A Step by Step Guide to Create a Winning Content Strategy

Coming up with an effective content strategy is not as complicated as you might think. Once you identify your audience and your message, your topics will flow naturally.

Let’s go through the process step by step:

Identify Your Target Audience/Market

It’s great to think of your target audience as a broad market and then categorize it a bit further. The more specific you get now, the better you’ll be at strategizing engaging ideas and developing content that vibes with your audience.

For example, my broad audience would be

• People interested in Online Reputation Management and Personal Branding

But if I were to break it down further, I might come up with:

• Young professionals and entrepreneurs who understand the value of a personal brand but don’t really know what they need to do

• Recent college grads without a strong career direction who are trying to develop Identity Capital along the way and showcase themselves positively online

• The Connected Generation -- 18-34 year olds who are active on social media, particularly Twitter

→ Identify your target audience, both broadly and specifically

Develop Your Message

Think about your industry, your target audience, and the types of things that you want to write about generally. If you have a clear sense of these aspects, your message should start to naturally take shape on its own.

Here’s what I came up with:

Managing your online reputation and developing a personal brand are critical because they influence your ability to get a job, get clients, and even get a date. ORM and Personal Branding are not as difficult as many think. I will be as transparent and engaging as possible in an effort to help the Connected Generation learn how to effectively promote themselves online.

→ Develop a rough message for your content

What Are Some Topics You’d Like to Cover?

Now that you know your audience and your message, you might already be thinking of some of the articles you want to write. Write those ideas down! The last thing you want is to have some awesome topics and then forget them in 3 weeks when you’re looking for something to write.

Need some help coming up with effective topics?

• Write down some trends or innovations in your industry that are making you excited, worried, angry, etc. Look up some news articles and see if there are a couple you’d like to comment on or take in a new direction.

• Write down some challenges in your industry. This is the birth of the How-to blog post.

  • The idea for this 28 day challenge came about because I wrote down the problem, “people don’t know how to tackle ORM themselves”

• Think about a personal experience recently that you can write about. Did you just close a particularly challenging deal? If so, what lessons can you teach others about it? Did you just give a great speech somewhere? How did you prepare for it and what advice would you give to others?

An effective tool throughout this process is BuzzSumo. You can look up a topic to see what kinds of content are being shared the most in your industry. You can use that knowledge to inspire your own content and come up with brand new content altogether.

→ Come up with a list of at least 8-10 ideas to fuel you going forward.

Activity Recap

→ Identify your target audience, both broadly and specifically

→ Develop a rough message for your content

→ Come up with a list of at least 8-10 ideas to fuel you going forward.

Optimize Your Social Media Profiles for Maximum SEO Value

If you haven’t built yourself a foundational strategy yet, then go back to Day 1 and do that first.

Assuming you’ve already done that, it’s now time to register your social profiles and fully optimize them to be search engine-friendly. We’re going to set things up properly today so that you can reap the benefits in the months to come.

I already wrote a great post on the 6 Steps to Optimize Any Social Profile for Maximum SEO Value, and I’m going to distill that information here. As a general rule, try to FILL EVERYTHING OUT.

→ Follow the following steps for every social media profile in your link diagram.

1. Reserve Your Custom URL

Search engines look to the URL as a sign of what the online property is all about. If you want my Twitter profile to rank well for my name, it’s wise to have your name in the URL slug.

Protip #1: Don’t get twitter.com/rickross if people know you by Richard Ross.

Protip #2: You may run into trouble getting the exact name you want. That’s okay -- the same thing happened to me. You just have to get creative. Ryan_erskine and erskineryan were also taken and I’m not one to add numbers at the end of my username. I finally decided on ryanerskineNY.

2. Put Your Name in the Title

This is self-explanatory. Put your name — or whatever you’re trying to rank for in search results — in the title. Search engines still take title tags seriously and I would be wasting a useful spot for my name if I didn’t put ‘Ryan Erskine’ here.

3. Upload Your Profile Picture

Some social profiles automatically rename your picture -- as Twitter does here -- but it’s worth remembering to always rename your image’s file name as the full keyword.

It’s a good habit to get into because some places will use your file name, and why not give those images the best chance of rising up in your image search results?

4. Input Your Location

Take your public location (from Day 1) and use it consistently across your social profiles.

Yes, there will be overlap when people search your name from different locations, but the city you input will be an important factor for search engines that tailor their results according to geography.

5. Link to a Property In Your Campaign

Refer to your link diagram if you need to remember where things are going. My diagram is super simple -- I’m just going to link everything back to my main website, ryanerskine.com.

6. Write a Unique Bio Using Your Name

Your bio is another prime opportunity for you to use your full name or keyword. You might be able to use your whole bio in a place like Google+, but you’re going to need to have smaller variations for ones like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Branding Note: This is a good point to mention a caveat. You have to pick your battles when working in the world of SEO. Sometimes what’s best for SEO isn’t best for the online branding campaign. In this case, I couldn’t fit my name because it was more important for me to have the association with my company and my author profiles. These 6 steps are all important defaults but they are just that — defaults. Feel free to break the rules when it makes sense for your campaign. 

7. Fill in as Much as You Can

The more sections you fill out in your social profiles the more likely they are to rank for your name in search results. We cannot perfectly control search results, but we can put things heavily in our favor. Flesh out your profiles as much as you can and remember to naturally use your name in the third person.

Activity Recap:

→ Follow the above 7 steps for each social profile in your campaign.

→ Add the username, email, and password for each profile to your excel document.

→ Protip: Make yourself a BrandYourself account. The online tool is a useful way to track your links as they move up and down in search results. The free account will allow you to track 3 web properties and the premium version will allow you to track unlimited links (among other things).

Putting the Finishing Touches on Your Website (Tips & Tricks)

 

Now is the time to go through your web pages and find opportunities for improvement. 

Here are a few places to start:

Menu Bar

If you want to add a “Press” page or “Services” page, now is the time to add them. Perhaps you want to add a page with your resume on it or add a link to your CV. What about a media page to showcase some recent rich media? Make sure you’ve checked your SEO plugin for each page and you have everything filled out appropriately.

Sidebar

Take a look at your sidebar. Would viewers benefit from a small reminder on the side of who you are? Or perhaps you’d like to add the RSS Feed from a publication that suits your brand. Try one or two of the following options.

Add Image & Mini Bio

You can add a small image to the sidebar with a mini bio or call to action underneath so that people remember you while they're perusing your site.

If you’re using Wordpress, here’s how you’ll do that:

1. If you already uploaded your picture, click Media, click on the photo you want to use, and copy the File URL on the side.

   • If not, Go to Media → Add New and add your image first. (Remember to rename the filename before uploading!)

2. Then Go to Appearance → Widgets and add a Text Box to the sidebar.

3. In the Text Box, add this HTML code: <img src="File URL" alt="Your Name" style="width:100%;height=228"> and replace File URL with the URL you copied and Your Name with your actual name. (You may need to tinker with the width, depending on your theme.)

4. Hit Save.

5. Then add another Text Box underneath, and write something quick about yourself.

   • Example: Hey there! Want to improve your online presence? Contact me here.

6. Hit Save.

If you’re using Squarespace, here’s how you’ll do that:

1. Hover over the sidebar and click edit.
2. Hover to the left of the sidebar until you get that sideways-facing droplet that indicates you can add a block.
3. Add an image block to add your photo or a text block for text. That's it! 

Showcase Your Recent Blog Posts

This is a great way to keep people on your site longer. If they see a headline that catches their eye, that's a huge win!

Here's how to do that in Wordpress:

1. Go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Recent Posts widget to the sidebar.
2. Decide how many posts you want to show, and that's it!

In Squarespace, all you have to do is hover over in the sidebar and add one of the "summary" blocks and choose Blog as the item you want to display.

Add a Publication’s RSS Feed

Consider adding an RSS feed if there is a publication that suits your brand well. It will look like this.

Here's how you do it in Wordpress:

1. First Google the publication + RSS Feed. Example: “Forbes RSS Feed”

2. Find the URL of the RSS Feed you want. If I love Forbes Entrepreneurs, I might take that one. (http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/index.xml)

3. In your site, go to Appearance → Widgets and add an RSS

4. Enter the URL, give the RSS Feed a Title, and decide how many Entries you want it to show.

5. Hit Save.

If you’re using Squarespace, just add the social RSS block and follow these steps here.

Add Your Twitter Feed

Embedding your Twitter Feed is another great option because it showcases your latest tweets and viewers may be more inclined to visit you there as well. (If you don’t have a Twitter yet, don’t fret -- you can always revisit this tomorrow after you've built your Social Media Foundation).

If you're using Wordpress, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Twitter Dropdown Menu on the top right corner and hit Settings

2. Click Widgets → Create New

3. Make any changes you’d like -- or keep it as is -- and click Create Widget

4. Copy the entire generated HTML code

5. In your site, go to Appearance → Widgets and add a Text Box to the sidebar.

6. In the Text Box, paste the HTML code

7. Hit Save.

In Squarespace, this is as easy as double-clicking in the sidebar and adding your Twitter. 

NOTE: It’s generally a good idea to have some links or social icons in your sidebar pointing to your other web properties. I’m intentionally skipping this now. We’ll go through that process tomorrow after we’ve built your entire Social Media Foundation.

Footer

You don’t need a copyright symbol on your website to save your work from copyright infringement -- at least not since the Copyright Act of 1976 -- but it’s still a good idea. Not everyone knows this fact and you don’t want people thinking your material is up for grabs when it’s not.

I’d suggest a simple copyright statement that looks like this:

Copyright © 2015 Ryan Erskine

If your theme allows it, hyperlink your name in the footer to your website. It’s a best practice for SEO and can improve the user experience.

You can add your address, social icons, or anything else down there too! Don't be scared.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great way to keep track of your website’s traffic, pageviews, bounce rate, and other important stats. Once you start tracking, you’ll always be able to look back to track growth over time. 

If you're using Wordpress:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics and add your website.
2. Verify your site by copying the code into the Google Analytics section in your All-In-One SEO plugin and you should be good to go.

If you’re using Squarespace, then you’ll benefit from their built-in metrics. But you can also add Google Analytics by following this quick step-by-step guide. 

Images

Are there any other images that you’d like to use on your website? Are there any places where another image would fit well? Images are a great way to break up lengthy paragraphs and liven up those big walls of text.

User Experience

The arm of SEO is long, but it bends toward user experience. You want to ensure that your website is easy to navigate for a random user and that you can access all your pages in just one or two clicks. If you make things difficult for users, search engines will take notice.

See if there are ways you can make the most important pathways easier to access for users. For example:

1. Could you make it easier for people to contact you?
2. Can people find your social profiles easily?
3. Can users learn more about you with a simple click?

Activity Recap

→ Try to add another page or two to your site and add them to your menu bar. Services? Work? Media? Press? Videos? Images?

→ Add one or two items to your sidebar to improve the user experience. You can choose your recent posts, an RSS feed, some social links, your latest tweets, an image, call to action, etc.

→ See if you can add something useful to your footer -- perhaps a copyright statement, links to your social profiles, or something else entirely.

→ Link your website to Google Analytics.

→ Add some more images throughout your site to make it more engaging.

→ See if you can improve the user experience in any way. 

The Anatomy of a SEO-Friendly Biography

Today’s a writing day!

Materials you’ll need:

• Your selling pitch from Day 1
• Your updated resume or CV
• Any honors or awards from Day 2
• Pictures from Day 2

Here are your assignment parameters (and why):

• One biographical narrative about yourself, at least 500 words

  • Why: A beefy bio filled with lots of relevant information about you is great for branding purposes and is more likely to rank in search results than a thin paragraph of garbage. Who would want that for their brand anyway?

• Must be written in the third-person

  • Why: Google doesn’t know who “I” am but they sure as hell know your first and last name.

• The reader must be able to sense your unique selling pitch you built on Day 1

  • Why: You spent time crafting a smart brand for yourself. Do it justice here.

• Make sure to include relevant and pertinent details that support your narrative

  • Why: These details are tangible ways to contextualize your experience for the reader.

How to begin?

There are a few different paths you can take for your biographical narrative. You can use a natural timeline that explains where you started and how you eventually got to where you are today. You can start with the present and then flashback to the start of your career and build your way back up to the present.

Or you can use my favorite, which is starting with the present and going backward in time. This one is especially useful if you’re really having trouble getting started, because it’s a natural way to think about what you’re doing now and how you’ve gotten there. Check out my own bio to see what I'm talking about.

Some classic problems:

• I’m transitioning into a new industry.

Start off by highlighting your experience. Being transparent about your new direction might help you find the opportunity you’re looking for.

Example:

John Smith is an entrepreneur with 10 years of experience in real estate development who is actively seeking collegiate teaching positions in the tri-state area. Smith is ready to help the next generation of real estate leaders make their mark.

• I’m a recent college graduate and haven’t started a career yet.

You can still frame yourself positively by highlighting your assets and being transparent about your current direction.

Example:

Jane Doe is a recent college graduate with a BA from Terrific University. With a passion for neurology and biochemistry, Jane is actively seeking...

• I’m still a college student and haven’t graduated yet.

Determine your assets and showcase them here. Be transparent about your direction if you have one.

Example:

John Smith is a current college student at Amazing College where he majors in Government with a specialization in International Politics. Smith is actively seeking a financial consulting position in the Greater New York City area. He is a proud member of the Varsity Tennis team, was recently voted co-captain for his senior year and is set to graduate with honors in 3025...

→ Spend a few minutes gathering the materials you’ll need.

→ Plan out the main bullet points you want to hit.

→ Write your bio. Go back and edit.

Picking Out Photos

Once you’re done, pick out a few pictures of yourself that you’d like to put on your website and social profiles. Try to find at least 2-3.

Optimizing Images:

1. Rename your picture’s file name to include your keyword.

   • If your photo is named IMG913523.jpg, then you’re wasting a perfectly good place to put your name. Google checks the file name for ranking purposes, so change it to something relevant like John Smith Graduation 2015.jpg or Jane Doe New York City.jpg.

2. Optimize the image size

   • If you upload tons of really big images, it can slow down your site for viewers. This is bad for the user’s experience and Google takes it into account as a ranking factor. Do yourself a favor and make your images as small as you can while still retaining the quality you desire.

3. Rename the Title

   • Once you’ve uploaded the image to your website, remember to rename the title to something appropriate, preferably with your keyword in it.

4. Rename the Alt Text

   • The Alt Text is the text that Google actually reads to figure out what your picture is about when it finds it on your website. Throw your keyword in here too: e.g., John Smith at Amazing College Graduation 2015

→ Optimize your photos.

→ When you’re done, copy and paste your bio into your website’s bio page. Insert the optimized images and you’re good to go.

Activity Recap:

→ Spend a few minutes gathering the materials you’ll need (selling pitch from Day 1, updated resume or CV, honors or awards from Day 2, and pictures from Day 2.)

→ Plan out the main bullet points you want to hit and the narrative path you want to take.

→ Write your bio. Go back and edit.

→ Pick out some photos and optimize them.

→ When you’re done, copy and paste your bio into your website’s bio page. Insert the optimized images and you’re good to go!

How to Build a Personal Website, Step-by-Step

Website day! Hooray!

It's a choose-your-adventure kind of day -- read the Squarespace and Wordpress sections below and decide which route you want to take.

 

Squarespace

If you don’t have any website skills, I highly recommend using Squarespace. It’s what I use for my personal site, and for just $8 a month, it makes website building and maintenance incredibly easy. All their templates are beautiful and built for SEO.

If that sounds good to you, then get started! If you want to follow a step-by-step process, go to the Squarespace “Getting Started” page. If you get stuck, you can always go to the Squarespace’s support page or hit me up with any questions you may have.

Wordpress

If you don’t want to spend any money, I’d recommend going with Wordpress. Over 50% of website are now built with it and yours can be too.

It can be sometimes be frustrating unless you have experience doing it. But if you want to try, Robert Mening has created a wonderful step-by-step guide to building your own website. 

No point in re-inventing the wheel. He’ll walk you through EVERYTHING -- how to choose and buy your domain name, how to get web hosting for your site, and how to set everything up.

Things to remember:

1. Get a domain with your primary keyword (e.g. YourName.com)

2. At the very least, you’ll want to build an “About” page, a “Blog” page, and a “Contact” page. Adding other pages will be great in the coming weeks, but don’t worry about it now — we’re on a tight schedule and want to move efficiently.

3. When you get to the plugins section, get an SEO plugin, such as Yoast or All-In-One SEO (I like All-In-One). You can also spring for the Contact Form if that’s something you’d like to have on your website.

4. Start a document where you can keep important info and logins for your campaign. Trust me -- it’ll be nice to have down the line when you need to find what registrar you used or what hosting you’re on. I like using Google Sheets, which is just like Excel.

Here’s what it might look like after you’re done:

Activity Recap

→ Follow the steps now for Wordpress or Squarespace.

→ Start a document where you can write your campaign information down

How To Do Your Own Personal Brand Research

Dig, Dig, Dig....

Get out your shovels because Day 2 is all about digging! Today we’re locating all the important info that we’ll need to create a powerful personal brand that highlights your best assets. We need headshots and photographs, an up-to-date resume, honors, awards, previous publications, etc.

Pictures

Have you had any professional pictures or headshots taken recently? If not, maybe you can find a great one from that conference or event a couple years ago. Now is the time to find the photos that you’ll want to use to represent your personal brand on your website and social profiles.

We don’t want your primary picture to be from 20 years ago, but it can be helpful to find some photos from important times in your career. That way, you can weave them into your bio as you discuss your past experience.

If you cannot find an appropriate headshot, do not settle for something mediocre. Your headshot is the logo of your personal brand.

That smartphone in your pocket means you are just a few minutes away from an excellent picture. Or go find a photographer online and get some real photos taken. 

→ Spend time now collecting all the important photos so you know what you have to work with.

Resume:

Do you have an up-to-date resume? Or perhaps an older CV that you can update and tweak with a little work? Having this handy will make it much easier to fill out your website and social profiles.

→ Spend time finding your most recent resume or CV and update it as if you were looking for a new job (and maybe you are!) This may take a while but it is WORTH IT.

Rich Media Content:

Do you have any video or audio content? Perhaps you spoke somewhere, gave a lecture, or were featured in a company video?

What about a slideshow or a great slide deck that you use to give presentations?

If you have it, rich media like this can be a big edge in the success of your campaign. But if you don’t have it, don’t fret! There is still plenty you can do with a video profile and we’ll be creating engaging slideshows over the next few weeks.

→ Get together your video content, audio content, slideshows, and any other rich media that you’d like to promote as part of your personal brand.

Publications:

Have you published anything? Maybe you’ve written a book or two. Or perhaps you’ve published a paper for a journal, an article for a newspaper, or an editorial for some other publication. If you’re just getting out of college, maybe you have a senior thesis or some other final paper worth sharing.

If you only have something in paper form, feel free to scan it (or take a photo of it on your camera) and upload it to your computer.

If you don’t have anything, that’s okay too. You’re going to be creating 4 pieces of awesome written content over the next month that you’ll be proud to share.

→ Collect the important publications you’ve written that you’d like to promote.

Honors, Awards, Compliments:

If you’ve been following these steps, (nice work!) then you should already have an updated resume or CV that showcases some of your best honors.

If you haven’t been, then it’s time to start brainstorming!

Did you graduate from school with honors? Did you make Dean’s List? Did you write an exceptional thesis?

Next, think about your career. Sometimes honors are super tangible and obvious, and other times you need to put them into concrete terms. For example, I’ve helped grow BrandYourself’s VIP division from an exciting idea into one of the company’s fastest growing and most profitable departments. I don’t have an award for this, but it’s impressive and now I’ve made it tangible for a stranger to understand.

Explore your sports, hobbies, and any philanthropic interests for similar bits of complimentary material.

Having this material on-hand will make your life super easy when you write your bio and make your website. As a bonus, you’ll have all the necessary stats to sell yourself effectively in a 30-second elevator pitch.

→ Write down your most important honors, awards, and compliments. Think about your education, career, and extracurriculars.

Activity Recap:

→ Spend time now collecting all the important photos so you know what you have to work with.

→ Spend time finding your most recent resume or CV and update it as if you were looking for a new job (and maybe you are!) This may take a while but it is WORTH IT.

→ Get together your video content, audio content, slideshows, and any other rich media that you’d like to promote as part of your personal brand.

→ Collect the important publications you’ve written that you’d like to promote.

→ Write down your most important honors, awards, and compliments. Think about your education, career, and extracurriculars.