Content Creation: If you force it, it's probably shit

Millennials are not naturally gifted with the whole forward-thinking thing. We get nose piercings spontaneously and tell tattoo artists to surprise us. Millennials like to live life by the seat of their pants. It makes them feel alive. Also they really enjoy that expression and also (and most relevantly), they’re generally terrible at planning.

Most times, that’s fine. Sure, the symbolic meaning of our new tattoo may turn out to be ‘shame’ (oops), but generally speaking, no massive stuff ups. Nothing to hide from the parental unit or all future employers. So no need to change, right?

Alas, when it comes to the workplace, things are a little bit different. Particularly, if you’re in the business (like us) of marketing. Please forgive the seemingly tenuous segue – it’ll all link up, promise!

We might be from a generation of spontaneous, free-spirited fairy children, but even we understand the importance of having an in-depth plan guiding what the business is doing on the content creation front.

Digital media is a heavy time investment and it’s not something that can be done on the fly. Content must be timely and relate to your monthly focus. You can’t just post whatever shit you come up with on the commute in. Well, you could - but good luck finding anyone who wants to read it.

The Raiders has a yearly plan and a super-detailed monthly plan that includes overall goals and what we’re doing to address them. There’s a spreadsheet. A SPREADSHEET, people. Content is planned down to the minutia: what’s posted, the content of the post, when it’s posted, where, why it’s posted, why at that particular time, what objective the post is seeking to achieve, how it relates back to our goals, what the content ate for breakf— okay maybe not that.  But, seriously, lots of detail. This detail isn’t just fanaticism on our part (well, it might be fanaticism on Trav’s part). It means that we are always prepared, we always know what we’re doing and we’re always kicking to the right goal posts.

At the same time, you can’t be too rigid. Flexibility is almost as important as a plan. You need to respond to what’s happening in the real world as it happens. There’s no point waiting three weeks to post about Ryan Lochte’s Olympic-sized lie. In three weeks, no one will care (at lease Lochte hopes).

The world moves quickly online, and you need to keep up with it. Genuinely relevant content needs to be put up in a timely fashion. If you leave it, you’re almost certainly leaving it too late. Find inspiration in your business - take moments and interactions from customers, vendors, and employees or from your personal life and incorporate them into your posts where relevant and relatable. Pop culture and current affairs are sexy, but don’t underestimate the comfortable warm and fuzzies that everyday happenings can give, and use these to flavour your content too. A plan + relevant current affairs/relatable anecdotes = content with depth AND nuance.

Plans also need to be responsive to your business. Some months will be slow. Some will be busy. It’s an organic cycle, and you need to learn the special and particular way your business rolls across the months. It’ll be slightly different for everyone. Don’t force it. Don’t post things just to have posted something. As mum used to say, if you have nothing to say, don’t say anything at all. Or something like that. Close enough. The point is, you might be a bit quiet some months, but just having a solid content plan will also help you through the slower months and ensure that your business doesn’t accidentally fall into radio silence and off the radar when things quieten down. Content creation is hard. You need to have a plan. You need do know what you’re doing. If you don’t - don’t stress. We do. Get in touch and we’ll show you the marketing planning ropes.