Bringing the 🔥
Every few weeks for the last several months, I've run a Viral Data Stories workshop for a team wanting to tell stories with their data. It's usually a marketing team, they're often sitting on a treasure chest of data they don't know how to use, and they know whose attention they want. But putting the pieces together into a good story eludes them. If you thought this was just you, it isn't.
Maybe it's because I'm recovering from knee surgery this week and I'm feeling a little punchy, but this week I'm going to drop some truth bombs about your content.
💣 #1: Your best practices aren't
There is nothing on the internet worse than the bland pablum pushed out by so-called experts, speaking on behalf of themselves and the B2B companies they sponsor, telling you what to do.
This content is everywhere. Like these gems I came across just scrolling my LinkedIn feed for ten minutes, no special searches required:
- How to CRUSH Your Next Job Interview
- Your Career Is a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder
- How to Make AI Work for You: Easy & Free Methods!
Links redacted to protect the guilty, but you don't need the links to know exactly how insightful, interesting, or useful these are. Not very.
Fun data game you can play at home: Look at the LinkedIn feeds of the first 50 B2B companies you think of. Click on their most recent content link. For each article or video, jot down 1) whether the content represents a unique data set or relates a unique personal experience or 2) whether it could be published just as easily by someone else in the same space.
Here's what it looks like when I do this exercise:
If you can swap in another expert, company, or content creator, and they could publish the exact same thing, you both suck.
💣 #2: Just remove the gate already
If there's anything worse than generic content, it's gated generic content. If you're asking for my email address, and certainly if you're asking me for money, your stuff better be worth the payoff.
Look, I am happy to pay for great content. I have paid subscriptions to numerous media outlets and newsletters because I value the journalism those outlets provide. I also leave tips if I'm only an occasional reader. I understand that great content with a POV is hard to make, and I'm willing to pay for it. But most of the internet is not worth paying for, and most B2B content especially is not worth paying for.
Another lil' experiment you can do: I went to my LinkedIn feed and clicked on the 50 first links promising content to change my career. 41 of them demanded my email address to let me read the thing. Of those 41, seven wanted to charge me money! No, thanks.
Give me a sample for free. I promise I'll give you my email address and subscribe if the sample is good. I'll probably even pay you.
💣 #3: Measure twice, cut once, and then cut it again
Listen, I love the written word. I am still writing even though everyone else has been meme-ing for years. You will have to pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands, etc. But you'll never see most of the words I produce.
I've been writing on the internet almost since there was an internet, and I still cut my first drafts in half before publishing anything. What can I say, I'm long-winded! I love the sound of my own voice! Except when I read it back and realize that I'm one yawn away from turning into a nap. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your long-windedness is boring too.
When you think your draft is done, cut it in half. In writing, on video, whatever your medium. I promise it will perform better.
💣 #4: Don't add me to your list when I didn't sign up for it
I know, we met at a happy hour in 2022 for 16 minutes. Maybe we were on an email thread because a friend introduced us. This does not mean I want to be added to your newsletter. Know how you can tell? I have never gone to your site and entered my email address.
Over the last year, I've been added without my consent or knowledge to 68 different personal newsletters. Please, just no.
Whose stuff is worth subscribing to?
There are many ways to make content with a POV. My way is to use data to tell stories, and I can teach you do that too if you want. But there are many other strategies for making compelling, subscription-worthy workplace content too.
Regardless of your strategy, whether you want followers, subscribers, responses, or just clicks, you won't get any of these things if you push out the same blah stuff as everyone else. Not even if you make it with an AI tool. 🤣
Kieran
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