Professionals seem to have genuine difficulty in consistently developing useful content for their clients. I believe this to be a wasted opportunity that not only helps advance learning but also keeps the mind sharp and in tune with what matters. It’s also one of the most cost effective way of demonstrating commitment to client interests. It brings business.
Many reasons for not developing content are given including:
- Lack of time
- Not a natural writer
- Concerns over accuracy
- Fear of failure
- Keeping going
- Lack of inspiration
Some of the above can be taught, others require discipline. Occasionally, someone comes along who is doing much of the work for you. They are the content curators and their work should be highly prized.
Content curators are people who hunt down the best information they can find for the areas in which they have an interest. They do much of the sifting leg work that most of us struggle to accommodate. Nearly all these people do it for the love of distributing great content. That has a direct and positive impact on the quality of what they find.
One really good example is my video content partner Jon Reed. Earlier today he took the trouble to set out the how and why of what he does. It is a first rate read.
Jon provides details of how he aggregates and then distributes the best of what he finds. As a content consumer (and producer), Jon’s work is invaluable to me. His example of how to go about the task should be an encouragement to anyone thinking about how they can not only find but also amplify good information.
What’s stopping you? Lack of time? Having used some of Jon’s techniques in the past, the biggest time investment is in getting going. I reckon that a quick start covering most of what Jon is doing will take about 3-4 hours.
After that it comes down to a touch of discipline, maybe an hour a day unless you want to read and parse everything that’s found. Could this work be given to a junior person? I see no reason why not. It is a good way to encourage learning among your people. It helps maintain the flow of useful information out to others. And who knows, you might find a content rock star you didn’t know you had?
Of course none of this prevents you from creating great content of your own…
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Appreciate it. I think be prepared is the best of all the tips you provided. We need to be prepared for everything and only then whatever we do will be successful.
Great write Dennis. I’ve been keeping a blog for a little over 3 years now and one of my biggest struggle all the time is knowing exactly what content is the “right” content for my customers as a professional. Here’s what I mean:
Assume today I am in the business of selling a hammer – it’d be very obvious for me to write a blog about all the things I could do with my hammer – build a house, build a table, or “how to”s like nailing down a nail in a proper way. I wouldn’t, however, write a blog post about how to manufacture this hammer.
Unfortunately, I’ve found it a lot harder (and seen other professionals struggle) to distinguish that as a service company. We tend to want to write about the how-to’s of what we do instead of what is relevant to the customers. Any thoughts or inputs on that?
Really Great write up and i really enjoyed a lot, Keep it up..
Even though content writing seems simple, content is the one which proves the quality of the website.Nice blog.
fear of failure has always been the killer for me.