it out over two or three weeks, and then I'll take those nine or 10 posts and collect them all together in an e book that I'll publish it. The end. So a Siri's can be a great way to sort of find a through line through a lot of videos or photos or anything like that. That has a common theme that you tie all together at the end of something. But it gives people something to anticipate Syria's air great for people who kind of want to dip in and out of content, but give them something to look forward. Teoh. They know what's coming. If it's a topic that's really big, Um, I wrote a couple of syriza round like hiring for social media or doing internal social media because it's too much for a block post. Not quite enough to write a book. So a block post, Siri's or a video interview. Siri's is a great way to tackle that. I'm also a big fan of long form content, and this goes against a lot of what you hear conventional wisdom, wise around content. Keep it brief, keep it short. Yes, we have the attention spans of great fruits, and I get that. But truthfully, long form content still has a place in the world. I sat down the other day and there was a piece on ESPN about a fly. Fisher, uh, fly fisherman and his wife, and they craft the handcrafted to use fly rods that were they were like, works of art. They were just beautiful. And ESPN did this amazing story on their site that was chock full of incredibly stunning photographs of where these guys live in Montana and the most amazing prose. It was so beautifully written, and it was I don't know what it has to. I mean, I guess fly fishing is a sport, but I was totally captivated, and it took me almost 45 minutes to read that piece. It was not short by any means, So there is still a place in the universe for really well produced, created, long form content. I don't think you should do it every day. Obviously, most people aren't gonna hang out on your site and read 45 minutes where the stuff daily but every once in a while, producing something that's really top quality, really well thought out and beautifully delivered can have massive impact, especially those of you who are in visual spaces, who have albums of things that you can create or huge photo essays that just makes me drool with anticipation. I want to sit down once in a while with a cup of coffee and some amazing long form content and immerse myself in it. And that's not going to change. We're We're wired that way. Seminars teach people stuff. Have a tele seminar. Do a webinar, do a combination of all of those things, do a creative life thing, whatever you but seriously seminars air, great people want to learn stuff. What I will tell you about seminars is that constantly creativelive. Where you have a whole day's worth of stuff is they've managed to make it work for people like you and I. We don't have production teams and studios and all that kind of thing. So keep these bite size seminars can be 1/2 an hour, an hour in length and can be pretty no frills. But people want to get information from you. The good old tell a seminar still has a place in the world, and lots of people do them with a lot of success. And you might not think that the telephone qualifies as social media. But I would argue it was the original social media, so don't hesitate to use it. Collaborations. The power of other people sometimes creating content could be an overwhelming thing, and maybe we don't need to do it ourselves. So my co author J. Bear, is the master of building an E book that's built on all kinds of other people's contributions. So he'll email 10 or 15 people and say, Give me words about this topic and they all contribute. And then he assembles it all into one e book and publishes it bigot to collaborate on the content. He gets a great piece of content to share. It's a total win win around the around the horn. But collaborating with people on content is a great way to kind of build each other up partner with people who have yet to be seen if you have a bit of a platform and vice versa if you're trying to build your platform, don't hesitate to ask to collaborate with somebody who's got one that's bigger than yours and say, I'm really trying, Teoh create something here and I would appreciate being, you know, being able to do something together. You might get a lot more yeses than you think on that. People love to collaborate, Um, especially on the Social Web, any questions before I wrap up these last 15 ground rules? So if I am launching off, I'm creating a platform and I haven't yet written the Blawg where started the block. So but I love writing, cause I've published a collection of short stories, so I love writing. But the thing is, now I have a baby and I'm really busy and I want to write the content for the block and I have some really great ideas, except I have got in a lot of these, Um, so I'm on Elon's and fiber and of gone totals places. And I keep seeing these like advertisements for these freelancers who write. So if you give them your idea, give them, like, five major, you know, topics for that one blogged. They'll right the block for you. So what are your opinions or advice on having somebody help you write your block? Who? I really I'm very conflicted about that. If you asked me several years ago, I would have given you an emphatic don't do it. I'm a little bit more lenient about that now, because I understand, I think, in more of, ah, corporate context, there's lots of agencies helping companies develop their social media presence. There's lots of really good content developers that are doing it freelance. I think if you can work with somebody that you really trust that you know understands your voice and your purpose and all that kind of stuff. Get the communicated effectively. I don't think it's I don't think it's the wrong thing to Dio, but I wouldn't just hire anybody. You know, I wouldn't just hire a random copywriter because to me, my blawg is very much my representation of my voice on the Web and I value it that much so I wouldn't outsource it, because to me that's the one thing that is really the essence of my brand voice and presence online. Now all that being said, if you find somebody that you really trust you and you want to do that, my only statement would be be very transparent about that. So I would say that you're having collaborate on a post and co author it and byline it because if people think that you're Onley producing content because you just want to get it out there and that you're willing to just pay somebody to write it, they won't think that you value that medium as much as maybe they think that you should. I think blog's until you get Teoh a bigger corporate contacts there, very personal. I think still, and I think people really want to hear from you. So it's a double edged sword. I think I would be willing to try it if I could find somebody that I knew really got it, but only if they really got that was very good, actually, thank you. And my second question to that is so if I'm writing a blawg every day, so you kind of touched on it a little bit, but could you give a number like, an idea or around, like a approximate number of words that you think is an appropriate, like word count for a block that I'm going to write every day If you're gonna write it every day? Yes. 300 words. 300 words. Um, I tend to write longer posts, but I write less frequently or yeah, less frequently. So I write a couple of times a week, but my post tend to hover around 1000 words or so I find less than 300 words becomes tough to get a point across, although people like stuff golden will show you that it post could be 50 words and be awesome. But I'm not some coding. So, um, so I think you know, 300 words is kind of the magic magic Middle, and I think anywhere up to about 1500 words or so is good for a block post. You start getting past that, you should start thinking about maybe splitting it up into a post Siri's or doing something longer form. Okay, Awesome. Thank you, sir. Any other questions? All right, let's go to the phones alone. All right, So this is from schmoopsie. Um, do you have any any stats or about this types of content that are the most shared or commented on or of the ones that you've that you've showed us? Yeah, that's that's really hard to say because it really varies based on audience industry, all those kinds of things. So if you're in the visual world, Pinterest is like is a huge driver of attention and traffic. Some of the Pinterest statistics for usage of the site and how it drives traffic to people's websites are through the roof. But then again, that wouldn't apply to somebody like me. So I think it really is kind of contextual on relevant. I still think text based content has a lot of sharing power, cause it's something that we all get understand and can process without a whole lot of, um, you know, gerrymandering around. We don't have. We don't have to have a special software or plugging or anything like that to view it. Text still works. I don't have any specific statistics to share, but I will. I can probably find some. And Pew Research does a study every year on social media usage, and they probably have some really good stats in their their annual reports about what kind of sites and content or being a shared most heavily Dee's asks. I'm says, rather, I'm pursuing multiple business lines, Gulf real estate and blogging about being a dad. Well, should I keep them separate social media wise, or in create different profiles or connect them all as one I'm into? Sorry, just just hang on to that because another question came in from photo girl and we get all this all the time. Is the debate over If I'm a photographer and I do different disciplines, same question, Yeah, I think it might actually be different answers for me. Okay, because on the first side of things, those air such distinct industries and you're you're speaking to such distinct audiences that my instinct is to say, to keep those separate because golfers might not necessarily be interested in real estate would be interested in the dad blogging. So in that case, I might create a different presence for those things. But I might use my personal like, um, my personal presence is a hub for all of those things, so I'd make it clear that I'm connected to all of them and that I'm part of all those things. But I would segment the audiences now as far as being a photographer and having different disciplines. That's a tough one, because I think it depends on whether you believe that that the disciplines that you're working in our so distinct that you would have completely different audiences and communities around those things. Like if I'm funding food photography and portrait photography, I might keep those separate. But if I'm doing artistic photography under a number of different, if I do landscapes and I do people and I do all that stuff, that's the kind of thing I would keep all under me is an artist. So you know some of it, Yeah, I mean, I think that's that's kind of the point. Here is if my content is gonna appeal to different people, whether it's photography or not. What are you thinking? And so what I'm hearing is if they're different audiences and the only really the only way to really know is to test. True, yes, to get out there and try it and see what happened. So if you have a fully blended presence to start with, see what happens. And are you finding that your audience is? Are you losing audience because you're posting about one thing too often or you know what have you. So some of it is a bit of trial and error, and you'll find out very quickly whether your audience wants to be part of all of those things are only once a particular segment of what you're doing or like you said multiple times today, asked them way. Forget about that all the time, right? But it's really ask and say, Do you? Sometimes I give people the option to be on multiple lists like Do you? Do you want to get my post on this photography and this photography and this and then you can subscribe to all of these things. So it's a little different when you're talking about social profiles. I mean splintering. You don't want too many things to maintained either. On that becomes the other thing. Like how many different splintered profiles are you willing toe build content for, so that that plays into it as well. All right, So speaking of similar to this question from one Pepe, what do you think about bilingual posts? If audiences air in different countries, is it better to have a bilingual blawg or two separate blog's altogether? And we've seen this also, when it comes to Twitter and other social media endeavors for people who have a global audience. Yeah, that's a great question. I'm inclined to say that a single destination that's bilingual is probably more effective and than segmenting that because I happen to be, I wouldn't say fluent bilingual, But I'm functionally bilingual in English and Spanish, so I can still enjoy content that's in Spanish, because I can read it and understand it. But but I wouldn't want it. I mean, if I'm in either one of those languages and I can put the post side by side, I don't have you ever read airline magazines? And I know how much you guys fly, but American Airlines does. One that is both public is published in English and Spanish, and the content is side by side in the magazine, and they do it visually, really well. so it's not distracting at all, and it's really easy to read in whichever language you prefer. But I like that they're right there together because it gives me a sense of cohesion around. This is all the same content. It's just in a different language. So my hunch would be to say, keep it in one place. Less maintenance. Easy to tie everything together. If you're talking six or seven languages, that might be a little more complicated, but I think bilingual could work that way. Johnny L. A would like to know. Is there a best way to present curated content that you suggested on a block platform and also the best way to attribute authorship? Oh, that's great idea. Um, so there's several different nowadays, especially in the WordPress community. There's lots of different themes that are built specifically for for sharing, and so so case in curated content. So you can look into themes that are meant to be more driven toward curation or magazine style content where you can have lots of different things all at one time. On that, I think, is the easiest way to do that in terms of attribution, I think it's it's a it's a matter of just being very clear and bold about it. So if you're say you're re posting something from somebody else's site I was originally appeared on such and such with a big fat link and I put that right at the beginning of the post. So everybody knows that I'm not claiming this is my own. I'm saying that this is their post that I was sharing. Um, and in terms of, if you're curating it all on a blogger, I think it becomes really obvious if you say this originally came from destination site and give him a little plug. People really appreciate that. And then it looks very much like you've done it with intent versus Not great. Okay, awesome. Okay, Another one from Gina Heart on interviews. I'm just starting out. And what I'd be saturating my YouTube channel if I did too many energy interviews with other new newbies or other people who have less followings than me. Or is that OK place? Just I think it's an OK place to start is a great place to start, and the saturation is a gun. It's relative. So your audience is gonna tell you when you've been posting too much. My sweet spot is typically around two or three times a week. Some audiences may expect something every day, so saturation is really a matter of frequency. And if that's interesting to your community in your audience and people want to hear about up and comers in the industry, then I'd say Go for it and test it, Having mentioned testing it, get out there and put it out there and see what happens. Because what's the worst thing that can happen? Nobody subscribes. You know, you need to change something, So that's one big indicator. But I really do think that that's Ah, that's a really interesting idea. Katie James, photo from Nashville says. So, community or content? Which comes first? Chicken or the egg? That's a great question. And I think the answer is content probably has to come first, because content is part of what seeds the community with something to talk about. So you can't really build a community around air. You need to have some kind of unifying purpose or point of conversation or something like that. So you need the content to sort of see that. And I think I find it really effective to build kind of, Ah, an archive of content, even stuff that you No, that won't be out there at first. But you kind of build a backlog of things for people to draw from. So I really think if you're going to invest time upfront, build a good solid content library to start with and put it out there and then start creating community around that.