50 Content Ideas that Create Buzz

I've been reading The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited by Emanuel Rosen, courtesy of Rosen himself. The book is a treasure trove of ideas and case studies on the way people share information and how ideas spread. 

Rather than give you a review of the book, which you can find on Amazon, I thought it would be useful to share some ideas and take aways that apply to content creation - the new business of marketing and communications.

1. Simplify someone's life. That's the appeal of Tim Ferriss, for example.

2. Evoke strong emotions about the art of marketing. Guy Kawasaki does that in person and across social media.

3. Be visual. That's very much the appeal with David Armano's work.

4. Tell a story in a way that is concrete and personal. An example of that is my tale of the Broad Street Run.

5. Share good ideas. Gary Vaynerchuk hits the spot on that one.

6. Make small talk in micro-interactions gain big impact. Chris Brogan didn't get 61,000+ followers on Twitter because he was talking to himself.

7. Create a new list. People like to see where things stack against each other. By far, the most popular list is still the one Todd And created and AdAge took over.

8. Give away secrets and tips to help others become more effective. Adam Singer is very generous in that regard.

9. Teach something new or from a new perspective. Kathy Sierra has been able to do that on a topic that for many was considered not quite appealing.

10. Inspire people to take action and change the world. Entrepreneur Chris Guilleabeau is a good example of that.

11. Be opinionated about future trends. That's a trait that is best exemplified by Robert Scoble.

12. Track and review future trends from behind the scenes. A good guide is Louis Gray.

13. Create a conversation around a social object. That's what Hugh MacLeod does. 

14. Become the expert hub on a subject matter. The go to person for all things WordPress is Lorelle van Fossen.

15. Write something that is unexpected or unusual, yet still applies to your business. The best example of that is Harry Joiner.

16. Analyze and interpret the current trends in your field or industry. A good example is Barry Ritholtz.

17. Start a new series that is unique to your site. Liz Strauss has a regular appointment with her readers every Tuesday evening.

18. Add value in exchange for attention. One of the best ways to add value to others is by being generous with links to other good content. That has been my direction on Twitter lately.

19. Take a strong position on a news story. Tom Peters is known for commenting on current events.

20. Make a list of tips for your customers that are useful and easy to implement, like this one.

21. Answer questions from customers or readers. Better yet, if the questions keep coming up in the comments to previous articles or writing. Fred Wilson picks up on that well.

22. Provide practical, actionable tips that can improve lives. Leo Babauta is known for this kind of content creation.

23. Take customers or readers on a day in the life of your product or service. This might be the new testimonial.

24. Teach people how to do something that will make them look good. Tom Kuhlman is a master in all things eLearning.

25. Host guest posts from up and coming writers. They will help spread the word in new networks.

26. Provide summaries or digests of complex information. In this time-starved world, pre-digested material is a welcome respite.

27. Write a style guide or book of best practices for your industry or line of business.

28. Add video. Dan Pink, a really good writer, decided to share travel tips on video.

29. Start a meme. They are really popular online, and they tend to spread very fast.

30. Share lessons learned and calls to action. Brian Clark is a good source of content marketing best practices.

31. Ask really good questions. This one is more effective after you've created a bit of a following already.

32. Allow your readers to participate in content creation. Crowd-sourcing or collaboration really work.

33. Start or talk about a cause. Rick Becker provides good examples.

34. Provide widgets or containers for other people's content.

35. Become a content aggregator.

36. Provide daily tips. Daily Blog Tips is such a hub.

37. Write in depth, thought-provoking content. Sometimes this is the opposite of where everyone else is going. For that, you might want to check out Kevin Kelley.

38. Keep a strong stream of innovative formats coming.

39. Build interest by creating scarcity. Stephen Denny has a post that expands on this point.

40. Talk up an outrageous idea.

41. Use compelling charts and graphics.

42. Interpret and lead the news in your field or industry. For new ways of doing PR, for example, you may take a look at t he work of Brian Solis.

43. Package your most compelling content so that it becomes portable in other formats. eBooks, but also think mobile.

44. Cut across different cultures. Martina Zavagno does just that at Adverblog.

45. Explain the factoids behind your product or company history.

46. Give people a tutorial on how to do something new. Steve Rubel does it often.

47. Address the concerns of your community, readership or customer base openly.

48. Find a new angle to a story.

49. Change the way people talk about an industry event.

50. Think and thus write differently about your own content.

[photos by Roby Ferrari from Modena]

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Zoe]

Such a valuable list, especially because you've managed to sum up the essence of these different bloggers in a sentence and a link -- pushes us all to view our own content from a fresh perspective.

[Gayle]

Great post! Could it perhaps be summarize by saying "be of service?"

[scott peters]

Thank you for the terrific compilation, we have been involved with buzz marketing conversations recently that have been very fruitful. This is a very nice wrap around to that conversation.

Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to you.

[Charles Gupton]

Amazing list of great ideas. Actually working through the ideas and implementing them in one's own voice rather than mimicking the original is difficult but worthwhile work.

When one is overwhelmed,fresh ideas or perspectives are challenging to come by.

Thanks for all the research you put into this post!

[Adam Singer]

You know I love buzz! Thanks for sharing this Valeria, I really liked how you gave lots of samples/examples. Tons of links to explore, I will be doing just that.

[Stephen Denny]

It isn't buzz until they say it is. You can't launch a viral video any more than you can say you just finished production on an Oscar winning film. Odd things make the rounds. You often see people with tens - or hundreds - of thousands of followers, and yet they talk of little but their cats and other weighty matters.

I'm unconvinced that anyone can identify what makes a message viral - we clearly see successes in the rear view mirror, but we can’t put the causal factors together before the fact and "create" one. If that were the case, we wouldn't bemoan the state of advertising after the Super Bowl every year, would we? Brilliant creatives plus unlimited budgets should equal the best work done anywhere - but it doesn't.

I think we all do our best when we write what we know. If those who care enough about it to tell others do a good enough job, our messages get out.

Thanks for the post - good thought starter!

[Rich Becker]

Valeria,

Excellent starter list; and thank you for the inclusion.

There is one thing people might need to know about starting or talking about causes. They have to believe in them with a certain degree of conviction and compassion. Any buzz that occurs as a result of writing about a cause is simply result of direct outcomes (buzz is not an outcome in and of itself).

What I love about this list, though, is that many of the people included use varied degrees of almost everything on the list. Yet, they become a little better known as the result of one or two that makes them unique.

Much to think about.

All my best,
Rich

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Zoe - there's a reason why those bloggers have such following - it's clear what they stand for.

@Gayle - I like that: "be of service"

@Scott - thank you for your kind offer.

@Charles - we tend to take what we think ourselves for granted, too. That's why it's hard to share in your own voice, I think.

@Adam - you're a master of buzz :) Whenever I share one of your posts I get a lot of clicks.

@Stephen - Indeed it is a mix of things and it's hard to predict which ones will work. However, we know that when we put passion and our own twist, it shines through.

@Rich - you must have read my mind as I was responding to Stephen's comment :) Others respond to our degree of involvement with a subject matter. We cannot touch someone else unless we're touched ourselves.

[Wayne Liew]

Thanks for publishing a huge list of content ideas. I like how you provide links to bloggers who applied the content ideas and had led to the success of their respective blogs. Sometimes it is good for bloggers to look at successful blogs and learn about what they are doing right that got them where they are now. Nice post.

[Reza Tehranian]

Hey Valeria,

Great list, thanks for the list. I've been looking for ideas for my next blog, now I think I have a few...:)

Keep it coming!

[Emanuel Rosen]

Valeria,

Thanks! There's a line in the book Cold Mountain which I use as an epigraph for one of the chapters: “A song went around from fiddler to fiddler and each one added something and took something away”. Reminded me of that. You added some great ideas.

Thanks again,

Emanuel

[Mawuna KOUTONIN]

This List is impressive. Thanks for sharing it.
I owned the first version of Emmanuel Rosen book, and that's a Great book, worth your time.

Buzz is not a self starter. You Need to give something to get it. More important than the Attention you Get, Is "what you do with the Attention people invest in you or lend to you".

We are now in the attention economy, in which the new scarcest resource isn’t ideas, capital or talent, but attention itself. Today’s businesses are headed for disaster-unless they learn to manage this critical yet finite resource, or fail!

Businesses which will succeed in this attention economy are the ones that take customers attention as a LOAN or managed as an investment” NOT something they “paid for“. Companies that fully understand and appreciate those distinctions will be the winners in the future.

That why our advice to business people is not anymore for "What get attention", BUT to go for "What Keep attention".

There is a great article about this matter You should read. It's titled "Go for 'what keeps attention' ... Not 'what gets attention'" http://linkcrafter.com/blog/?p=348

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Wayne - those are the very same blogs I look up to. Although many use a combination of the ideas I presented, they exemplify a few best. Glad you enjoyed the post.

@Reza - glad to be of service.

@Emanuel - I've enjoyed your book tremendously. Got a few ideas out of it. Can you tell? Thank you for sending it. Keep up the great work.

@Mawuna - indeed, we give first. You hit it spot on with your comment about attention. Thank you also for your patience while we worked out the links to your post. It was very generous of you to share.

[Barry]

@Gayle, @Valeria – we use "be of use".
Partly because we're a (user-centric) design firm, but also because, in this day and age, we're not above building relationships with clients on as many levels as we can.

I saw Massimo Vignelli (living legend) speak at the Design Thinker's conference here in Toronto over the winter and he told a charming story about a client relationship that starting out with bits but turned into calls from a shoe-store for advice on which shoes to choose.

I'll pimp my brain.

[Marion Conway]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful list. I'll be providing the link at my Social Networking for Nonprofits workshops - and retweeting ImpactMax's tweet with the link.

Marion
http://marionconwaynonprofitconsultant.blogspot.com

[atul chatterjee]

I was going off this blog when I saw the title of this post. It intrigued me, had I seen the number 10 or 15 I would skipped it. But 50!!
Sure enough reading it has given me more than value for my time. I've marked it. Thanks a lot.

[Rebekah Donaldson]

The good news: this list is helpful in brainstorming content ideas.

The bad news: there's no excuse for not having a rocking editorial calendar for our blog, newsletter, optimized press releases, and web content.

MarketingSherpa led a January webinar called “How to Create High Conversion Lead Generation Content.” They recommended:

* Create relevant content for each stage of the sales cycle
* Use content to help sales have a valid business reason for follow-up

-- Red

p.s. In Writing Web Content for the Online Reader, my colleague Cris Rominger gives key facts about how people read online and tells why some web content is particularly effective. http://www.b2bcommunications.com/writing-web-content

In Website Content Tips, she offers six techniques to ensure your web content grabs the eye and gets attention.
http://www.b2bcommunications.com/website-content-tips