Look at any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) course or checklist… you’ll find content freshness to be a key line item.
Read almost any social media plan… you’ll see that you have to have content to feed that huge network of friends, contacts and buddies you are creating.
Brush up on a few blogging how-to’s… you’ll find it’s all about content.
So, if content is so important, why do business people invest so little time in creating it?
Since starting Professional Blog Service, I’ve learned a little bit about why business people struggle with content:
Writing just isn’t urgent enough. Most business people are stuck in a reactive mode (much to Stephen Covey’s chagrin) where they deal with the most urgent task right now. Writing content is important, but it isn’t urgent.
Business people look at writing as something anyone can do well. My friends in the copywriting, legal and journalism professions know this isn’t so. Good writing isn’t easy to find. It takes time. And usually the person who has the time isn’t the one that can write the article.
Content creation isn’t fun. It’s fun to create campaigns, videos, and diagrams but writing content just is not most people’s idea of fun. It’s homework. It’s not sexy. But now more than ever it is critical to your marketing’s success.
You are right – most business people just don’t have the time to write.
Mike, I have to debate you a little bit on the writing side of things. Now I have never considered my writing “sexy”, really-I haven’t viewed it as homework either. If you have a talent for writing and have an array of interests, its so much fun to do. I know that while I was in college I always looked forward to writing papers rather than taking tests while my classmates felt the opposite. What you have to realize is that many business people are so “people-oriented” and “people-pleasers” (to a fault, really)that they cannot relax long enough to write creative and cool stuff. Writers, on the other hand, may have to “buddy-up” a little more than they might like to their computers, but when we “unplug” work is over and relaxing and enjoying life comes alot easier than it does to type-A execs. Also, since when were making diagrams fun? :)
Content creation can be fun if you have the two essential ‘P’s – Passion and Patience.
As a creative advisor to SMEs, I choose to work only with those companies that can inspire me. I do this as much for their benefit as mine. If I can’t ‘engage’ with their brand and vision, then I cannot provide them with the edge they need to catapult them ahead of their competitors.
Patience is equally critical: you can’t expect to inspire others with your words unless they’re well thought out and painstakingly researched. Unless you have 100,000 followers hinged on your every word or churn out ‘Top 10…’ lists all the time, in which case you know more than I do.
Great and thought-provoking post, Mike.