User generated content is a new buzz phrase that has been receiving a lot of attention recently. Websites could take off in popularity when they have great user generated content, without the creators having to put much work into content creation.
What exactly is user generated content? How does it work? How would you encourage user generated content? Let us take a look.
==> What Is User Generated Content?
User generated content is any content that's generated by the user base and not by content creators of the company.
High profile examples include Wikipedia and YouTube. The staff at Wikipedia and YouTube don't spend all their time creating entries or videos. Instead, their job is to permit other people to generate content.
Other people do, and Wikipedia and YouTube benefit from it.
Lower profile examples include forums and blog comments. Again, these aren't created by the site owner, but can still draw a lot of search engine traffic.
So how does one encourage people to create more content?
==> Give Them Room to Express Something They Want to Express
It's very hard to create desire. Trying to get someone to want something they don't already naturally want is very hard.
On the other hand, giving someone an avenue to talk about things they already want to talk about can be a great shortcut to amassing a ton of user generated content.
YouTube exemplifies this principle. YouTube didn't create the desire for people to share videos, they just made that desire possible through the internet.
What do your users already want to talk about that they're not able to talk about yet?
==> Make Them Feel Like They're Part of Something
A sense of community and purpose can go a long way towards inspiring content generation.
A forum, for example, often thrives when there's a sense of people helping one another out. People are more inspired to post their success stories and help other people out in their hardships.
On the other hand, forums where there's animosity and lack of community tend to die down over time.
Wikipedia also does this really well. People feel like they're part of a larger purpose and that their time put into generating content is for a good cause.
==> Make It Fun
Don't make it feel like work to create content. Allow it to be fun.
For example, when Gmail required to have users create a video for them, they didn't make it appear to be work.
Instead, they made it sound like a contest and made all the information of the video they wanted very bright. They were given tons of submissions and had a stellar video to use at the end of the day.
If you're not employing user generated content with your web strategy, you're really missing out. This content produced can bring plenty of visitors to your site with rarely any additional cost.
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Showing posts with label Web Content Sites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Content Sites. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Basic Principles of Good Content Structure
==> The Introduction
The very first sentence of any article should be thoroughly crafted to capture attention. People should quickly be able to grasp what the idea of the article is just by simply reading the first sentence.
Also, the first paragraph need to elaborate on the first sentence and get people excited about reading the rest of the content.
==> Make Them Aware What to Expect
Before jumping into the meat of the content, let them know what to expect in the rest of the content.
This is as detailed as "we'll cover X, Y and Z now" to as simple as "here's how to do X."
The most important thing is to prepare people to get whatever you are going to discuss.
==> Main Talking Issues
Move through each of your talking points, one at a time.
Be sure to separate your content into easily digestible pieces. Don't simply write a 500-word article from top to bottom, but break it up into subsections and subheads.
Also ensure that you word as much of your content in "what's in it for you" terms. Users should think that you are speaking directly to them.
It often helps to present various solutions, angles or opinions in your main points. If you're speaking about investing for example, give them a few different strategies they could use.
Provide examples. The more theoretical your article is, the less likely they are to remember it a few weeks from now. Examples help take something that's theoretical and transform it into something more tangible. People are much more likely to remember an example demonstrating a principle than just the theory.
==> The Conclusion
The last part of your article is the conclusion. The conclusion should sum up everything you just wrote about, plus probably reiterate the most crucial point.
Occasionally it's best to leave the user with a concrete piece of action they can immediate take at the end of the conclusion. Other times, the conclusion just wraps up the whole article very well.
If you are promoting a product, the conclusion is where you want to put your call to action. Notify people exactly what it is you want them to do. Be assertive and be sure to recap all the primary benefits to them taking action now rather than later.
These are the principal parts of excellent content structure. Following this structure will help give your users a very good sense of what to anticipate from your article and keep them interested as they're reading. It'll also make it simpler for you to arrange your thinking into a coherent chronological order before you start writing.
Other sites on Websites Content
The very first sentence of any article should be thoroughly crafted to capture attention. People should quickly be able to grasp what the idea of the article is just by simply reading the first sentence.
Also, the first paragraph need to elaborate on the first sentence and get people excited about reading the rest of the content.
==> Make Them Aware What to Expect
Before jumping into the meat of the content, let them know what to expect in the rest of the content.
This is as detailed as "we'll cover X, Y and Z now" to as simple as "here's how to do X."
The most important thing is to prepare people to get whatever you are going to discuss.
==> Main Talking Issues
Move through each of your talking points, one at a time.
Be sure to separate your content into easily digestible pieces. Don't simply write a 500-word article from top to bottom, but break it up into subsections and subheads.
Also ensure that you word as much of your content in "what's in it for you" terms. Users should think that you are speaking directly to them.
It often helps to present various solutions, angles or opinions in your main points. If you're speaking about investing for example, give them a few different strategies they could use.
Provide examples. The more theoretical your article is, the less likely they are to remember it a few weeks from now. Examples help take something that's theoretical and transform it into something more tangible. People are much more likely to remember an example demonstrating a principle than just the theory.
==> The Conclusion
The last part of your article is the conclusion. The conclusion should sum up everything you just wrote about, plus probably reiterate the most crucial point.
Occasionally it's best to leave the user with a concrete piece of action they can immediate take at the end of the conclusion. Other times, the conclusion just wraps up the whole article very well.
If you are promoting a product, the conclusion is where you want to put your call to action. Notify people exactly what it is you want them to do. Be assertive and be sure to recap all the primary benefits to them taking action now rather than later.
These are the principal parts of excellent content structure. Following this structure will help give your users a very good sense of what to anticipate from your article and keep them interested as they're reading. It'll also make it simpler for you to arrange your thinking into a coherent chronological order before you start writing.
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