At AHA, we spend a great deal of time working with clients to create interesting, informative and engaging content. It isn’t about what the client organization wants to say as much as it is about what their community or stakeholder group is interested in hearing, discussing, and learning.

For some organizations, this is a big paradigm shift. It can, in fact, be culture shifting. There is a perception with the fast-paced, 24/7 cycle of user-generated content online, that organizations have lost control of their “message.” When in fact, the social media era (in my humble opinion) should be seen as providing the most opportunity to let your target market (and others you haven’t even considered) in on the conversation about your brand, organization, and product or services.

Before social media, people went home, went to parties and pubs, went to coffee shops and restaurants, conferences and networking events and discussed what they were thinking with their family, friends, and colleagues. If they were frustrated or angry enough, they might send a letter to an organization, to the newspaper or to a consumer investigative reporter. And until you got a call from the media or happened to stand behind someone talking about you at the local coffee shop… you had no idea what was being said about your brand.

Today, you can engage. You can respectfully and authentically step forward and correct errors, help to clarify miscommunication and to participate in conversations with the people that use your services or product, that are a part of your community, and that support your brand.

There are great opportunities to build strong relationships, to share interesting aspects of who the people behind the brand are, what life is like in your organization, why you do the work that you do, etc. And, should your brand face an issue or crisis, you will be glad that you did. Most people understand that mistakes happen, that errors can be made – we just want to know how you are going to make it right, that you see what went wrong and why and what you will do to ensure it won’t happen again.

One of the most valuable (and effective tools) an organization has is to create interesting content. Monday’s post will talk about more about what the steps are to creating compelling content that will be watched or read, and shared.