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.
It is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print — The ‘message’ of any medium is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. The internet has accelerated trends and movements and at the same time provides unlimited access and choices to information and entertainment.
Steps to Creating Content with Hudson Valley Media
1. Research
a. Look for reputable sources (.gov and .edu are great choices)
b. Take notes on paper, never copy and paste text from other sites
2. Write
a. Write article freely, in your own words, from the notes you’ve written
b. Stay consistent with tone and brand message. (See previous blog posts for guidance)
c. Remember you are selling the client’s product or service, will this article help the client reach their goals?
d. Appropriate length (at least 500 words),
e. Create a story, make it engaging, capture the reader’s attention
3. Desktop Publish
a. Add relevant images or graphs to copy that support the material
b. Give your content structure with headers, (H1, H2, etc.)
c. Know when to bold or italicize things.
d. Proper grammar and spelling, always.
4. Plagiarism & Readability Check
a. Be safe, not sorry. Run your article through this plagiarism checker
b. Make sure the audience can read comfortably. 8th-10th grade reading level preferred.
5. Upload to WordPress website
a. Post on WordPress site (don’t publish until step 6 is complete, save draft in meantime).
b. Things to look for
i. Categories (major category where the article will be listed under)
ii. Tags (tags help when searching for content)
iii. Gallery (photos must be uploaded to WordPress gallery before being inserted onto page.)
iv. etc.
6. Optimize ( after this step it is ok to publish post)
a. Title 60 characters
b. Meta title 150 characters
c. Keyword should be included in title, meta title, and copy
d. Keyword density – don’t overpopulate but make sure the keyword shows up whenever it makes sense.
7. Distribute
a. Social Bookmarking (will discuss at later date)
8. Analyze Metrics (will discuss at later date)
a. Social Analytics
b. Google Analytics
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.
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. It’s best to check either way. Plagiarism Checker 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. Readability Checker.
