How To Create Content of Value

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Jason Houck

Is your content struggling with getting noticed, being shared or acted upon? More than likely the problem is the content lacks value. If so, I have developed a detailed way to help you turn your struggle into a success by defining each letter in the word value.

Vital – Create positive, informational and unique content. By doing so, our content becomes appealing, worthy and one of a kind. Encompassing vitality in our content opens the door for our brand, relationships and audience to grow.

Accurate – Do research to ensure the content you are sharing is correct and updated. Sharing an article from a year ago may share outdated tips or convey wrong information about a topic or question asked. This prevents possible catastrophe, failure and misleading someone. Also, can lead to poor reputation of a brand or individual.

Lead – Use knowledge in content to create a path of success. Knowledge can be in the form of a tip, blog post or response to a question asked. By leading we inspire, help someone create success and make a difference. The key is to be effective in doing so.

Understand – Create content that has a clear meaning. An individual may not understand content as easy as another individual does. Be detailed, paint a picture with words, and give an example to avoid confusion. Always make it be known in content you are willing to explain if need be.

Engaging – Listen by responding. Let your audience know you acknowledge them. Thank them, share and respond to public content and ask how their day is going. Create a conversation by asking a question. Engaging content shows the audience you value and are there for them.

When we create content of value, we are raising awareness for our brand and our personal self. It is important to encompass this trait to keep a positive image and presence, to see growth and succeed.

How do you define content of value? Do you encompass it? Feel free to leave your response in a comment.

Have a great day,

Jason Houck

Is Social Media Use During Travel The Norm?

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Jason Houck

Checking into Foursquare, posting a status update on Facebook or sharing in 140 characters or less on Twitter is the norm today for an individual when traveling. Why is it the norm? In a Sun Sentinel article, Jennifer Polaro from Albany, NY states why this is true by saying, “I want to be connected with my hometown. I need to know what is going on. I have friends on cruises who are doing the same thing. You can’t break away.”

The article continues on to give reason why many vacationers use social media by saying, “Many visitors find it hard to disconnect during vacation because they feel social (media) pressure to let their friends and followers know what they’re doing and where they’re doing it.”

I agree with the above statement but their are many other reasons why. In addition to visitors feeling social (media) pressure, the use of social media during travel is a way to grow their travel brand and blog, being loyal to their audience and fulfilling an obligation.

Travel Brand, Blog – Sharing content while on vacation is a way to gain feedback from the audience so you know what to share on your travel website or blog resulting in exposure and growth.
Being loyal – Months before traveling, an individual shares they are traveling to a certain place. When this is conveyed, their audience expresses interest. Social Media is all about what your audience wants to see or hear about. We must remain loyal and deliver as this is a way to gain trust and influence.
Obligation – Often many times, a certain hotel, resort, etc will invite a traveler down in exchange for promotion in real time which means sharing pictures and other content as you experience it. To keep our character and credibility intact, we must abide and fulfill our end of the deal.

Social Media use during travel goes beyond checking in to see what’s going on back home and feeling pressure from social media friends and followers. In fact, it’s a job to 1000′s in the travel industry and a way to live their passion resulting in social media use during travel. Not only is it a job to many but it’s advertising for the place we travel to, a chance to showcase creativity, be authentic and build relationship’s with travel brands.

So, is social media use during travel the norm for you? If so, why?

Personality as a Brand

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Jason Houck

When we all meet someone the personality they entail says a lot about what kind of person they are. The same holds true for a brand. It is very important as a brand to have personality. The reason this is true is because when people are looking to connect with a brand they look for an aspect about the brand that makes them feel comfortable and want to build a relationship with. Basically, your brands personality is whats perceived by others meaning your audience and consumers.

When developing the personality of your brand ask yourself a couple questions that will aid you in developing the right one that will encompass a positive impact.

Who am I? What kind of results do I want to see?
Is my brand one that everyone wants to connect with or am I trying to target a specific audience?
Does my personality fit my brand identity and is it strong enough to make a lasting impression?
How do I want to be perceived by my customers and audience?
Does my personality define me?
If my brand were human what would be my characteristics?

Once you develop your brand personality, the marketing strategy aspect of your brand becomes somewhat easier to create. Make sure all departments of your brand are working together as a team and agree as a team to make this happen. I have seen many brands fail when trying to develop a personality because they fail to work as a team which leads to a lot of chaos, disagreement and disaster.

So sit down with all departments of your brand and ask each other, “Are we being perceived in a way that makes us successful?” During the meeting with all departments, be sure to develop a set of social media guidelines or principles to help guide employees when carrying out tasks and communicating “as the brand”. If your brand is not being perceived as being successful take into consideration what I have talked about and start developing the visual personification your brand deserves. After all, personality can say a thousand words about who we are as brand.

Does Your Content Have Power?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Jason Houck

As we all know, content is King and helps define why we blog, use Twitter and Facebook. It is important to create our content to encompass our niche and give your audience the information they are looking for.

A great way to help you decide if your content is being developed in a positive way is to ask yourself , “Is my content valuable with direction?”

Below I will share 6 ways to ensure that your content is valuable and directional.

Make your content powerful and strong enough for someone to want to share it
Use content that is up to date
Stick with content you understand and believe in. No need to impress someone in a fake way.
Use detailed content, paint a picture with words. Just because we know what it means doesn’t mean everyone else does.
Use web links that are informative and reliable
Content that steers someone in the right direction of success

The main point I am trying to convey is when developing content develop it in a way that everyone understands and sees worth in to help give them answers and information they are looking for. If you do this you will gain trust and keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.

Always remember to never step outside your comfort zone in creating content. It’s not who your are and your audience will sense it. For example, If you’re niche and audience revolves around content that helps a grocery shopper become more savvy using coupons, they may not want to hear about how is the best way to please a man or woman in bed.

If looking to expand your content to encompass another topic, ask your audience if it’s something they are interested in. Do this by just asking the question, creating a poll or even creating a blog post.

Don’t get me wrong. It is okay to occasionally share content that you may find funny or relaxing. After all, we all need a good laugh or a day to unwind.

Content is powerful as a King. It not only helps us grow as a person but helps us see success and grow as a whole. Just remember to embrace your power when developing content. If we do, we all become a winner.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Also, feel free to add in a comment what you may think I left out.