“Content is king.”
Microsoft founder Bill Gates first said it in 1996, and you may have heard it often as you’ve continued on your career path.
Even as videos and podcasts increasingly command our attention, content remains king in any domain. Content still:
steers all we do online, whether it be informing an audience, promoting a product or service, or growing our reach through the search engines.
reinforces our brand as credible, knowledgeable and connected to a want or a need.
drives the main points of our digital contact (e.g. website, email, social media); striking visuals still need content that compels.
Today, however, King Content must be even more strategic and focused according to its context and platform in a vast, expanding cyberworld. We now write to algorithms, search engines and AI while we’re looking to connect with other people within a content infinity.
Satisfying technology’s demands of our content while still writing like humans to other humans is a taller order, but it’s also one we can achieve. Principles of good writing will remain regardless of where the digital rocket might take us.
The following are ways we can ensure our writing stays strong and relevant as we balance communication and technology.
Know your result. Each time you prepare to post content, understand the central “why” behind it. Why is the content meaningful, and why will your audience care?
Break up text. Long, thick paragraphs stress the mind even before it decides to engage any content. They often repel readers from the writing. Use short paragraphs and callouts or indentations to convey key points.
Keep sentences crisp. Good writing balances longer and shorter sentences. An average sentence length should be around 12-15 words most of the time. If you can make it even fewer without losing information or substance, that’s all the better.
Write with verifiable substance. Bad or incomplete information will run rampant where content is not properly gathered and vetted. Writing with earnest, accurate sourcing and research will deepen your appeal and credibility with both your audience and the search engines.
Writing for Information Gain
If you’re the expert behind a message, establish how and why you are a worthy resource. If you’re sharing information from beyond your purview, recognize who and what can be trusted enough for you to put your name by it. Keep records of your sources and citations and include them with your posted content when it’s called for.
Beyond making you a person or business that engenders trust, reinforcing your legitimacy will keep you in step with today’s concept of “information gain.” Engines such as Google and ChatGPT now apply greater methods to measure the value our content adds to the web.
In satisfying technology’s idea of information gain, we cannot simply repurpose or repackage old content or content that is already established by others online. To be noticed and read, our content must strive to be newly informative and fresh in perspective. It needs to offer data and insight that enhance readers’ knowledge and understanding.
By adapting to current technology while observing writing principles that will never age, we can provide content that achieves information gain with credence, precision and eloquence.
And that, in turn, can help elevate us to higher rankings, increasing engagement and, above all, growing audience faith.