{"id":6445,"date":"2017-07-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-08T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mention.com\/blog\/?p=6445"},"modified":"2024-07-29T15:36:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T15:36:58","slug":"monitoring-content-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mention.com\/en\/blog\/monitoring-content-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Come Up with Better Content Ideas with Media Monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, the dreaded blank page, the taunting blink of the cursor!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a marketer, one of your greatest challenges is to continuously come up with great content that resonates with your audience \u2014 whether you\u2019re writing blog posts, email campaigns and newsletter copy, marketing page messages, or social media updates. When you feel like your main job is to always be producing new content, it\u2019s easy to forget to stop and listen to the people for whom you\u2019re creating it.
\nYou might be wondering, \u201cHow does this help me?\u201d Well, we\u2019ll get there.
\nGetting to know and understand your audience is the best way to connect with them. What problems do do they face? What topics, questions, people, and products do they find interesting? How do their thoughts and opinions relate to your marketing and business goals?
\nThe key to creating successful content is to be relevant and engaging \u2014 and one of the most powerful ways to do that is to be helpful and provide value. This kind of giving mentality<\/a> works to build the trust and relationships you\u2019ll need to attract, convince, convert, and retain your community and customers.
\nMedia monitoring<\/a> gives you the ability to gain insight into how to identify that value. People-watching or keeping your ears perked up in a crowd is a well-known tactic for gaining creative writing inspiration \u2014 and media monitoring is much the same way. You get to learn about people and what makes them tick, on their terms, and then use that intelligence to get creative, reach more people, and build deeper relationships.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Media monitoring is like people-watching. Use that as inspiration for content. – @lethargarian”]<\/p>\n

Here are three ways to use media monitoring to come up with successful content ideas that make an impact.<\/p>\n

Monitor keywords for topic ideas that will help your readers succeed<\/h2>\n

[Tweet “Monitor general keywords to discover new trends in your industry. – @lethargarian”]<\/p>\n

Make the content unique<\/h3>\n

Get to know your audience by monitoring general keywords and then deducing specific trends of interest. Set up alerts for key terms, topics, and hashtags that are in line with your brand and industry with tools like Mention. Or do manual searches on social media channels like Twitter and tools like BuzzSumo<\/a>.
\nBy tracking broader terms like \u201cemail marketing\u201d and \u201clifecycle email,\u201d we\u2019ve discovered that people are hungry for guidance through best practices and tips. That gives us a choice to play into that trend or differentiate ourselves from the crowd by diving deeper into topics, with more specific treatments as well as concrete, real-life examples.
\nFor instance, we noticed a recent uptick in interest around deliverability and spam filtering, but saw most of the content provided vague tips. So we published a post walking through specific steps to keep your emails out of the spam folder<\/a>.
\n\"monitoring
\nSocial content-sharing forums and news sites, where community members can vote on articles and posts \u2014 like GrowthHackers, Inbound, Hacker News, and Quibb \u2014 not only reveal what people find interesting, but also have a built-in distribution network. Monitor trends in relevant topics and then use that networking power.
\n\"content
\nBy using this approach to track the most popular email marketing content, we saw that people wanted templates and blueprints that they could then adapt and use. So we came up with some blog posts that provided copy templates for different types of emails. (Now depending on the month, sites like GrowthHackers and Inbound are among the top 5 largest drivers of traffic to our blog.)<\/p>\n

Key takeaway:<\/strong> Use keyword and topic monitoring to identify trends and opportunities to stand out in a crowd.<\/p>\n

Uncover specific problems by listening to what people are saying<\/h2>\n

With keyword monitoring, you get a sense of the forest of what people are interested in. But when you start paying attention to what specific people, community members, customers, and influencers are saying \u2014 not just sharing and upvoting \u2014 you get a sense of the trees, the specific questions and issues people are facing.
\nPeople pose questions in forums and social media and chances are, if a few folks have spoken up about something, there are many others wondering and working through the same issues.<\/p>\n

Here are 3 quick ways to listen in a more targeted way:<\/h3>\n

1. Pay attention and respond to direct questions.<\/h4>\n

This is probably an obvious tactic, but just remember not to undervalue when people reach out to you. Here\u2019s a question, unrelated to our product, from a Twitter follower, regarding a new tool from Gmail.
\n\"monitoring
\nThat sparked an internal discussion about trying the tool ourselves and seeing if we could come up with interesting insights to share.<\/p>\n

2. Curate groups and lists of experts and influencers.<\/h4>\n

Find out what experts and practitioners are going through and listen to them talking shop. This is a great way to gain focus and efficiency in your media monitoring.
\n\"twitter
\nFor instance, I created a list of awesome email marketers and learn about industry-relevant news, events, issues, and informed opinions about problems and trends.<\/p>\n

3. Tap into people\u2019s emotions.<\/h4>\n

On social sharing and monitoring tools, you can search and filter by sentiment or whether people are expressing generally positive or negative opinions. These tools aren\u2019t perfect, but can give you a lot of insight into when people have strong feelings about something.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Monitoring sentiment gives you insight into how strongly people feel. – @lethargarian”]<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample Twitter search of the hashtag topic #emailmarketing, in English, expressing negative sentiment:
\n\"monitoring
\nWith this tactic, we\u2019ve been able to learn more about how people often feel frustrated with email marketing, both on the receiving and sending end, because things don\u2019t work the way they\u2019re supposed to. There\u2019s a gulf that people experience in how the care that gets put into building products and businesses often doesn\u2019t extend to how email is treated. This inspired one of our most popular posts about how email is actually part of the user experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Key takeaway:<\/strong> Make your listening targeted and efficient by paying attention to particular audience members, experts, and strong emotions.<\/p>\n

\"mention<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Talk to people, plain and simple.<\/h2>\n

Just as product managers must get out there and talk to users and customers to do their job well, so should marketers. Your product is your content and copy, and talking to your audience is the best way to get feedback and new ideas.
\nA great opening into a conversation with people is when they share your content. In the optimal case, say thanks and express gratitude, but don\u2019t just stop there. Be proactive about continuing the conversation. Here\u2019s a more content\/product-focused interchange: where the reply back to a \u201cThanks for sharing!\u201d message paves the way to introduce our newsletter:<\/p>\n

[Tweet “When people share your content, continue the conversation and get feedback. – @lethargarian”]<\/p>\n

\"twitter
\nMore importantly: ask questions based on their initial tweet or around the content they\u2019ve just shared. It\u2019s a real opportunity to learn from others, increase understanding, and prompt creative ideas.
\n\"twitter
\nA tip: don\u2019t just track your Twitter handle for content shares. Remember to set up alerts for brand names without an @ symbol. According to Mention, \u201c30.72% of tweets containing company names don\u2019t include their Twitter handle.\u201d And that becomes even more important when you\u2019re looking to start a conversation with someone who has shared your content but didn\u2019t directly include an \u201c@\u201c mention.
\nFinally, email is one of the best ways to talk with people because it\u2019s a more personal, one-to-one communication channel. This is easy to overlook, given common (but not best!) practices like having no-reply email addresses or treating messages as a one-way, outbound street. Whether it\u2019s with your newsletter, feature announcements, or lifecycle emails: keep the conversation going, because this is your core audience.<\/p>\n

Key takeaway:<\/strong> Use media monitoring to not just start but also develop an ongoing conversation by asking questions.<\/p>\n

Putting this into action<\/h2>\n