From RISE, to SXSWi sessions and Expert’s Academy in Santa Clara, CA, content – content – content was the continual drumbeat of March 2011. Anybody who is anybody wove this message into their discussion points, article, speech or blog post. Laura and I believe in good content too.
Good content begins every conversation. And, in both writing and speaking, the message itself is as important as how you share it and who is standing around to hear it. The directive to anyone who wants to write, reach out to the media or launch a PR/Marketing campaign is loud and clear. But, HOW should one go about creating good content?
Ask yourself these questions. The answers will give you the content needed to start a meaningful conversation.
- What business questions do I get asked over and over again? What is my best advice or answers to these questions?
- What product or process questions do I get asked over and over again?
- What do I do or make differently than the best competitors in my space?
- What problems am I solving for my current customers? My potential customers?
- What are the five words people use to describe me? My business? My products and services?
- What tips and advice do I want to share with the world?
The answers can now be grouped into headlines or linked together as thoughts.
Now think about what messages you have that answer this question: How do you make lives different? How can you make them better?
When you look at all of the answers, push yourself and ask, “so what?” Keep asking that same question until you find a distilled answer that is original and has meaning. Think about the smaller audience within your larger audience. Does your answer benefit that smaller audience? If not, then ask “so what?” again.
All of the answers you capture will give you a very good start on creating great content.
TAGS: content, Entrepreneurship, how-to, media relations, PR, RISE 2011, SXSW 2011, writing
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Spring break in Austin means South by Southwest, a 10-day long series of conferences and festivals for pros in the interactive, film and music industries. What on earth does that mean to an entrepreneur, small biz owner, nonprofit organization — or communications pros like us?
Usually when I tell people that I’m attending SXSW, they smile enthusiastically and ask if I’m going to see any good shows or movies. That’s because SXSW has its roots as a music event (conference + festival) followed by a star-lit film event and the like for multimedia/online/Internet/web industries. According to Austin news reports, about 35 percent more people are now attending the Interactive conference (19,000 registrations) and festival than are attending the music conference/festival (14,000 registrations) — wow, now that’s a sign of the times.
What sign? What times? It would be so 2oth century-sounding to call it convergence, but the truth is creative expression has roots in every medium — whether sound, image or information and computer-based. The best example of this was an opening-night party that featured live music, physics experiments and a series of 5-minute talks imagining our world in 2021, a mere 10 years ahead. It was my first event for five days of conference-going and evening party-going, and it set the stage for me.
Outside Ignite SXSW, you could bring your own shirt for a custom print job from Sanctuary On-site printing.
The event was Ignite SXSW at the Austin Music Hall. Doors opened at 6 p.m. (Don’t imagine a late-night hipster crowd. Think vendor logoed shirts and ironic tees.) I enjoyed mingling with Dorkbot’s high-charged guests. Then I did a double take when I spotted Michael Dell, and it took me five minutes to get the nerve, but I finally introduced myself and thanked him for all he does for Central Texas.
At Ignite SXSW, as the band played on, human and robotic guests could browse a dozen or so demonstration tables hosted by diverse orgs like the UT College of Engineering and open source activists — or even mug for the camera in Microsoft’s photo booth, emblazoned with “Microsoft Loves Startups.” I introduced myself to organizer Joshua Baer, a well-respected Austin-based entrepreneur who, with his wife, produces and “writes the checks” for the Ignite Austin events and hopes that people get something out of it. (I was an early adopter of his OtherInbox service, which launched as a clever way to create email boxes on the fly so that you could avoid spam and manage multiple accounts — I may have been too early of an adopter, but that’s another story. My intuitive reach often exceeds my cognitive grasp.)
But my longest conversation happened at the ACE Academy table.
ACE Academy is a Austin-based private school for gifted and talented children. I learned about their upcoming ACE Innovation Fair, a one-day event devoted to inspiring creativity in the arts & sciences, which to me is all about the art of the possible. Learn how things work, learn what problems need to be solved, and with some creativity and effort, you can imagine — and invent– a possible solution.
As talked, I kept thinking “how can I help them?” Though I have a creative bent, I’m not particularly inventive or crafty. I don’t make anything to sell. My main asset is information or at least, the ability to ask the right questions. That’s where our creativity as PR people applies: at the intersection of information, curiousity and communication.
So why do I go to SXSW? Especially, why go to the part without red carpet premieres, private parties and back-stage passes? (I did that when I worked for KLRU and Austin City Limits — it’s fun, too.)
I go because I am always inspired by and learn something from people who creating and inventing something — businesses, social change, music, film or media. And those sharp minds still only have 24 hours in their days, so they often need a sidekick to support their communications efforts. So we do have something in common.
It’s where Anne and I thrive, in exploring the possibilities of communication to help people, artists, entrepreneurs to grow and get what they want.
So my call to my Austin friends, peers — ACE Innovation needs our help. They need sponsors, demonstrators, and vendors to spark kids’ imaginations, to show them the symbiotic relationship between creativity and science, imagination and invention. ACE Innovation is coming up FAST, April 16 in right here in Austin — the Live Music Capital of the World, home of Austin City Limits, for decades the home of problem-solving entrepreneurs including Michael Dell, John Mackey, Dr. James Truchard and Jeff Kodosky to a new generation of problem-solvers like Joshua Baer and many more, such as the mentors of Capital Factory.
In spite of — not because of — the local and now international media circus surrounding it, SXSW earns a special place in my heart. It is the pulse of creative lives, well-lived.
TAGS: Creativity, Entrepreneurship, SXSW 2011
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