Blogs and Twitter have almost eliminated any barrier to publishing. You have an idea and in a few minutes your thoughts can be online. Think about it – with every person thinking about more than 50,000 thoughts a day, producing online content can be simple.
Maybe. But simply churning out meaningless content does not guarantee that others will read what you write. Make this mistake and people will read what you write and write you off.
What’s the alternative?
Use your creativity to generate content that will inspire and transform the lives of the audience in a positive way. Remember that it costs time (and indirectly – money) for your audience to read what you write. And, they expect a good return for that investment.
You will know whether you are succeeding in influencing your audience in a positive way because the audience will tell you. No, maybe not directly but by the way they respond to your content.
So, here are the nine ways your audience will respond to your online content:
- Spam: If your content does not provide a reasonable ROII (return-on-investment for an interaction) for the reader or is self-serving or simply useless, the reader will mark it as spam. Posting something that may be assessed, as “spam” is the fastest way to losing credibility.
- Skip: The reader makes an assessment that he or she won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet but if you consistently create content that is worth “skipping,” the reader might write you off.
- Scan: The reader thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest.
- Stop: The reader is touched by the article and stops to think about the article, it’s relevance and what it means to him or her personally and professionally.
- Save: The content is so good that the reader might want to re-visit this multiple times.
- Shift: The article is transformational. The reader is so deeply affected (in a positive way) by the article that it shifts some of their values and beliefs. In other words, this piece of writing will transform the reader and make him or her grow.
- Send: The content is not only useful to the reader but also to one or more people in the reader’s network. The reader simply emails the article or a link to it to people that he or she cares.
- Spread: The reader finds the article fascinating enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via a blog, twitter or the social networks that he or she belongs.
- Subscribe: This is the ultimate expression of engagement and a vote of confidence that you will continue to provide great content. When the reader wants to continue listening to your thoughts, he or she will subscribe.
Finally, here are a few things to consider before you post your next online content:
1. Understand Your Audience
Unless you are writing something for your private consumption, your audience should be the center of the focus and not you. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them. Think about:
- Who is your audience?
- Why are they reading what you are writing?
- What are their concerns in general and what are their concerns NOW?
2. Check Your Objective
Some questions to think about:
- What is the purpose of your article?
- What assessment do you want the reader to create by reading your article?
3. Unleash Your Creativity
You know the audience and you know the purpose of the article. Now the next step is to unleash your creativity and create something that will generate the kind of response that you are looking for.
Some questions to think about:
- What would be unique (content, point-of-view etc.) in this article that will make the audience do what I want them to do?
- How can you make this article “extremely relevant” to the current times?
- What can you include that will increase the “longevity” of the article?
4. Learn from Feedback
You already know the nine ways that people respond to your online content. When people act the way they do, they are providing you valuable feedback. Keeping your emotions aside, learn from the feedback and incorporate this learning into your next article.
Background: An earlier version of this article was titled Skip, Scan, Stop, Save and/or Spread. Thanks to several people especially Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Kathy Hendershot-Hurd who helped me enhance the initial concept through their comments.
About the Author: Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh maintains a blog at Life Beyond Code. You can also find him on Twitter at @UpbeatNow.
View Comments (88)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
« Previous 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 17 Next »This is a great way to think about these issues. While some of us love to write just for the sake of writing, as soon as we publish our missives, be they Tweets or blog entries, we have to put the user first.
When I write a new blog entry (about Web development, design, SEO, marketing, social media and such) it's usually because some topic has inspired me. Last week I wrote about Flash and SEO because I've been noticing that many (but not all) Flash Web sites have problems in this area. So I wanted to share the issues with members of my audience who may be thinking about using Flash on the Web. Other times I might write a tutorial in response to questions I've rec'd from friends or colleagues on how to do X or Y.
When writing I think about why the topic is of interest to me, and then consider if it will be of interest to others. Sometimes I'm poised to share a Tweet about something I've noticed, then I wonder if anyone else will really care. If the answer is no, then the Tweet doesn't get sent. The same is true of the blog. Typically I ponder a topic in the following manner:
Will topic X be of interest to others?
Are those people in my primary audience?
Has the topic been well covered by others?
If so is there a new perspective that I can add?
Has something changed that makes the topic newly relevant?
If after that it seems that I can add information of value, without rehashing the same old stuff that others have covered, then I'll proceed. But if not I'll put the idea aside until something changes that makes it more relevant.
While my response here has been more pertinent to blogging, it also applies to our marketing copy. A few months back I wrote MKTG 101: Web Content Should Serve Visitor Needs as a reminder that even when we're selling we need to put the visitor first. In that case it requires us to give them the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision. But no matter what our writing goal may be, we can only achieve our goals if we serve the needs and interests of our readers.
This is an extremely elegant and well reasoned explanation of the value of content. Using the concept of content value being equated a readers return on the investment of their time is simply a brilliant way of making the point.
No one wants to waste time reading a pointless dribble. The entire concept of marketing to offer valuable content which closely matches a readers interest. Niche marketing is entirely dependent on this concept.
As you so clearly point out, "The Content Should Server the Visitor Needs".
The little diagram at the top of the article captures the idea perfectly. Congratulations and well done
Cool. I am not the subscribing type but this is to good stuff so the phaser is set on a spread pattern.
Makes me wonder if all that complicated statistical analysis stuff I studied in school would work on this. A kind of hyper cube the dimensions of which might be human responses. (I can see my wife's puzzled/weary look from over here...)
A picture really is worth a thousand words, Rajesh... this was a great post! I can't sing its accolades any better than Tatiana, so; DITTO!
I too subscribe to copyblogger and that's how I found you!
You've officially become my newest "blog friend!" --r
Very interesting article. I disagree about the ranking of #7 and #8, that is how it should work, I think, and in the best cases it does. For example, I found your post because Brian Clark at Copyblogger liked it enough to link to you here. But I think with social media as it exists right now, there are people who share and save just as a matter of course--as a way of being active on Twitter, or forwarding something to Digg because it "sounds like" something that should be on Digg.
Nevertheless, great points and really effective use of visual aid.
Raj,
Terrific list! Well thought out. And the graphic is terrific! My (small, tiny) only nit to pick is with "Spam" -- it fits your alliteration, but it's the one *action* that your audience *won't* take. It is how they perceive certain communication. The proper response here would be "Slam" or "Swat" or something similar.
Thanks!
ahg3
Yup! its the "engaging factor" that counts rather than curiosity building. Interestingly, most of the times most of us forget what blogs were supposed to be for? Vent out of passion in terms of words. If one drifts away from that I dn't think any hockey pockey gonna be of much help.
Amy Dyslex
The great thing about this post is that it's "recursively correct", ie. I would rate it about a 5 - 6 on the response scale. ;)
I saw the picture through my email because I subscribe to the CopyBlogger list and that was all I had to see.
I strongly believe that most things in life can be understood given that they're expressed in their simplest form. Quote Einstein, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
This picture encapsulates so much to do with my Affiliate Marketing campaigns that I'm compelled to print it out and stick it up on my wall as guidance to constantly improve the quality of the content I offer visitors to my blog. I just need a new printer first. =p
Thank you,
Johnson.
Thanks to ProBlogger you now have a new subscriber. Thanks for the great post.
This is awesome Rajesh! You gave a complete picture of the responses to content. Your 4 points to consider is also well-said.
One thing I might disagree is the sequence for levels 7,8 & 9. I think 9, 7 & 8 would be better, since I'm more likely to 'subscribe' than 'spread' the message. That's because I'm thinking my friends may not like what I recommend, so to spread a message usually requires a higher motivation than to subscribe myself. But that's just my opinion.
Anyway I got here through copyblogger who was at level 8 Spreading the message. I sure hope you are getting lots of level 9 Subscribers!