Want your content to be shared, liked and retweeted?

I’m running an event as part of Social Media Week London with my colleague Sue Keogh from Sookio. We’ve worked together at Yahoo!, Aol and the DCSF and between us we’ve worked for the BBC, ITV and Bauer Media (formerly Emap).

We’ll be running a workshop aimed at  brand managers, journalists and bloggers with practical advice on:

• writing enticing blog titles
• crafting headlines that people will want to share
• getting your tweets retweeted
• social media dos and don’ts
• what words works on Facebook and other platforms
• working with text and images
• avoiding typos and double entendres.

Find all the information on our page: Sweet Retweets (or How to Write For Social Media).

Hope to see you on Tuesday 8 February at 3pm at AOL UK, Shropshire House, 11-20 Capper Street, WC1E 6JA.

*Please note this event is now sold out*

Great content provokes a reaction. The most-shared videos are:

• Funny
• Shocking
• Sexy
• Spectacular
• Random
• Illuminating
• Uplifting
• Celebrity-orientated
• Topical
• Controversial

Think how you felt when you saw the OMG Cat – if you laughed out loud or even ROFLOLd then you know what I’m talking about.

Users are already telling you what they like

People now expect these amazing pieces of content from you regularly. And what’s more, they expect you to post it to them, because goddammit, they haven’t got time to go out and find it.

Think of all the places you can find users. They’ve got a Facebook account, they use apps on their iPhone, they even link their Twitter to their FourSquare so it’s not as though they’re hiding from you.

Now you know where they are, spend a bit of time looking at the information users share. People spend ages clicking on tiny thumbs-up buttons to tell you (and all their friends) what they like. Maybe they’ve joined a fan page on Facebook for a programme on TV or a particular radio station. They might be on Twitter shouting about how fantastic their local takeaway was last night. Go, look and listen.

Recommendations are crucial for success

Pay more attention to recommendations: users are five times more likely to respond to a marketing message if they see their friend ‘likes’ the brand.

How could you encourage users to like you? What’s in it for them? Could you offer a discount voucher to people who have mentioned you?

Context is the new buzzword

Once you’ve found some people who are open about their likes you can now start to plan what content you’ll deliver to them and where. Users like content that is:

• Relevant
• New
• Useful

and it needs to be:

• in a place
• at a time

that they find useful. Otherwise they view your marketing message as an interruption.

Examples. With one last cat

E.g. I tell Facebook that I’m married. I like cats and I recently ran a half-marathon.

A hint on my husband’s profile to buy me a personalised cat running shirt two weeks before my birthday would be fantastic. Especially using the picture I posted on my wall of my cat licking his nose.

If you sell football shirts, personalise your Facebook adverts to display in team colours – showing blue ones to Chelsea and Everton supporters and red ones to Manchester United fans.

Search Twitter for your brand or product name and use Social Mention to see if you’re being talked about in blogs. Then all you have to do is join in the conversation. Finding your fans in their online space shows you’re listening. And by offering relevant content (e.g. offers, news, videos), you’re showing that you understand their needs, which is a great basis for a relationship.

I wrote this post after attending Social media advertising: Ads, apps & incentives – some of the information in this post was noted down during presentations, in particular:

Sarah Wood at Unruly Media
Chase McMichael at Infinigraph

Consider that badly-spelled communication risks your reputation and could damage your brand. The packages below have been put together after working with graphic and web designers over several years and identifying the common elements that need a professional writer.

We’ll look over newsletters, write your Google ads, talk you through social media and more:

Newsletter package

• Get your newsletters proofread by a professional
• Same-day service
• Just £25/letter and re-writes from £20*/letter (*introductory offer)
• Money-back guarantee.

Graphic designer package

• Writing for brochures / flyers / POS / catalogues / vouchers
• Tone of voice writing and development
• Proofreading.

Website designer package

Web writing:

• Writing for web
• SEO copy
• Google advert writing
• Tone of voice writing and development
• Social media advice
• Blog writing.

Technical and more:

• Content curation
• Homepage management
• Web copy training delivered to client.

Tailor-made packages made to suit. Prices vary depending on volume of work needed. Flexible payment terms or retainer an option. Send enquiry using the contact form.

Haha – gotcha!

No, seriously, why can’t we resist a question? Is ‘finding out’ what pushes humans ever forward – millions of years of evolution boiling down to a tiny click on a tiny question mark?

Or are we just interested in finding out what Britney did next?

This post was originally published by Christine on Sun, 01/20/2008