The best organizational blogs are those that present a good mix of perspectives and fresh ideas. One way that many organizations create a diversity of voices on their blog is by inviting guest bloggers to contribute content. However, it’s highly likely your organization already possesses many individuals that are highly capable of contributing their interesting points of view.
Getting our entire team to contribute content helped establish our organization as a thought leader and even broadened the reach of our content through each team member’s social channels. However, as the person in charge of running an organization’s content marketing or blog, it can be challenging to engage your entire team fully in the content creation process — especially those who work outside of the marketing team or communications department.
There are many ways you can get your entire team involved in contributing to your organization’s content marketing efforts without overwhelming them or scaring them off. Here are a few ways we turned our entire team into content creators.
1. Offer topic ideas
Sometimes the hardest part about writing is deciding what to write. Most of your team members who aren’t regular writers will find the process much easier if you can brainstorm and assign topic ideas to them beforehand. Try one of these simple brainstorming techniques to get your creativity flowing. The more detailed you can be with the post idea you present, the easier it will be for your team member to write his or her perspective.
2. Try a listicle
Listicles rank second on the list of most shareable types of content, according to research by BuzzSumo. When the time comes to get your team to contribute content, you can use the rising popularity of the “listicle” to your advantage. Lists provide an automated structure for your team’s posts and can cut down the total amount of writing for them.
3. Ask for visuals instead of words
The average person leaves a website after just 10-20 seconds. Attention spans are decreasing, and it can be a challenge to capture your audience’s attention long enough to read an entire blog post.
For those members on your team who would rather contribute visual content to your blog than words, this could provide a good alternative to your regular text-heavy posts. As marketers, we tend to rely heavily on stock images to accompany our content so if you have a team member that can produce high-quality original photography or illustrations, perhaps you can attract new audiences by using these resources. This technique can even help your visual creators build their personal brands.
4. Share personal profiles
Behind-the-scenes content can help humanize your brand and give your audience a real look at the people who work hard every day at your organization. Instead of having your team members continually come up with fresh topics, come up with interview-style posts to sprinkle into your content marketing. This is a great way to put individual members of your organization in the spotlight and highlight their successes.
5. Repurpose existing content
Chances are your entire team is already creating content on a regular basis in the form of presentations, videos, interviews, etc. Are there ways you can transform that content into blog post form? By repurposing existing content, your team members can still be the owners or authors of the posts. Then, you can simply help lead them with the layout of the article.
Putting in the extra effort to ensure your entire team can contribute their ideas to your blog can go a long way regarding the overall success of your content marketing campaign. Fresh perspectives and expanded topics can even help you uncover new audiences and potential new clients.
Do you have any tips for encouraging your entire team to contribute content? Share with us in the comments and be sure to check out GAIN to automate your content creation workflow and better collaborate with your entire team
