I was reading a post by Jay Baer titled the 14 Things I Think I Think About Social Media (Great title huh?) and one of the fourteen points hit me pretty hard.
“Social media is fueled by passion, and too many companies try to take elements of their company that aren’t passion-worthy, and attempt to build a social media program around it.”
How do you go about defining passion-worthy elements within your company? What does it mean to have passion filled content to share across the expanse of the Internet and the tools afforded through social media?
I don’t know if companies knowingly choose elements that “aren’t passion-worthy”… maybe they have no idea? They have been rooted for years in this centralized brand strategy… rooted in the belief that they (in the ivory towers) understand what makes their product or service passionate.
How do you go about creating passionate content or choosing “passion-worthy” elements within your company?
10 Ways to Build and Focus on Passionate Content
1. Tell the story of founding the company or your first week at the company. What sites and sounds did you experience? What made you love what you did that first 72 hours?
2. Tell the story of a client. Who is your best client? Who makes the world go round for your company? We all have them. Tell THEIR sorry… now THAT is passionate content.
3. Better yet.. get your client to tell the story for you! Ask your best client to write a guest post. They are the passionate user.
4. Include your own opinions and arguments about popular trends. Great writing moves people and inspires them.
5. Ask your employees what makes them passionate. Does it have to do with the overall company product or service? Heavens no! Your employees are as much of the brand as your overpriced logo on the side of your overpriced building.
6. Remember… your customers and employees are the most important part of your passion worthy content. Let them tell the story for you.
7. Great user/customer experience creates passion-worthy content. What does it feel like when an individual walks into your store? What is the experience when someone clicks through your website?
8. Check out the 4 cornerstones to creating great content from Rand (SEOmoz).
9. Keep tabs on your blog content creation guidelines. How are you creating your blog content? How are you systematically telling your story?
10. Leave no question behind your motives. Create transparent content that elicits a response. If you have multiple writers in your company… be very sure you have a system and policy in place to allow them to write authentically.
Absolutely! When you're a customer, it feels really great to know the company you're purchasing from are very passionate about their products and services – I believe this is one of the reasons why Apple is so successful.
When a company can be passionate about what they offer, they do their best to make each and every aspect of the business unique and remarkable. I think this passes on to customers who will simply talk up a storm about how great the experience was with your business.
I really like #2 and #3 because many companies do have those customers that are die-hard fans for years on end. What better way to show your gratitude than to share their story and build this long term relationship based on trust.
This is why we have such a radical shift in business today. People buy a product or service and immediately voice their opinion on social media – you can't afford not to be remarkable so just go with it and make every customer relationship the best you can.
That is a great point! You can't afford to be remarkable 24/7… every day of the week. It is impossible! Get your fans to talk about you and make a difference!
This post is such great timing. I work for SAS, a company that was just ranked the #1 company to work for. There are lots of stories about the founding of the company, the environment, the people and we can tell those stories so passionately. __I will ask others to think about this as they blog. __Also important is to "choose elements that are passion-worthy" _
You have a great story in the book Breakthrough Company by Keith McFarland. You should check it out!
Great list! Specifically, item seven stood out for me, and I’ve already taken action on an idea it inspired. With any luck, we’ll have some new blog posts written that focus on this angle. I’m going to keep this bookmarked too, as I suspect further reading will inspire new ideas down the road. Thanks again for making the time to write this for us.
Justin
Hey, nice article.
I'd like to see another on how you put a policy in place to allow them to write authentically.
Great, succinct post. Nice way to capture the essential role of passion as a key driver in effective content creation. That idea applies to any creative process, and it's most powerful when the passion connects with the audience in a way that compels a reaction. Items #4 and #10 point to the need to put it all out there with your own emotions and opinions and to do it with sincerity – just like a sculptor or stage performer. And the more you do it the better you'll get.