If you've got nothing to say... pretend

I'm sitting here in front of my keyboard, because I've been telling myself, "It's Monday... CREATE CONTENT!!!"

Yeah, that's not working.

Which emphasises for me a couple of important things I've seen as stumbling blocks in so many social campaigns.

One is the simple task of keeping your content fresh. Too many people I've seen treat their social campaign as though it was a Relationship Marketing campaign. Which to me means, broadcast, impersonal, and something that bangs on me too often. As a case in point, I signed up to hear about opportunities to see presentations about a disease state I have an interest in. I get anywhere from 3 to 6 pieces of mail a week from this program. I don't get any invitations to change the rate, or type of information I'm getting. And the content is the same thing... just with a different date.

If I'm seeing a social campaign, you can at least get my name in there. You can give me a chance to do some customisation, or maybe some refining. I can choose to get things delivered to me in bulk, or my social platform may bucket some things together for me. If you're sending me the same thing again and again, with no chance for me to help you understand me... don't bother. Think about this from a social platform perspective, and you'll see that I can refine what feeds I want to follow, how I can consolidate them, how often, what format...

Okay, a live example. Pinterest.

If you have an account, log in and check out my account. You'll see that you can follow everything I do... which only the most masochistic of you will do... or a specific board. So, maybe you don't want to see my LOLz, you just want the Infographics. You can choose. That's customisation, and allowing the provider to keep the content fresh, and the user to get the fresh content that person is looking for.

Another one? You've got to create content that's compelling.

Not just to you, your agency, your legal team, or your regulatory team. You've got to create content that users want. And sometimes that content may feel like it's out in left field.

Sure, my content may seem like it's me dumping my brain on a page... which it is. Some of you will find this somewhat valuable because we get to learn something about each other. Others of you will say, "I've had enough of this self-absorbed narcissist, I'm outta here." And that's a risk I take.

Proctor & Gamble took that risk, too. They created something that was potentially going to seem a bit self-obsessed. An app for the iPhone called "Sit or Squat". It's an app that helps you find a clean toilet. It's socially driven, so that you hope that the toilet near you has been recently reviewed. But, think about it. Here's an app about toilets. It's sponsored by Charmin, so there's a tangential product tie-in. But, it's intended to meet a compelling need that may or may not result in somebody becoming a product user. Sometimes, the content your audience wants or needs is not always that which your brand thinks your users do. So, when you're brainstorming that compelling content, use the old axiom that "there is no spoon".

Okay. That's today's brain dump. I may refine this one... there's a thread in here I think has value, and a topic I discussed with a colleague of mine about how I keep up with the things I do.

Stay safe, everybody.