Social Media

Why every web page needs rewriting over and over again [VIDEO]

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old web pages new web pagesLook back twenty years and you’ll find that marketing materials had a slightly longer shelf life.

A company could have a brochure written and reasonable expect that brochure to be as relevant in a six months as it was the day it was printed.

Companies came to the web with similar expectations.

Oops.

The thing about the web, particularly today, is that companies are no longer the sole authors of their messages. In fact, their very brands are being formed and changed not by their marketing departments, but by their customers, fans and detractors.

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You aren’t part of that social media conversation if you’re not listening.

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popcorn conversationRight towards the end of my short book, Popcorn Content, I talk about the importance of putting your finger on the pulse of any social media conversation.

Let me expand on that a little.

I think for most of us our default setting with social media is to jump in and take part in as many conversations as possible, across multiple sites, like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

We just want to be out there, in front of as many people as we can.

But deep down, I think we all know there is a problem with that approach.

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Popcorn Content: The craft of writing short-form content for social media.

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popcorn content for social media

Popcorn Content is a short book about writing social media content.

Read it and learn how to write short-form content that hooks, compels and engages.

Whether you are writing a tweet, an update intro for Facebook, a post headline for Google+, a comment for Pinterest, or a title for a YouTube video…you need short content that pops.

Is writing this kind of short content really a separate “craft”? Absolutely it is. The social media environment is fast-moving, and whatever you say or share not only sinks into the flow really quickly, but is also in constant competition for attention.

Whether you are trying to hook readers, or engage in conversations, your social media content has to jump off the page.

That’s what Popcorn Content is all about.

Your social media text needs to be front-loaded with the most powerful words and ideas. It needs to hook readers quickly before you lose their attention. It needs to be intriguing and immediate, so readers click through to read more. It has to be worth sharing, and easy to share.

In short, it’s a whole different way of writing.

So what’s with the “popcorn” thing?

Well, it turns out that popcorn and social media have a lot in common.

Popcorn is social. It is generally shared within groups, in theaters, with family in front of the TV, with friends at a party. It’s about sharing within a group…just like social media.
social media content postcard
Popcorn is a snack, not a meal. Same with social media. Sharing someone’s Facebook update doesn’t mean you now have a relationship with them…you have just taken one small step. It’s the snack before the meal. And it had better be a tasty snack.

Popcorn is fleeting. The bowl is full one minute, and empty the next. Same with social media. Your latest tweet is there now, and below the fold a few minutes later. This means you need to write a LOT of Popcorn Content.

Using social media is like walking into a crowd of strangers with a bowl of popcorn. By offering these small kernels of value, you have the opportunity to introduce yourself to people and take that first step towards building a relationship.

To beat the competition – and it’s fierce – you need to master the craft of writing compelling short-form content.

“Love the ebook and I plan to buy a copy for everyone in my global marketing department for a retreat we are having in early July. “

Kerry Fehrenbach
Vice President, Global Marketing
Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I)

Popcorn Content is  just 39 pages long. Yes, it’s short. No fluff. No blah blah. And it costs just $6.25. (Less than a small bag of popcorn at the movie theater.)

Read it now and write short-form social media content that hooks readers, engages prospects and drives sales.

“Popcorn Content offers a very good foundational overview of how to maximize social media communication for greatest impact. Nick Usborne paints a very engaging and realistic overview of social media marketing copy writing best practices and how they apply to the ever changing social media landscape. The bottom line is that this guide will pay for itself almost immediately if you’re willing to take advantage of the knowledge being shared.”

Rob Graham
TrainingCraft.com

Get it now at Amazon.com for just $6.25

How do you know if your web content is any good?

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measure success of web contentAs content creators we sit down at our computers, check out the content calendar and get started on the day’s work.

Whether we are employed, or work for someone else, we get into the habit of pumping out that content.

Sure, we work hard to create quality content. We optimize it, whether for the search engines or social media. We submit it. It’s published. And our work is done. On to the next page or post.

If you work alone, writing for your own sites, that page is now behind you, and you focus on what to write next.

If you are employed, you write the page, and what happens after that is in someone else’s hands.

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To really understand social media, you first need to know its 30-year history.

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speakers corner conversationsHere’s a timely quote for you:

“…a place for conversation or publication, like a giant coffee-shop with a thousand rooms; it is also a worldwide digital version of the Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, an unedited collection of letters to the editor, a floating flea market, a huge vanity publisher, and a collection of every odd special-interest group in the world.”

That’s not a bad description of social media.

But it wasn’t written about social media.

It was written by Howard Rheingold in his book, The Virtual Community. His book was first published in 1993, before the web even existed.

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Is there a market for more social media experts?

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nick usborne social mediaEvery week I seem to find an article, post or tweet that mocks social media experts.

Granted, most of these pieces are written by social media gurus themselves, who are anxious to separate themselves from this influx of new competitors.

As I say in the video below, there are two sides to this story.

Yes, in one respect these gurus are right. A lot of people claim to be experts, based only on their own, personal familiarity with various social media sites.

But they are also wrong, because there are also plenty of other people who are taking the trouble to dig deeper and learn the skills of true social media marketers.

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