Nicola Balkind

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Spring Clean Your Content: Part II, Content Mix

By Nicola Balkind

content mix

 

Welcome to Part II of Spring Cleaning Your Content!

Last week, we looked at the “media mix” – or the type of media you’ll be posting and where to post it.

This week, we’re talking about the “content mix” – how to organise your content strategy and how to keep your content consistent, varied and interesting.

 

Your content should be…

1. Informative

2. Valuable for your readers

3. Community-driven

4. Targeted

Informative content gives your customer a place to go to gather the information they need, whether that’s how to buy your product, how to use it, or just a way to get them involved in your area of expertise. All of this content must add value to your readers’ lives. In time, they’ll build trust in you and, eventually, invest their money in that value.

For those who are already part of your online community, and those who wish to join it. To inform and add value to your customers’ experiences, your content should be accessible and inclusive. That also means it will be targeted towards those who need it most. The more you can niche down, and the more specific you can be, the better.

Remember: online content is not just about sales: it’s providing a valuable resource, or even a place for people to hang out and share their interests. Build their trust, build your brand, and sales will follow.

 

Defining your content mix

Now that we’re familiar with what your content is seeking to accomplish, and which platforms are best suited, it’s time to think about what you’re posting and when.

Your content mix might include…

  • Company news – like a new product or an upcoming event.
  • Industry or customer-related news – e.g. an exciting innovation in your sector, or new technology that’s exciting for your customers.
  • Seasonal posts, holidays and tie-ins – like Spring Cleaning (duh!), a UN day of interest, or a Fashion Week tie-in – whatever is relevant to your business and your audience.
  • Content partnerships – content in collaboration with industry specialists or thought leaders like bloggers. This could include partnered giveaways and other types access to someone important to your audience.

No matter the topic, make sure your content mix is relevant to your audience. You can also include lots of evergreen content that you can share time and time again.

You may emphasise one of these content types over others, but as a general rule you should talk about yourself in a minority of posts. I like to use the 80:20 rule – so roughly only one in five posts will be about my own products and services, while the rest provide things like news, relevant but fun content, or guest blogs.

 

Content themes

We’ve talked about planning your content calendar before, and these tips still apply.

As long-time readers might have realised, I have a themed content mix in place here on nicolabalkind.com. Most of my posts share knowledge and advice, with the occasional post about a relevant event or a piece of industry news. I post once per week, and these tend to fall under the following categories:

  • Social Media and Content – practical guides like the one you’re reading, or like this post.
  • Microbusiness Interest – sharing resources that have helped me, or posting about topics around small businesses.
  • Recommendations – like tools, apps, and processes.
  • Notebook or Links posts – sharing the best industry-related posts I’ve read each month.

As I hinted above, the goal is to create a healthy mix of content that provides value, teaches your audience something new, and shares what you’re doing without boring them.

For more tips on varied content on social media, take a look at my tips for content curation.

 

Your turn

How do you keep your content varied and interesting for your readers? I’d love to hear your plans in the comments, or you can email me or tweet me anytime @robotnic.

Filed Under: Social Media & Content Tagged With: content, content mix, content strategy, media mix, multimedia content, social media, spring clean your content

Spring Clean Your Content: Part I, Media Mix

By Nicola Balkind

Media Mix

Trends change quickly and it’s easy to get in a rut with your content strategy. What better time to clean up your content than in Spring?

Before we dive into defining your content mix, first it is important to understand the type of media you’ll be posting and where to post it.

Today I want to help you take a look at your offering, give you a summary of trends in digital media, and suggest some ways to Spring clean your content. Next week, we’ll talk about the content mix and how to organise your own.

So, let’s learn about your options – or as I like to call it, the “media mix”.

 

Media Mix

Let’s talk about the media mix. We’re thinking about the types of media you can post, primarily text, images, video and audio, and how they’re best placed across digital platforms.

 

Blog Updates

If you’re still blogging – and I hope you are – text and images are probably your primary tools.

Words are always well-supported by pictures. They give your reader a sense of expectation, frame what’s to come, and illustrate your arguments.

Blogs are also important because they are a home for your content that you control. As we’ll discuss more below, every social media platform wants to keep you on-site, so linking out to other places is becoming less effective. The trouble is that you never know when a social media site will crash, go out of style, or even disappear.

Your blog is your home, and it’s an ideal place for your content to live. If you post a video to YouTube or a podcast to SoundCloud, it’s easy to embed these on your home blog. It gives your audience a central place to go where they can always find your latest news and updates. Don’t underestimate it!

As we’ve talked about previously, the same goes for email. Meet your audience where they’re at, get their email address, and keep them up-to-date with links back to your best content.

 

Social Media Updates

Updating your social media pages used to mean posting some text and maybe a link on Twitter or Facebook. Now, things are far more visual.

Currently, two of the fastest-growing platforms are Instagram and Snapchat – both visual, image and video-based platforms with massive young audiences. Not to mention Tumblr, a hugely visual platform and community which, arguably, focuses more on sharing and curating content than creating it. Users still create here, but it tends towards remixing and repurposing extant content from elsewhere (i.e. TV, YouTube videos, new memes).

Meanwhile, Twitter added images and Facebook also favours visual content that keeps users on-site.

My point? Social media still has a strong basis in text, but visual media is taking over.

 

Video

Let’s talk about dedicated video content. Video is one of the most rapidly-changing dynamics online these past fea years. Industry leaders have been heralding its moment for years now.

While YouTube launched 10 years ago and is credited with democratising video, it’s not until the past year or so that we’ve seen more platforms embrace video. Twitter launched Vine and Instagram added video capabilities around the same time; meanwhile Facebook favours auto-play and Twitter has now added a 30-second video option.

These are important changes as they keep users on-site. We can now post video directly on these social platforms – we publish the content directly to social, rather than publicising links and asking our users to follow them. The imperative to leave Twitter or Facebook and follow a link to YouTube has been weakened, so it’s time to start creating video content that’s fit for your chosen platform or platforms.

 

Audio

Audio content has great potential, and some sea changes have taken place of late – not least the massive success of Serial, which exploded the audience and appetite for podcasts.

Podcasts, micropodcasts and even audio clips shared on social media are an intimate way to connect with your audience. The direct voice-to-earbud delivery is unparalleled in this regard. Audio also occupies a different space in people’s lives: you’re reaching them while they’re out and about, walking, driving, doing daily tasks or even sleeping.

 

Next week we’ll look into defining your content mix.

Til then, what are the trends that you’ve seen in digital multimedia? What are you trying to achieve in your content strategy, and do you need help in going about it?

Drop me a comment below, tweet me @robotnic, or email me.

Filed Under: Social Media & Content Tagged With: content mix, content strategy, media mix, multimedia content, social media, spring clean your content

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Nicola has been my number one go-to for freelance community management. She is incredibly efficient, she is clear with costs, time estimates and invoicing and completely reliable. She is a breath of fresh air in an industry which is plagued by self-promoting “gurus”: her range of skills and experience is broad and authentic. I really appreciate the way Nicola is uncomplicated to work with: she asks quick, straightforward questions about what’s required then sits down and gets the job done without fuss. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Nicola and would certainly work with her again.
Annie MacfarlaneTOMS Europe
Nicola helped transform EIFF’s web vision at a time of change. She is assured and confident with her tactics in an ever-evolving industry and, more importantly, generates great content with results. Allied to Nicola’s strategic savvy, it’s a winning combination.
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Nicola has been nothing but helpful, insightful, and an amazing force to impact our team. She exudes exceptional talent, and throughout working together I’ve been able to see first-hand her strength in organising and leading a team, attention to detail, and ability communicate with her peers and clients effectively. It has been a real pleasure to work with Nicola, and I can’t wait to continue working alongside and learning from her.
Jessica Yamamoto, Yelp
Nicola is crazy talented, knowledgeable and efficient when it comes to Social Media and Copywriting. I had the pleasure to work with Nicola on several online marketing projects over the course of almost two years. Not only is she a fountain of knowledge regarding latest trends and best practices for both Social Media and online writing – she is also able to put abstract ideas into action. Any team looking to improve their online presence would be lucky to get their hands on Nicola.
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Nicola was an important member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival Marketing Department and was key in the communication delivery of the Festival. In such a dynamic and demanding environment, Nicola delivered great content and was dependable throughout, an invaluable asset to the Festival.
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Nicola has worked with Purplefeather on various social media and copywriting campaigns. She is creative, reliable and professional and can be completely trusted with the voice of your brand – rare qualities indeed!
Andrea GardnerPurplefeather
Nicola is an experienced creative copywriter, with a great ability to produce quality pieces quickly and at short-notice. She has a great knowledge of social platforms and ability to apply this knowledge. Nicola is an absolute pleasure to work with and brings her creativity and personality to everything she does.
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Nicola and I worked together across several projects in the Yomgeo community management team. Nicola is great to work with, her attitude towards projects is always amazing and she is incredibly efficient, Her work is always of the highest quality, and I’ve learned a lot from working with her.
Catherine CarriganYomego
We’ve employed Nicola’s services several times at Yomego and every time she has been absolutely fantastic in both outputs and attitude. Supporting our community management team, Nicola has added invaluable expertise in creating customer focused strategies for our clients and helping to draft truly compelling content plans. I have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Nicola’s services for anyone that places important on ensuring outputs are consistently exemplary.
Sam Macleod
Nicola was a pleasure to work with. She managed a number of our clients social media and content strategy with a brilliant flair to adapt her creative skills for each of their brands guidelines. She also provided social media training which was highly informative and engaging. Nicola is highly knowledgeable and is constantly in touch with the forefront of all social media developments. She provides all her work in a professional and timely manner. Nicola is comfortable presenting and talking to clients. I would have no hesitation in recommending Nicola. Great person to work with!
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