Injecting personality into your content

Much is made when discussing how to create attractive, memorable content that grabs the attention of a new or existing audience.

Make it sensationalist, loud, emotive, brash and divisive. Basically anything that will get you seen and get people to react. I see this approach a lot at the moment and while I’m not against bold statements and strong positioning, forcing your personal or business brand down this route when it doesn’t suit can do more damage than good.

Content should be an outward projection of who, what and where you are. If you want to make a statement, content can follow, equally if you want to display professional ability and experience, then your content should tell that story.

Strong messaging will always cut through the noise that exists out there in the world and get you seen and build a strong, engaged audience.

With that in mind, here are the three hooks I keep front and centre when constructing a campaign, digital or otherwise.

What do you enjoy?

Commision and create content you would enjoy and relate to yourself. We often forget that the consumers of content are going to be just like me and you. There is absolutely no point circulating content that you think is rubbish but you’ve been told will resonate with your audience. If you aren’t invested in the material that is there to tell the world what you are all about then that will permeate throughout your business.

The things that matter to you

Talk about things that matter to you. If you want your content to reflect the fact you’ve been in business for 25 years, you pride yourself on punctuality and an overwhelming knowledge about the Great Auk population of Greenland then make sure that it does. There are 100 different ways the information can be disseminated and beamed to your audience but the messaging has to come from a place of willing.

Don’t be someone you’re not

Don’t do something just for the likes and the shares. Yes getting reach is important but with planning, thought and a collaborative relationship with whoever is helping you create a campaign, you can achieve your goals without “selling out”. If it doesn’t fit to have your facilities manager batter you around the head with a shovel in the vain hope that it’ll go viral then my advice is to avoid that type of content.

The beauty of content creation to build awareness of your brand and services is that it can take all shapes and forms. So many in fact that there is an approach, method, platform and style to fit exactly what you need.