Write Bold

Putting Your Content to Work

Content Creation

The Power of Negative Reviews

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Today I came across the results of a survey that showed “four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online.” On the reverse side, the results also indicate that “positive information has a similar effect on decision making, with 87 percent of consumers agreeing a favorable review has confirmed their decision to purchase.”

So what does this mean for your content?

Given our always-on-mentality and ready access to just about everything, it’s doubtful that 100% of the people who read your stuff will like it without qualification. At some point, you will get a negative review of how you’ve written about something. So if the survey says that 80% of people change their minds based on a negative review, you can’t push the negatives aside.

You have to respond to the (valid) comments and make the improvements that enhance your work. The key is to remember that many times, how you respond to the negative can have as great, if not greater, impact than the positive. But when it comes to changing our words, it can be difficult.

Words Hurt

Writers like their words, their sentences, and their paragraphs. Otherwise, in theory, they wouldn’t have written them. Few things seem to stir people up as quickly as a critique of their writing. I know. When I first started writing, my initial reaction to someone questioning my writing was to shoot first and ask questions later.

Over time, I’ve gotten much better at actually hearing/reading the comments and thinking through the intent. Most times the comments aren’t about me personally and do improve the overall quality of my work. But it’s not easy to fight the protective instinct that pops up. For the writers I know, their work is personal to them, and it takes time and experience to separate critiques of our work as being critiques of us individually.

Embracing the Negative

Since we know the risks of trying to be all things to all people, it’s worth remembering that negative critiques may mean you’re doing something right. It’s just a matter of putting it into context. If you’re consistently getting told that your explanations are confusing that’s clearly a negative to avoid. But if your feedback shows that people feel strongly one way or another about an idea you put forth, that’s a different, and not unwelcome, outcome.

Even though it may not feel good taking the hit, it’s worth remembering that the negative can be just as good for you as the positive. Keep that in mind the next time you debate watering down your prose to appeal to the masses.

 

3 Rules to Help You Wrap Up Your Content Projects

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The first time I went through a bank drive thru after I got my driver’s license, I drove off with little cylinder you use to send stuff through the air chute. I didn’t notice it until I got to my next stop. Mortified, I drove back to the same drive thru lane to return it. The teller assured me that it happened more than often than you might think. Luckily I’ve never done it again.

In the rush of doing something new for the very first time, I got caught up in the moment. The same things happens when we decide to tackle a new project. Whether it’s something small, like a white paper, or something big, like a business-wide content strategy, we tend to rush our fences.

Fascinated By the New and Shiny

In our pursuit of the new and shiny, it’s very easy to not finish projects. In the bank drive thru I was so focused on things like making sure my mirrors didn’t hit the poles and endorsing the check that I didn’t complete the task. Instead I raced off to the next thing on my list only to discover I needed to go back.

Every time we have to go back to a project because we rushed off to something new is wasted time. We lose the time going back. We lose the time we could be working on our next project. And perhaps most importantly, we lose that sense of satisfaction that something that was checked off the list now isn’t.

Questioning Our Skills

Why does satisfaction matter? Because it’s connected to the way we view our ability. If we’re constantly redoing things, it starts to have a impact. We go from believing in our skills, to questioning our competency. This slide gets in the way of getting things done efficiently, particularly when it comes to creating content. When you’re dealing with a medium that’s built a word at a time, the last thing you want to happen is the belief you need to question every keystroke.

Embrace the Challenge

We will still make mistakes, and we can’t obsess over every detail forever. But these three rules will help you avoid driving off with plastic cylinders AND having to return to projects you thought finished:

  • Make a checklist. While written checklists are preferable, at minimum, establish a set of routines for each time of project that you follow every time. The initial process of creating the checklist may be tedious and time consuming, but it will prevent many headaches in the future.
  • Finish what you start. It’s tempting to hand off projects or tell yourself that you’ll get back to something. You’ll probably regret both. Unless you’re required to give the project to someone else, see things through to the end. The same applies for getting back to something later. Try to keep your work flow as consistent as possible.
  • Look around one last time. Before hitting publish, send, or doing anything permanent, take the time to look through things one last time. You’ll be surprised at the things you catch on that last pass.

It will always seem like the project list only seems to grow. However, we can avoid re-adding things to the list if we don’t get distracted and really finish things instead of pushing them aside.

Does Your Content Miss Making the Point?

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Assessing Available Resources

With every new writing project, we’re (in theory) trying to solve a problem or answer a question. However, when we start a project it can be easy to get the process confused with the point of the project, as Joshua Porter captures quite nicely:

Solve the problem and you’re successful no matter what process you’ve been using. The point is hard to talk about because it’s precisely what’s different in your project…it’s the thing that you probably don’t have a process for yet (if you did it wouldn’t be a problem!). It’s probably something that you can’t talk about anyway because you don’t want other people to solve it before you (e.g. your competitors).

So we instead talk about the process. But we should remember not to confuse the two. The process is valuable…it’s a framework for deciding what to do next…and we need that…but it’s merely a means to an end. Don’t let process details distract you from solving your problem in any way possible.

The Process is important…but it’s not the Point.

Start As We Mean to Go

I always recommend that writers and businesses get really clear about their intent at the beginning. It seems like a no brainer, but I’m always amazed at how many people skip this step and fail to answer three important questions:

  1. What’s the question want to answer or the problem you want to solve?
  2. Do  you want to establish authority and expertise?
  3. How much time do you really have?

The Big Idea

Without fail, the first question draws people up short. They often believe that picking a subject was the only requirement. To create good content requires something a little more. Since we’re literally drowning in content at times, we have to make it really clear why our new content should rise to the top. And that requires answering a question or solving a problem. Nail that down and you’re 50 percent done with the prep work.

Authority and Expertise

I use this question to help content creators understand a few things like tone and even the channels they use to share their content. Depending on the industry, establishing authority varies. So understanding from the beginning if the intent is to submit the original work to a peer-reviewed journal as opposed to a post on a blog, makes a big difference about the direction and resources that will be needed. Again, the point of why one is writing matters more than the process. So the process can’t get in the way of making the point.

Honest About Time

Writing takes time. Really good writing takes more time. If creators are honest from the beginning about the real circumstances, like time and budget, they’ll invariably end up disappointed with the results. Staying aware of time can make a huge difference in the success of a project and whether it accomplishes the big goal of answering the question or solving the problem.

So the next time a new project appears, don’t get too caught up in the process and miss the point.