Chapter 10

Creating Great Messages

In This Chapter

Balancing meaning with buzz

Tracking trends that can carry your message

Organizing your team’s approach

Keeping it fresh

Maintaining a sense of humor

In the online marketplace of ideas that is social media, there is no end to information. As social networks become more popular, they are becoming flooded with status updates, pictures, videos, press releases, white papers, and blog posts. Some of this content may be valuable, but valuable content can often be boring — and in this age of distraction, boring content gets lost in the shuffle.

The most compelling content online goes beyond being informative, helpful, thought-provoking, or entertaining. It’s done in a way that builds relationships with people.

As the saying goes, “nobody cares about what you know until they know how much you care.” The more you level with people as a friend instead of a “guru,” the more they’ll trust you and care about what you stand for.

The number-one reason why people respond to someone’s online content isn’t because of that person’s popularity (although that helps). It’s because of trust. I follow people for a variety of reasons, but the main reason I keep coming back to my favorites is because they deliver top-notch content that I know I can trust.

In this chapter, I show you how to transform ordinary, easily ignored messages into messages that can attract raving fans — no matter what venue you engage in online.