Rebecca Edwards – Rock Your Content with These 7 Research & Structure Secrets
When it comes to creating well-crafted content, Rebecca Edwards offers four key principles to follow: focus, authority, voice, and structure. Does your content stick to the point? Does it contain recognized sources to give it value? Does your voice standout? Will readers find it concise and scannable? Mastering these techniques is a sure way to achieving better content for digital purposes.
The 7 Secrets
To achieve the type of content that hooks readers online, Rebecca reveals her seven secrets for improved content:
- Always be in research-mode
- Find out what others are saying
- Identify what people have not already said
- Tell stories
- Only go as deep as length allows
- Lose traditional essay format
- Structure content for scannability
Scannability
The written word proves to be a powerful tool on the digital platform, but it comes with a twist. Readers typically scroll through 50%-60% of an article with less than 20% of the text getting read. It’s not that people are not reading; various devices simply cause readers to digest information differently. Concise, scannable, and objective writing results up to 124% better usability.
People scan, so give them something to scan. Use the F pattern and subheadings. #butreally #SLCSEM
— Ben Brown (@iBenBrown) April 20, 2017
Story Telling
The internet provides a lot of information and at times can feel like drinking water out of a firehose. With so much content readily available, it can be difficult to have your own work stand out. Rebecca suggests focusing on writing things that make readers feel something. Good or bad. As long as they don’t feel indifferent. When writing, imagine your audience is your mom, or spouse, or close friend. Writing to someone familiar will make your content far more personable. Use funny or heartwarming anecdotes. There is a reason blogs have become such a major part of the digital world. People enjoy relating to others, so give them something to relate to.
What You Say Matters
It’s easy to assume that what you want to say has already been said by somebody, but this certainly is not the case. By implementing these techniques, your content can be consumed by more viewers. There are many stories to tell, but you are the only person in the world with your perspective. Use that to your advantage and write, write, write!
Jaqueline Jensen – Visual Storytelling and Design Inspiration
The written word does not have a monopoly on how we communicate with others. With her presentation, Jaqueline Jensen proves that visual storytelling can have a major impact on information sharing.
The Importance of Infographics
Infographics help share complex information with audiences in a simple, image-based format. 65% of people are visual learners and it takes a person 1/10 of a second to process a visual whereas it takes 50 seconds to read 200-250 words. Still wondering if an infographic is worth your while? Blog posts with visuals receive 94% more engagement. This proves that visuals can go along nicely with the written word.
15 Ideas to Spark Your Next Infographic
- Take your audience behind the scenes of a product, service, business, etc.
- Share tips and tricks or cheat sheets that help improve life.
- Compare and contrast things in your industry, services, products, trends, philosophies, etc.
- Pitch and promote a service with interesting stats and fun facts.
- Make an internal report shine with a data powered picture or a data visualization.
- Make text content visual by turning the key points into a graphic that summarizes the post.
- Check what is already viral and make it visual.
- Bring an internal story external.
- Build thought leadership by sharing your expertise. Post tips relating to your industry.
- Highlight interesting data and industry trends.
- Journey through time by creating a timeline with interesting and relevant milestones.
- Aim to inspire by highlight key figures in your industry.
- Summarize or recap an event.
- Share a case study.
- Poll your audience and then share those results.
Key Design Tips
When designing your next infographic, there are three important design tips to keep in mind. First, keep consistency with the icon design. Second, pick one primary color and two complimentary colors. Third, utilize the whitespace to your advantage by keeping things clean, simple, and not cluttered.
Infographics can be beneficial in multiple ways as long as it is well researched and creatively designed. Focus on your audience and their needs and interests. Create compelling content they would enjoy consuming. Good content does not have to stand alone. With the assistance of a useful infographic, both can gain more views and interaction.
Thanks for having me tonight, @slcsem! #SLCSEM friends, here's my deck: https://t.co/lD3ivxeVGm #marketing #contentmarketing #piktochart pic.twitter.com/UuP4dI7Usf
— Jacqueline (@JackieMJensen) April 20, 2017