So maybe you love elephants, or paisley prints …or maybe you love your coffee shop… and all you talk about is coffee, pictures are coffee, giveaways are coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee!? Well that can get boring for the few thousand normal people out there called your readers who may love coffee but could easily switch to tea if one more coffee picture lands up on their Facebook feed.
Everyone should have their niche, and there will always be a group of die-hard coffee fans out there to listen to you, but you need to think broader and more relevant to grow your following and your business.
Here are my top 5 tips on how to design a blog or social media feed that is about the things you love while staying relevant and true to your niche / brand.
Firstly, you need to look at your niche / brand and write a list of things that define it. For the example of a coffee shop my short list would be – coffee, tea, baked goods, workspace, cafe culture, small businesses, meet-ups, chill out, crafters and hand-made. This list will guide you in sticking to your brand identity – you need to stay true to this list as much as possible and not sway (even if you love that monkey eating a pizza in a birthday hat video going around FB).
Be aware of trends in your industry. This may be the most important way to stay relevant by staying ‘on-trend’. And now that you have your trusty list above – you can take the trends and make them your own. The first place to see the trends is by following leaders in your industry or other blogs / websites that inspire you. Remember not to copy something, but be inspired … give your twist or opinion.
Be aware of internet trends, events, holidays, and blend them with the things you love and your brand. So its November, your coffee mugs have moustaches, your staff are wearing moustaches, you make a funny video about coffee foam moustaches, you link the positive effects of coffee to men’s health, there is a trend for ‘photo booths’ selfies with paper moustaches and hashtags … you do the same. Not only does it keep your content relevant and on-trend, it makes it easier to brainstorm content ideas when you have most of the ideas in-front of you.
Attention grabbers are always a great way to keep content relevant. Great pictures, bullet point information, lists, tips, trendy headlines are all great ways to capture the audience. Most readers are looking for information and much prefer to see it in bite-sized pieces, not long paragraphs of beautifully written words (unless maybe you are an author). Know your customers and what they are looking for when they step into to your digital space.
Talk to your customers and find out what they want to read. When it comes to digital, you can have a bit of fun and have a personality (even if you have a so called professional business). Customers love to get to know the brand, the ideologies and the people behind the practice. Customers also love to be involved. So if you need some advice on what they want to see, all you need to do is ask. You can do a general shout-out via your social media channels, or you can message direclty the top fans for information. Also, trust and pay attention to the analytics. Take a look at what posts are getting the most views and which posts people seem to be avoiding, this will show you which topics your audience prefers giving you more ideas on how to write for them. Use all of that information to better your content and approach to writing online content.
It only takes a bit of creativity and imagination to keep your brand and content relevant. Trends change and so must you in order to keep your customers as engaged listeners.