These five ways to formulate content can help you generate social engagement among your readers, which in turn can earn links and boost SEO.
Creating link-worthy, share-worthy content at scale can be a major challenge, even for content marketing teams where writing, editing, and Web production talent isn’t in short supply. Using standard content templates for the articles can speed up your production cycle; here are five that I’ve seen perform very well:
1. The List (or “Listicle” – a Concatenation of the Terms “Article” and “List”).
Because users have short attentions and tend to scan, not read content pages, the listicle remains an effective way to convey information. A typical listicle will consist of a short introduction defining the topic, followed by a list of items (typically between five and 10) that are often hyperlinked to the sources cited, and then a short “outro” or closing paragraph. Listicles travel very well on social networks, which is why you see so many of them today. While listicles are no substitute for content that attacks a problem in depth, they’re a great way to highlight and point users to any long-format content you’ve created on a given topic. The biggest problem with the listicle-style article is oversaturation. To make your listicle stand out, use humor, surprise, and perhaps an unconventional approach, but don’t try to be too cute (“10 Things You Never Knew About Listicles,” etc.).
