Ever wondered how content marketers come up with ideas for content week in and week out?
The answer is, you have to keep your eyes and ears open… but sometimes you’ll have to go digging for them!
Our ideal clients are providing content ideas all the time. We just need to know where to look for them.
This blog post dives into five ways that you can go digging for content gold.
Press play to listen to the podcast episode.
Or keep reading to discover:
- What content gold is
- 5 ways to dig for content gold
- Why it’s important to remain focused on your audience and your messaging
Some may say that we should know our ideal clients so well that we know exactly what content we should create that would be helpful for them. That’s true, but even the best of us can suffer from writer/creator block from time to time, and we can’t read the minds of our audience.
The truth is, content ideas are all around us. Your ideal clients are providing you with clues and hints all the time with regard to the content that they want and need. If you know where to dig for it, then you’ll have access to a constant flow of ideas that can be repurposed into valuable content that your audience wants and needs…
It’s about ‘digging for content gold’ in the right places, and repurposing that into engaging content on topics that are helpful for your audience and that you want to be known for…
What is content gold?
It is content that our audience has generated that sparks ideas that go on to help us create our own content.
This type of content provides insight into the questions, concerns, problems and just general thoughts that our potential clients might be having – which you can take further and ‘repurpose’ into highly valuable content.
The reason we’re calling it gold is because it removes the guess work of trying to figure out what content your audience want, and not only do you end up creating exactly the right content, but you also get the chance to use exactly the right terminology and references, and all the things that’ll help your content connect even more deeply with your intended audience – because the idea came from them!
So where do you find this gold? That is the million-dollar question right!
Well, here are five places to start (and continue) digging. So put on your hard hat and let’s go dig for some content gold!
1. Groups
This could include Facebook and LinkedIn groups, as well as private membership groups, Slack and Discord communities too. It completely depends on where your audience are.
Everyone in the group is there because they share an area of interest.
If your audience is in a group, you want to be there too because that’s where you will find the questions that get asked every day. You get to see what everyone is talking about, what the hot topics are and where they need help.
So for example, is there a LinkedIn Group that is full of common and unusual questions from your potential clients?
These questions are your content gold. Answer them, provide solutions and give your audience exactly what they are looking for.
TOP TIP
Don’t just answer these questions in the group though. Use these ideas for your next blog post, podcast episode, YouTube video – perhaps as the topic for your next monthly webinar. You will start to fill your content ideas pot.
2. Twitter
This is a great platform for a snapshot of what people are talking about. You just need to know who to follow – and because you know your audience, your competitors, and your inspiration, it won’t take you long to hone in on the right accounts and topics.
Twitter topics make it easier to sift through the roughly 500 million tweets published each day to find content related to you, your clients, and your audience. Plus they will help point you in the direction of conversations that will be of the most value to you.
Don’t just look at the Tweets but look at the comments and the conversations that take place too.
Join in or just be a ‘lurker’ and start working out the content you could create related to the things people need help with.
TOP TIP
Even if you have decided that Twitter isn’t a channel that you want to focus on as a business, it doesn’t mean you can’t go there to mine content ideas.
3. Reddit
Often overlooked, Reddit is a can’t-miss resource when digging for content.
Firstly, it’s massive. It’s the 6th most visited website in the world, but it’s not just visited, it’s visited by a super engaged audience.
No matter what you want to find content ideas on, you’ll find a subreddit and that’s where you’ll find your content gold!
Seek out the subreddits that are hosting discussions on your topic, look for people sharing problems that you can solve and take inspiration from there. For more ideas and tips on this, you can read our blog Repurposing Content on Reddit.
TOP TIP
Short, generic content, or anything that is obviously marketing, won’t perform well on Reddit. It will get down-voted, which is not a good look! Post content that is in-depth, unique, well thought through and most importantly – valuable.
4. Quora
Another great place to dig for content gold is Quora. It’s a Q&A site that’s visited by more than 300+ million monthly users and the site is divided into topics, so it’s easy to find your niche.
For tips and tricks on repurposing for Quora, you can read our blog post How To Repurpose Your Blog Post on Quora.
TOP TIP
The most important part of using Quora is answering questions. That’s where you can show your value. But there are thousands of questions being asked every second, so it’s important to answer the right questions for your brand. And answer them correctly! Develop your Quora answers into a blog post, LinkedIn post, tweets, a video...etc.
5. Comment sections
Then, of course, you can’t overlook the power of comment mining on relevant platforms.
See what your audience is consuming, what they are talking about, and what they want more of in the comments sections!
So for example, if you have competitors creating great content that’s aimed at your ideal clients, all the ideas you could have ever dreamed of could be right there in the comments sections on their YouTube videos for example, or on their LinkedIn posts. People give away a lot in their comments!
Where there is good content, there will be engagement. And where there is engagement, there may just be some of the best content ideas you have ever stumbled upon – because you genuinely did not realize there was that knowledge gap in your audience, or you didn’t realize people care that much about that one thing…
Fifty comments all about the same thing...time to go record your next podcast episode!
TOP TIP
You do need to ensure it’s your audience asking the questions or making the comments and that you create content on the topics you want to be known for or be helpful with… stay on message and on brand.
In conclusion
There are five places that you can regularly visit to ensure your bank of ideas never runs dry!
Repurpose your audience’s comments, questions, queries and observations into hugely valuable, and engaging content. You’ll become so relevant they’ll literally feel like you read their mind!
If you want help repurposing your content gold, we can help! We offer fully done-for-you content repurposing services for video and audio content.