15 Explanation On Why Staying Creative In Content Generation Is Important.
As cliche as "content is king" is at this point, no one can deny its
accuracy. Inside the case of many enterprise experts, being creative enough to hold
producing everyday content can be tough.
However, there are
no shortcuts when it comes to creating well-crafted personal content. The
hardest part, in many cases, is coming up with something fresh, new and
exciting.
While coming up with a
truly original idea is becoming increasingly harder, even rehashing an old
topic and giving it a different spin can provide a generous source of content
ideas. Below, 15 contributors to Forbes Communications Council provide insight
into their personal strategies for continuously developing content that grabs
the user's attention.
Members offer their
best tips for keeping fresh content ideas flowing in your organization.
1. Leverage Time-Saving
Tools
Inspiration comes from
everywhere we travel each day. Take photographs. Keep a list of topics with
notes on where to find videos and articles for reference. Then, either carve
out time to write or, if time is a challenge, speak thoughts out loud while “on
the go,” leveraging apps that translate voice to text messages. Get creative
and do what works for you. When there’s a will, there’s a way. - Stacy Sherman,
DoingCXRight®
2. Start With A Content
Theme
We've seen this before.
Person gets excited about new platform, creates for three or four weeks, then
stops. The key is to create a content theme -- not only will this cut through
the noise online, it will focus your idea generation. To create a content
theme, think of an area you know so well you could come up with 10-20 ideas
right now on the spot. Do this and you'll never run out of content again. -
Patrick Ward, Rootstrap
3. Stay Hyper focused On
Consumers' Needs
Stay hyperfocused on your consumers' needs. At Nike, we
focused on athletes. At VW, we obsessed over the driver experience. At
VSCO, our innovative network's desire for consistent creative increase
immediately conjures up new content material initiatives. Consumers' needs provide
essential insights for concepts, stories and features. Consumers' needs provide essential insights
for concepts, stories and features. This enables us to serve their expectations
at each stage of the creative journey. - Tesa Aragones, vsco.co
4. Check Out Competitors,
Industry Publications
An easy way to get ideas
is to look at competitors and industry publications. You can look at their
website and sitemap to see what content has been created if you want to get a
comprehensive view of mapping out a content plan. If you want quick, easy wins,
you can look at their social media accounts to see what topics are receiving a
lot of engagement and if there are any trends. - Brian Lee, Unleash Your
Identity
5. Look At Different
Industries
When we constantly look at
the world through our own industry and try to write content through that one
lens, we soon find ourselves in an echo chamber. In order to find new content
ideas and unique vantage points, study related industries or industries you
serve to discover an entirely new angle to tie in your content ideas. - Duane
Sprague, Trust Brands
6. Hold Regular
Brainstorming Sessions
Hold regular brainstorming
sessions with your key leadership team. Put your customer at the center of this
exercise and think about how to serve them with something unique and valuable.
Do this in an environment unconstrained by existing initiatives and challenges.
Run a contest within your management team to come up with the best new
customer-centric idea that helps stimulate out-of-the-box thinking. - Jennifer
Kyriakakis, MATRIXX Software
7. Use Social Media Data
Always-on trendspotting
using social media data not only helps you create new content ideas but also
understand what's latest in your product/service category. The marketing team
needs to be agile in internal approvals to get the spotted trend out as
content. - Prashant Saxena, Isentia
8. Always Be Curious
The world is always
changing. Keep an open mind, share ideas with as many people as you can, get
new perspectives and read. Read books, read articles, read tweets. Stay in tune
and the ideas will come to you. You won't need to work that hard if you are
tuned in. - Natalie Straight, Eatel
9. Reflect And Sift
Through The Noise
It's easy to be carried
away with the day-to-day business needs. It's important to listen to what
customers need, but just as important to leverage thought leadership for what
customers will need in the future. We need to depict the future vision, be the
voice of the market and help guide the customers with new perspectives New content material
thoughts are generated exceptional while we take a look at suggestion outdoor.- Div Manickam, Boomi, a Dell Technologies
Business
10. Don't Be Afraid To
Delegate
Entrepreneurs should be focused
on core business operations and delegate early-phase content creation to those
with a comparative advantage. Outsourcing content creation to digital marketing
strategists and content writers can save you multiple hours every day while you
stay focused on scaling your business and serving customers or clients. - Amine
Rahal, Regal Assets
11. Step Away For Some Thinking
Time
Take your dog for a walk!
Or take a yoga class or whatever it is that enables you to step away from your
desk and the constant barrage of email and calls. Everyone is busy, but finding
opportunities to carve out "thinking time" where you can view things from
a different perspective is one of the strategies that I have found the most
successful for coming up with new ideas. - Niamh Whelan-Reiter, Avanade
12. Conserve Your Calories
I find it helpful to write
at least one new content idea each day -- part of a morning ritual. When I find
time to write, I can just lift one and go. More important, though, is ideating
ways to leverage existing content in new ways. If you wrote a blog on upcoming
trends, that can become a great agenda for a webinar! Generating new content requires
a lot more calories than repurposing existing content. - Scott Schoeneberger,
Bluewater Technologies Group, Inc.
13. Focus On The Human
Element
Developing content that
inspires a human response starts by understanding the psychology behind what people
respond to. Listen, observe and absorb the world around you. Note what is
trending on social media. Talk to your colleagues and generate input from your
customers. Begin seeing every interplay or commentary as an possibility for
content material era, and the thoughts will waft. - Melanie Tabet, FlightHub
and JustFly
14. Protect Your Childish
Curiosity
Actually, it should not be
difficult to be creative at all, since we are all born with a huge curiosity
and creativity. Unfortunately, we suppress this creativity at school and need
to unearth it again when we end up in a creative industry or role. Try to keep
this child-like curiosity by continuously studying and learning, or by trying
out new things (cooking, sports, tasks) and staying open-minded. - Rafael
Schwarz, TERRITORY has an effect on (a Bertelsmann group organization)
15. Find Your Inner
Unthinking Genius
The brain has two ways of
solving problems. One way is a deliberate focus; the other is how your brain
works on the problem "in the background" when you are not actively
concentrating on it. That's why so many great ideas hit us in the shower, and
many of them are more creative than our intentional concentration could
produce. Exercising or doing something you intrinsically enjoy facilitates
this. - James O'Connor, Go Solar Group
