By Andrew Ciccone | Published | No Comments
This Content Creation guide will take you through the step-by-step process used at Hudson Valley Public Relations to create the best content for our clients. If this is your first time writing content for a client, it is strongly recommended that you go to their website and read their recent blog posts to familiarize yourself with the tone and voice that is used for that client’s audience.
The steps are as follows:
If at any point you get stuck or are not sure what to do next, Andrew and Dan are available at any time for questions – just simply call/text or send us an email.
When researching content, our clients’ need sources that are trustworthy and reputable. The best resources can be found on .gov or .edu sites, however you are not limited to those. There are many reputable websites that don’t fall under those two domains. You can also try checking your school library’s online database for research papers to pull supporting data. Our clients are experts in their respective fields, so when taking the responsibility to write for them, we need to come up with expert material.
When taking notes during your research, you want to get into the habit of writing all your notes on paper. Never copy and paste text from an article into a Word document or directly into WordPress. Text sometimes carries code with it when it is copy and pasted and can set off red flags when run through a plagiarism checker. To keep material 100% unique, taking notes on paper will prevent any unintentional plagiarism.
With your notes in front of you, you can start to write freely without worrying about plagiarizing. When writing, stay consistent with the existing material on the site. There is usually a specific tone or style we use for each client. Think about how the audience would react to the writing of the article (i.e. Humor may not be appropriate when talking about medical conditions).
Remember that when writing content, you are selling the client’s brand message. Write your article so that it helps the client reach their goals. Are they looking to inform people of a new type of product or service? Then try and talk about that new service indirectly in your article.
The length of each article should be at least 500 words (for SEO purposes). There should be enough material there that people learn something from the reading. Be specific and don’t fluff the article with redundancies. Your audience is large when publishing content online. Sometimes the reader won’t know much about the topic, but on the other hand, professionals or even the client may be reading the material. Keep it a decent length and very informative.
The internet today is full of existing content and a lot of it isn’t very good. What I mean here is, you want to create an article that captures the reader’s attention. Our objective is to get people’s attention and familiarize them with the client’s brand. Many people tend to skim through articles so give them a reason to stay a while by creating a story within the article. For example, HVPR wrote a series of articles for a legal recruiter with the theme ‘Confessions of a Legal Recruiter,’ where general recruiter topics were told in an honest, humble tone.
Add relevant images or graphs to your copy that support the material. This also keeps the article interesting and engages the reader. Blockquotes display the most important information so readers that skim can still retain the message articulated throughout the article. A full page of text can sometimes be daunting, so don’t be afraid to add a relevant image in between two big blocks of copy to ease the reader’s mind.
Give your content structure with headers, (H1, H2, etc.). These headers are how you organize the content on a page and how search engine crawlers know whats important. Adding a higher header can make subject lines more prominent so reader’s don’t get lost in “paragraph” copy.
Always reread what you write and check for proper grammar. Use Andrew and Dan resources for editing content. If you need another pair of eyes on your work, we are happy to help.
Be safe, not sorry. Run your article through this plagiarism checker to make sure it is 100% unique. As long as you wrote your notes on paper and type your article from scratch you should be getting 100% unique every time. Its best to check either way.
Make sure the audience can also read what you wrote with ease. Not everybody online can read at a college level. Therefore, an 8th-10th grade reading level is preferred. Even the big publications like the NYTimes write their articles at a middle to high school reading level. This helps it appeal to all types of audiences and makes it quick and easy to process mentally.
If your content is 100% unique, you can safely copy and paste your work onto the WordPress Site. When you sign in you want to add a new Post.
What you need to know:
Under the ‘body’ box you’ll find an SEO form. It is extremely important you fill this out as it will allow people to find your content on search engines.
Once the article has been published you want to start distributing it on social media channels. For distribution, Hudson Valley Public Relations uses Buffer. Each client has its own separate Buffer to prevent any cross posting. There are a few points you need to consider when loading up articles to Buffer:
Facebook & LinkedIn
Twitter & Google+
Google Analytics & Social Analytics (will add at later date)
Andrew Ciccone is director of Hudson Valley Public Relations. His firm specializes in content marketing. He holds a BS in Marketing from Syracuse University and a MA in Corporate Communications from Baruch College.
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