Vijay S PaulWhat are the qualities of great content? Do you have a definite answer?
Maybe yes, maybe not. The answer depends on the platform and the medium.
The way you write an email is different from how you write a blog post. This is again different from the copy for your Instagram post.
When it comes to understanding the best way to write content for any platform, it is necessary to understand how people use that specific platform.
When it comes to understanding the best way to write content for any platform, it is necessary to understand how people use that specific platform. Click To TweetObviously, memes on LinkedIn and whitepaper research surveys on Facebook aren’t exactly the ideal scenarios.
A common mistake most people make is posting the same content on all platforms without a clear understanding of how this content should be curated for each.
Understanding the Qualities of Great Content
So what exactly defines a certain piece of content or copy as great?
Based on the medium, the following content factors determine a content to be meager or great.
- Content format
- Tone
- Length
- Context
- Nature (educational, informative, entertaining, etc.)
- Relevance to the audience
Building on this, we have created a list below for what the qualities of a great copy/content should be on various mediums. The 8 mediums are:
- Website Content
- Blog
- Email Promo
- Email Newsletter
- LinkedIn Post
- Twitter Copy
- Facebook Copy
- Instagram Copy
Website Content
Qualities of great website content are:
- Informative
- Clear
- Consistent – it provides consistent information and maintains brand consistency
- Accessible – it is accessible for the majority, if not all, types of people with disabilities
- Structured – the information architecture of the content is strong
- Formatted – it is well-formatted for easy read
- Accurate
- SEO Optimized
- Original
Blog
Qualities of great blog content can be listed as:
- Engaging
- Informative
- Storyline – it is presented in a story manner with a clear flow of ideas
- Detailed
- Organized – it is well organized into headings, sub-headings, visual content, etc.
- Visual – it is visual in nature with graphs, charts, infographics, images, videos, GIFs, etc.
- Formatted
- SEO Optimized
- Human – it is written for humans and not for machines that crawl for SEO
Email Promo
Qualities of great email promo content are as:
- Clear
- Concise
- High Impact
- Action-Oriented – it almost always has to provide a clear CTA (Call To Action)
- Compelling – it should provide a compelling reason to take the action mentioned
Email Newsletter
Qualities of great email newsletter content can be listed as:
- Personalized
- Impactful
- Informative
- Relevant
- Engaging
- Casual
- Actionable – there should be clear actionable items in the newsletter
LinkedIn Post
A great LinkedIn post has content that is:
- Informative
- Professional
- Personable
- Concise
- Educational
- Neutral Tone – research shows that neutral content performs better than positive or negative content
Twitter Copy
For the Twitter copy to be amazing, it usually has to be:
- Conversational
- Engaging
- Simple
- Valuable
- Concise
Facebook Copy
Qualities of a great Facebook copy are:
- Engaging
- Short – this is contextual. Most Facebook posts are short, but that doesn’t mean some long-form writing hasn’t been popular on the platform.
- Shareable
- Conversational
Instagram Copy
For Instagram copy to be great, it is usually:
- Human
- Conversational
- Engaging
- Casual
- Short
- Contextual – Content inline with recent contextual developments performs better than random content.
- Valuable
- Storytelling – Instagram is a place of stories – be it photographs, cartoons, memes, videos, etc. The copy has to reflect this.
This doesn’t mean that any great piece of content on any of these given platforms should have all of these mentioned qualities. These are just a few qualities that stand out – either individually or amongst others.
But either way, we surely hope this provides you with a starting point to begin your content strategy with.
Did we miss anything? If yes, please do let us know in the comments below.
Want to join our small but awesome community? Just drop in your email below and I’ll buzz you in.
Photo by Duman Photography on Unsplash Inspired from an article at Vertical Response
