Incorporate News into your Content Strategy
Incorporating news into your content strategy is an awesome way to create valuable assets that engage. By definition, news is novel, informative, and constantly surfacing.
Covering news on behalf of your business is less difficult than you may think. Here are three things to know about folding news events into your company’s content development.
Identify News
News is novel information that might be of interest to someone else. If you think that's a pretty wide net to cast, you’re right. And that is perhaps the most brilliant thing about news — it’s constantly appearing everywhere.
Keep your eyes and ears open. Look at what’s happening around your industry.
It may be a fresh survey, a quote from an expert that makes your ears prick up, or an event that happens with consequences for your industry. Become alive to those things that catch your attention. If it’s of professional interest to you, it’s of interest to someone else somewhere.
Record News
Becoming hyper aware of what’s happening around you is the first step to covering news. The next (and perhaps most important) step is capturing that information. You can’t cover what you don’t remember.
The simplest way of capturing news is to get into the habit of recording the things you read, see, and hear. It may be at an event you’re attending, on the screen in front of you, or in a video clip you just stumbled upon.
Write it down, take a photo, excerpt a quote. Record it and recount it. And there you have the beginnings of news coverage.
Now, you need to share it.
Respond Flexibly
Use your nugget of information to kickstart a conversation. Look for opportunities to weave the information into your content schedule. Perhaps there’s an e-book earmarked for production or a forthcoming blog post that will benefit from the detail.
If nothing obvious jumps out, add a spot to your content planner. Always leave at least one slot open each month for new titles that arise. When responding to news, flexibility is worth its weight in gold.
Remember to take a stance on the topic in question. What's your company’s point of view? What does this news mean for your industry?
As a first move, push the information out on your social media channels. You never know what level of engagement it will receive, from likes and shares to comments of all flavors.
Among the commentary, you might even find a great candidate to interview for that blog post on the topic you now have scheduled in your content planner.
Start Covering News
When you start incorporating news into your organization’s content coverage, the possibilities are endless. The next chance you get pick up your phone’s recorder, make a note, scribble down a quote.
Your content strategy is a malleable thing that should flex with the times. Start covering news now.