Content Creation: Digital Content Types, Tools, and Workflows for Creating
Creating online content is one of the most time-consuming responsibilities for modern marketers and businesses. There are websites to create, social media accounts to update, video content to upload, and new tools to learn. It’s important to have a social media plan that will fit with your business model, so check out our tips here to get started on your content creation.
Website Content Creation
Online content development is a chief responsibility in any business today since an online strategy will help you engage with your audience. In the end, this will improve your revenue. But what exactly is it and how do you do it?
Quite simply, content creation is finding a new topic to write about, deciding how to write about it, and organizing your ideas before you actually create it. Usually, the creation process involves choosing an idea before writing and intense editing to be sure it’s ready to publish.
You can get these types of ideas from anywhere, including your content team, your customers, other company stakeholders, your data, or anywhere else. Depending on your goal, you’ll decide on how you’d like that idea to look in the end.
There are many types of content. You can create a blog post, video, eBook, Tweet, infographic, advertisement, and not to mention the classic article for your website. Anyone of these options can impact your business by improving the number of people who visit your website and buy from your business.
Becoming a Better Writer
It’s not easy to become a better writer, but it’s certainly possible. If you’re wondering how to write great web articles, it doesn’t happen overnight. Be ready to make a great effort to get the tone, structure, and wording of any written work right but writing the best article you can help improve your business. Where to start is always difficult though.
Read and Write
Improve your writing by doing a little reading. This is a common piece of advice, but it really does help you see how other authors have done it and what’s succeeded in the past. Take those ideas and begin writing a lot. Practice will help you get better, and as you write, you may find yourself writing more and more ideas over time.
Writing Ritual
You want to know everything about writing great copy or text for websites, which means establishing a writing ritual for yourself. Find a time of the day where you can focus and make it a routine. Try to write for at least half an hour without any interruptions to get into the general flow of things.
If you’re having trouble, plan a little bit before you begin to write. This is something simple that you can do during your morning commute, or when you’re idle.
Formatting Your Writing
Formatting what you’ve already written properly is just as important as the writing itself. You want your post or article to be easily skimmable so that people can go through it quickly without missing out on any information. It also has to be immediately inviting so that people want to read it in the first place.
Subheadings
This is a key part of formatting. Create some catchy subheadings that people will stop at, and that will let people know exactly what to expect in that section. This is also perfect for people’s attention spans, since they’re more likely to begin reading shorter, spaced sections rather than one long paragraph.
When you’re doing this, be sure to bold the subheadings. This will make it eye-catching for the person scrolling through.
Narrow Posts
The column layout is usually eye-catching. People like to read a thin amount of material, not have to scroll all across the page to read everything. This may help the way your text looks if someone is accessing it on a smartphone too.
Adding Content
Don’t forget to have at least one image in your blog post. People like to see images and various media, but make sure you have the right types. Don’t just use stock photos that are boring and common. Try to add in real images of your company and work. It should always relate back to the point of your blog post though.
Along with photos, you can add graphs and lists too in order to help people more easily skim and understand the data. Especially when it comes to skimming, these types of shortlists are perfect.
Social Media Content
It’s important to get the most out of your social media content, especially since many posts on social media need to be short and sweet. Sometimes there’s a character limit, and anyway, most people don’t want to read super long posts when they’re scrolling through their account. Great social posts are easily sharable, interesting, and usually short enough that they won’t be overlooked.
Designing great posts is all about creating material that will appeal to your audience. People are more likely to share items that will get the word out about things that you care about, and to grow their relationships with other people. Creating for social media is difficult as you try to balance the right information with humor, interest, shock, and great images too. These social platform tips provide a great starting point:
- Create a story
- Establish trust and credibility
- Keep it simple
- Add some urgency
You can add these parts of your post in different ways, but together they’ll make your post more sharable, meaning that more people will read it in the end. You can try using a post-generator to help you remember to post continued material like this, although you will still have to write the posts on your own.
Multimedia
The right type of multimedia breathes life into an average post. This is what people stop to see, and what makes your material more attractive and engaging. Use this type of content to answer questions instead of just using paragraphs.
You can do this through social media outlets, interacting through people live and helping them feel more included in your brand. You may even invite customers to do interviews for your blog, making your material feel more real to your customers.
Use all types of multimedia content when you’re sprucing up your website. This can include videos, infographics, and slideshows. All of these can help present your information in a way that people are more likely to engage with. They can also be effective in breaking up huge chunks of text. For online blogs, you’d never want big chunks of text taking up the screen. It’s not interactive, and people won’t want to read it.
Visual Content
So which visuals should you use? Well, technically you can add anything you like to your page, as long as it’s relevant and adds to your overall message. Images are one of the best things since people will pay close attention to those and are more likely to stop upon seeing them.
You can use any number of visuals though, like data-driven visuals such as graphs or relevant quotes from experts. As long as what you use is relevant and eye-catching.
Video
YouTube is one of the greatest examples of the power of videos and video blogs. You don’t have a blog every day on a YouTube channel to use online video creation tools though. There are many video making tools out there that are simple to use, but regardless of what tools you use, video blogging is a great way to build a connection with your viewers. Be sure that your lighting and audio are of high quality to show a good image of your business.
Live Content
Live video is another great way to show the real side of your business. People are able to see something more intimate about your business as they ask questions live and interact with you and other experts. They know that it won’t be perfect, but that only makes you seem that much more real and genuine.
Audio
As people travel more and spend less time on physical computers, they’re more likely to listen to podcasts right on their phone. This is a direct way to receive information, not to mention that it’s a convenient way to draw in even more people. Having even just a monthly podcast about your business can reach more people over time.
Content Creator
There’s a lot of material out there. The options truly are endless. It may seem confusing, and perhaps difficult to plan out on your own. That’s where a content creator can help.
Content Creators help bloggers and business owners grow their online presence through knowledge of online marketing. A creator will contribute information to digital media, targeting your audience using blog posts, newsletters, graphic design, and so on. They know how to represent your business properly to draw the most amount of people in.
Companies & Agencies
Digital Media Agencies work to create new ways to present information to your audience, providing the technology and techniques. They work to target your specific audience with techniques that are newer and that still maintain the loyalty to your brand. This means that Marketing Agencies may use videos or certain photos, or may help structure your website, so it looks better to potential clients.
Tools & Software
You may know what type of material you would like, but it’s tough to get anywhere without the best tools to back you up. There are so many creative tools you’re able to choose from, all of which work with various types and formats to get the display you would like.
Have a look at the free tools on the internet to add a lot to your website without tons of complicated steps or a large initial investment.
Content Development Workflows & Systems
As part of your content creation, a developing strategy is important. You don’t just want to create random material that feels confused or out of place, but wants to craft exceptional work that is carefully designed to reach your specific goal.
It’s important to have a good production workflow and strategy before you even begin so that the short article that you’re writing ends up looking professional and representing your brand as it should.
Your workflow will help organize your business, allowing you to improve the quality of your work. With so many articles and videos online, this is important as a way to differentiate your business from others. Competition is tough, and the right content can set you apart from all of the other businesses out there.
You don’t have infinite funds to compete with though. This is why a developing strategy is necessary. Having a strategy will help you use the tools you have as effectively as possible. Talk with the other members on your team to discover the process together, perhaps beginning with idea generation, creation, and editing.
Jobs in Content Creation
In content creation jobs, you’ll have to be able to participate in the process of creating new things and implementing it online. Even after the material is posted online though, the content creator is also the person who provides maintenance to the content and updates everything online.
This ensures that customers are constantly getting up-to-date information every time they check on your website. All content creators work to troubleshoot problems too and usually, end up working with IT to make sure that there are no interruptions in access.
On top of this, they’ll work to find new and improved innovations to online marketing and content creation, continually enhancing your content to make it appealing to everyone curious about your business.
Content creation jobs involve these types of tasks as individuals work both online and with the overall team, trying to make a website or blog that will appeal to the most amount of people.
Conclusion
There’s a lot that goes into running a business and creating and maintaining a blog. Beyond everything you have to do to run the finances and services, you also have to keep yourself informed about content creation. Whether you hire a content creator yourself or attempt to create social media and videos yourself, online marketing will help your business to run smoothly as you draw in new customers.
Like everything in business, planning out a strategy and proper workflow can mean the difference between make or break. Take in the tips mentioned here and create your very own workflow to keep your content creation system running well.