Ghostwriting, Specificity, and Social Proof in Content Marketing

specificity

This post first appeared on the Salted Stone blog.

You can’t ghostwrite expertise.

I love this line. It sounds like something the lead in a blockbuster drama might say in one of those Jerry Maguire-esque ‘drop the mic’ scenes… But that’s not where I found it.

I stumbled across it while skimming an ebook that Influence & Co produced regarding content marketing and it does a great job of succinctly speaking to two factors that are key for ensuring that people will (and will want to!) engage with your content. These two factors really distill down into one great piece of advice:

Don’t Be #Basic

It’s pretty straightforward here. Being boring will get you nowhere in the content game. No one wants to read another Marketing 101 style blog post crammed with past-their-time marketing buzzwords. Not even one person.

Seriously. I mean even my grandfather knows about social media best practices and it would surprise me all the way up to level zero if I were to hear him casually drop the phrase “Content is King” in an everyday conversation.

So “don’t be boring” is a pretty easy piece of advice to offer, but how do you actually in real life increase the chances that your content won’t be #basic?

An easy place to start is by keeping these content marketing pro tips top of mind when strategizing content:

Specificity is Engaging

People want to hear/read/see real life stories involving other people. So avoid strategy that relies on generalizations peppered with industry cliches dressed up with clever wordplay. Pretend you’re at a party and re-telling a funny story in a group of people. You wouldn’t say, “I have these two friends who did this crazy thing and it was really wild.”

No. Of course not. That’s just begging for a sarcastic “Cool story, bro.”

Continue reading on the Salted Stone blog.

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