Content Generation Strategy: Leveraging Your Peers

Successful content generation is rarely a one-man show…form a strategy to leverage your peers!

To be truly successful, a company’s content generation strategy has to extend beyond the walls of the marketing department. In fact, the strategy has to be baked into the organization’s DNA, with everyone from the CEO on down committed to supporting it through content generation or some other fashion. Without that support, it’s virtually impossible to create a content factory or execute an effective content marketing program.

That’s not to say that anyone outside of your team is going to be as engaged in content marketing as you are. Nor is it an attempt to pass the buck. You ultimately bear the responsibility for the program’s success or failure. What it does mean, however, is that you’re going to need the time and expertise of others within your company to create great content that’s going to resonate with your target audience.

How exactly your colleagues will support your content marketing efforts will vary depending on who they are, what areas of expertise they possess, and how receptive they are to idea. Their involvement can take many different forms, including:

• Writing articles or blog posts, i.e., content creation
• Serving as subject matter experts who get interviewed for content creation and/or review content to ensure its accuracy
• Suggesting topics that future content should cover
• Distributing and promoting content
• Following up as needed to any inquiries (e.g., comments) about the content

Whenever you engage your colleagues to help with creating content, the trick is to customize your approach so that you’re capitalizing on their strengths while leveraging their time effectively. Here are some tips for doing that:

• Identify your organization’s thought leaders. Which employees display the innovative ideas, strong opinions, and knowledge and expertise to take a stand on an issue? Those are the people you should primarily focus on recruiting to help you with content generation and promotion.

• Identify your allies. Not everyone is great at (or wants to) write white papers and technical reports, but some people really enjoy activities like blogging or sharing content through social media. Find these people in your organization and encourage them to contribute and/or share content. Help guide their efforts by providing resources and instruction.

• Respect your colleagues’ time. While it’s often not realistic to ask your CEO or other executives to create content for you, you can set up interviews with them and facilitate content creation on their behalf. Whether a freelance writer interviews them or you do, the idea is to pick their brain and then ghostwrite content for them. Since the process is much easier for the executives, they’re much more inclined to participate.

• Bring out their competitive side. A little healthy competition can go a long way toward getting people to participate in your content marketing efforts. For example, if you have a corporate blog, consider sharing metrics on a regular basis so that people can compare how their posts stack up against their peers’. Bragging rights are a surprisingly effective motivator.

No matter what tactics you use, it’s important to have a strategy around leveraging your colleagues for content generation. After all, they’re often the ones who are best in touch with your customers and your industry, and have valuable insights and ideas that you need to capture.