Content Creation – What’s Next When The Well Goes Dry?

Imagine for a moment you’ve launched a company blog and invited your employees to post to it, but the initial energy has worn away so getting people to create new content is becoming increasingly more difficult. Even with a new shiny content strategy, everyone is struggling when it comes to articulating your company’s point of view and coming up with topics that are both relevant and original. I’m sure that’s never happened to any of you, but just in case you know someone who has had this experience, here is a simple way to turn the situation around.

The first order of business is to create a recurring meeting and invite several members from each division to attend. I say several members from each division because, in our experience, everyone in your company has a different perspective and something unique to say. Depending on the number of employees, you’ll want to invite different ones each time to cycle eventually through the entire staff.

The sole purpose of the meeting should be to get together and discuss the topics you and your employees believe to be most relevant to the personas that represent your prospects and customers.

I realize that meetings have a bad rap as time-wasters where people talk about what needs to be done rather than doing it, and in a lot of cases, I agree. In this case, however, leadership’s willingness to commit time to a recurring meeting on this topic will send a clear and powerful signal that consistent content creation is of value and a top priority.

You’ll need to lay some ground rules. Number one is that participants must come to the table prepared (articles, posts, news items, etc.); things they think would be helpful to your prospects and current customers. They also need to be prepared to discuss what they brought, why your audience should care, and what the audience could do with the information. Your job is to assure your team that whatever they bring to the table will be met with respect and curiosity. Be sure to explain that the goal is to build up and expand upon each other’s ideas, not to tear them down.

Keep this meeting loose, if you can. In fact, you might consider holding, at least, the inaugural meeting at an informal venue outside the office. You don’t have to go that way but getting out of the office does help the team gel around the goal and strengthens the spirit of collaboration.

I also recommend you make an in-stone commitment to having this meeting regularly, meaning no less than every other week. Weekly is better, but whatever interval you choose should work as long as it enables the meeting to become part of the natural rhythm of doing business.

Each meeting should require each attendee to share a topic/idea for 1-3 minutes in the following format:

1. Present topic (idea, article, video, etc…)
2. Which persona is it intended for and why should they care?
3. What is your point of view?

Then, marvel at the many unexpected benefits of carving out time to bring your team together to talk about what matters. Since you and other staff members will have the opportunity to hear and add to each other’s thinking, everyone’s point of view will be automatically enhanced and expanded. If you set it upright, everyone in the company, from maintenance to customer service, to production, to accounting, will be willing to share unique and valuable experiences and perspectives and confidence will soar.

In addition to boosting the confidence of these employees, meetings can provide you with the ability to redirect contributors who might otherwise run amok and say things that aren’t necessarily constructive or appropriate. You’ll also be able to catch and gently correct trains of thought that might be off the mark or brand.

In the process, you’ll be bringing everything you have been talking about in the company meeting — strategy, mission, vision and values, etc. – to life for your staff, empowering them to help you move the company forward.

By getting everyone together and focusing on your personas and what is relevant to them, you are also enabling people to imagine the world of your prospects and clients. To walk a mile in the shoes of that third-generation owner or that owner’s children whom will one day take over the reins, for instance.

Together, you’ll ideate and write and learn what you know, while finding out what you don’t know but should! The result is that rather than residing on single pages of separate books, your staff will be contributing consistently to a series of chapters in one book, representing one company – yours.

The artist Pablo Picasso once said,

What you are doing with these meetings is creating a regular interval during which time inspiration can find you and your team working, together so it can provide the flow of ideas needed to make sure your well of content never runs dry again.