Build it and someone might come……..one day…….perhaps

All Kevin Costner had to do to get the Chicago Black Sox to come and play in a field on his farm in the middle of nowhere (well, Iowa actually, but let’s not split hairs) in the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ was to build the stadium. In this instance, a sound albeit out of this world, piece of advice.

Recently I’ve noticed this train of thought coming up regularly enough to be concerning when discussing content and content creation for social media with organisations. The general enthusiasm and in some cases, actual content creation is happening but there is a notable lack of strategy in what to do with said content - the common belief being that if you put it on a social media channel, people will flock to it. But if it’s not the right content and no one knows it’s there, that’s a pretty big ask.

Social media, when used purposefully, with a long-term strategy and measurable objectives behind it, can be (and more often than not is) a very valuable asset. What is missing in many of the conversations’ organisations are having is the understanding that you need to think beyond just building a Facebook page. In short, you need to make people want to come to you and you need to want them to come back.

Listen: What does your audience what to know about, view, talk about, learn?;

Track: Where are they? Because that’s where you need to be; and

Understand: How are they consuming information? Video? Written? Podcasts?

Once you have done all of these things you can create effective content that you can use to seed out to your audience where they are and drive them to where you want them to be or your own 'field of dreams'.

You can view the case study version of the content creation here http://ow.ly/NgDy