The Great Content Angst

It arrives in the early morning well before I am scheduled to rise. It begins with the sweats and quickly moves to feelings of dread.

What is this ailment? It’s a relatively new phenomenon of the social media era: the content terrors.





















During a new business presentation an often asked question centers around the demand for content to drive the success of a social media initiative. It’s true. Content that engages, educates and entertains is the foundation of any digital campaign.

Yet, we’ve found the obstacles to be few when it is time to launch a program. The editorial strategy typically flows from the agreed-upon goals and we are often able to repurpose existing content from multiple sources within an organization.

The content angst surfaces a ways down the road once a community of followers is in place. That’s because readers are fickle with their time and their investment with you can be fleeting.

Exceptional content pulls them in, yet also sets an expectation that future posts will be equally (if not more) insightful and inspiring. Fail to deliver and readers will drop you from their RSS reader faster than you can say “Friendster.”

Consider my Strategic Guy blog. Earlier this year I was on a readership roll with interest peaking in late spring at more than 2,000 unique visitors a week after a series of best practices posts. It has been slow drift downward ever since.

Each weekly check of Google Analytics creates a self-induced pressure vice that has lead to my terror-filled nights.

Others are feeling it too. For instance, accomplished blogger and marketer Beth Harte just announced that she is taking a hiatus because of the time and intensity involved in content creation.

So, what is the answer to this content conundrum? Here are a few ideas I am considering:

1. Tap into my relationship eco-system. Microsoft, Monster, British Telecom (BT), BearingPoint, Inmarsat, BroadSoft, GovDelivery…we are fortunate to represent a set of premium brands. Can I partner with their marketing leaders on content? Perhaps a guest post or executive Q&A?

2. Go back…for the future. As new readers sign on, I suspect many will find well-read blog posts from prior months to be of interest. Should I repurpose this content into a “best of” series?

3. Aggregate from credible sources across the Web. For our Open Road to Savings campaign, we have compiled content that provides insight into how companies are saving money in a challenging economic environment. The response from readers has been enthusiastic.

I read through nearly 150 content sources a week, such as business press, trade magazines, blogs and discussion forums. Could a collection of interesting articles help me keep up with the reader demanded pace of content creation?

PR Lessons from the Starship Farragut

What can the Starship Farragut teach us about creativity in communications?

That’s the question we posed to Mark Hildebrand, the producer and director of award winning fan films based on the 1960s Star Trek television series created by Gene Roddenberry. (For more on Starship Farragut, visit http://www.starshipfarragut.com/).

Hildebrand visited Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) office as part of our professional development program. Past speakers had included journalists, industry analysts, publishers and corporate marketing executives. Right in line with what you would expect at a public relations consultancy.

Our request for a presentation from a film director is symptomatic of a dramatic shift in the industry. Public relations content has traditionally been constructed to educate and engage an organization’s key stakeholders. It presents a perspective, opinion or corporate story, and then encourages dialogue and debate.Yet, a third "e" should be added to the measurement benchmarks for public relations -- entertainment. The ability to capture and hold an audience's attention in unique and innovative ways is now a must for any communications program.

That was the insight Strategic’s staff anticipated from Hildebrand’s presentation. We weren’t disappointed. On a shoe string budget, he collaborated with a group of talented (yet unknown) actors to create a movie true to Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek and, in the process, garnered a following among die-hard fans of the original series.

Hildebrand’s suggestions on how to create compelling and entertaining content serve as a primer for public relations and marketing professionals challenged to promote their companies in traditional PR and social media channels. Here are a few of his thoughts:

Sit in the audience’s chair. Content must always be evaluated from the perspective of the intended recipient. Hildebrand explained you want to challenge the audience, yet at the conclusion leave them fulfilled (rather than confused).

Create a dilemma. When following the problem/solution format, it’s critical to use anecdotes to demonstrate how the characters depicted in the content learn, thereby delivering an educating experience for the audience.

Change pace with emotional contrast. Deliver the unexpected and you’ll keep an audience’s attention. Hildebrand cited Starship Farragut’s use of humor in certain fight scenes. The same principle can apply in public relations by introducing an unexpected writing style. Strategic client Tellabs excels at this through a creative approach to their press release writing (http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/).

Embrace creative tension. While Hildebrand retains final creative say in his productions, he openly engages with actors and the other professionals on the set for their opinions about how to best capture a scene. The best result often comes from the resulting disagreements and discussion.

Rely on the passion. Starship Farragut is truly a labor of love for Hildebrand, the actors and production staff. It’s self-funded and, due to licensing requirements, they distribute the films at no cost via the Internet. Companies who inspire a comparable passion from their employees typically produce memorable and entertaining content.