So Content, Huh?

Discussion from June 2013’s

Community Manager Breakfast

Compiled by Carrie Jones, Chegg

Why Content?• Engage your community with your brand

and with each other through ideas

• Humanize what you do through video,

personal thoughts, etc.

• Give credit to others and help them

leverage their thought leadership or goals

by promoting their work

• Connect people over ideas. It’s a great way

to network your community.

Where do we go for inspiration?1. Always ask how you can help your

community! What content will serve them? i.e. Founders: what is news to people who read

TC/Mashable/VentureBeat/etc. all day; Academics: what will

help them teach; Students: what will help them study faster

2. Save ideas as they come to you using

Evernote, voice notes – let ideas simmer

3. Be inspired by other communities’ content –

repurpose it for your community and make it

your own. Give the other writer credit and

connect your two communities.

Guest Blogging and CuratingSometimes you don’t want to write everything yourself… Give your

community a platform to express their thoughts.

1. Pull content from thought leaders (pro

bloggers) in your industry

2. Use partners you already have in your biz

3. Most guest blogging is absolute crap, so

coach others and give them guidance.

Even better: give them a template.

4. When users see highlighted content from a

community member, they’ll engage more,

so make sure to promote comm content!

Promoting Content• Find new ways to repurpose your content: break it

up into parts, create tutorials, share in new ways• Twitter, SlideShare, blogs, white papers, Google Hangout

topics, Flipboard magazines

• Break up your broad blog posts into niche topics

and re-post with new angles

• When RTing, using different language each time

to create a new experience

• Connect two people to a topic and introduce

them.

• Use a program like Addvocate to get other

members/employees to spread the word.

Tools of the Trade• Lynda.com: learn video, blogging, etc.

• Use news aggregators for inspiration (i.e.

Flipboard)

• Draft: a web app for multi-author writing; perfect for

guest blogging

• Eloqua: allows you to A/B test headlines, subjects

• WhichTestWon.com: tons of case studies for

email marketing, social media posts, etc.

• Reddit: a great place to go for honest feedback

• Hangouts on Air: humanize your brand

• Jing or SnagIt to create product tutorials

Get to it!• Create and curate content for others in your

community

• Giving others content is a great way to

serve them and give them more value

…So go out there and create some winning

content!