5 tips for growing your content production

Did you water the plants last week? Good. And again today? Are you planning for plant watering next week? Giving them a sprinkle once in a while isn’t going to result in a blossoming rose garden. It’s the same with content.

Creating high-quality content often is really hard. It takes time, it takes organisation, it takes strong storytelling and a strong process.

These tips will help you ramp up production without sacrificing excellence.

1. Get buy-in from the outset

As a social media manager or content creator, you’ll understand the art of balancing the demands of your organisation with telling a good story. Identify potential blockers and explain how it takes experimentation to know what works for your audience.

If you have data that can plant the seed that busy, interesting digital channels equal more influence, even better.

2. Look for stories close to home AND further afield

Social media platforms are thirsty. Only a wide range of items on the calendar will keep them in bloom. Keep your eyes and ears on the ground for institutional stories and broadcast your need for content to specialist teams.

To really add value to your audience, don’t promote organisational achievements 24/7. Enter the Universe of Ideas and share anecdotes from across the sector. Abide by the 3:1 rule — tell your audience three wacky or interesting things and they’ll be more likely to listen when final year results are released.

3. Create a newsroom

Regular editorial meetings are a great way to brainstorm new ideas and decide the content calendar in advance. Inviting ‘the blockers’ to this session might also help. For more help with supercharging your content ideas, see our top tips post.

4. Engage all stakeholders at content inception

Sign-off trails are the worst and one of the biggest time sucks. Decide on a workflow and set clear boundaries and expectations with relevant teams as soon as a content idea is planted.

If everyone knows which part of the process they are key to and when their expertise is required, the chances of a video or article getting stuck in sign-off purgatory is minimised.

5. Master version control

Make sure everyone is working in the same place. The last thing you want is numerous attachments sprouting out from all parts of your organisation with comments and edits hidden in v9_a_part2_Final.doc

And if you’re really serious about scaling up digital communication channels and growing an audience, get a Content Engine!