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It’s been years since the saying “content is king” first emerged and it’s never been more true. But did you know that changes to Google’s algorithm in 2011 mean that it now heavily favours websites that offer fresh and unique content?

For businesses everywhere, this means that content creation absolutely must become one of your 2012 New Year’s resolutions.

No matter how well you know your business, it’s often hard to get your head around this requirement to write content. Most of us hardly have time to take care of the customers and deadlines we already have, let alone set new deadlines for creating new material for the web. “And anyway,” the little voice in your head might be saying, “isn’t writing content supposed to be somebody else’s job?”

Content creation is everybody’s job!

It has to be everybody’s job to create content in your organisation. Look around and you’ll see great examples like Chuck’s blog, written by EMC’s Global Marketing CTO, where top management with specific subject matter expertise are speaking in real voices to new and potential customers.

The public wants to hear, from the horse’s mouth, what your company is planning, thinking, or worried about. Heavily groomed press releases or corporate statements aren’t enough. They want the real news, direct from your experts, and they want it frequently.

Yes, that means your public relations office must release its chokehold on marketing communications and empower everyone in the organisation to create content, whether it’s a one-sentence status update on LinkedIn or Twitter or a more thoughtful response on an industry blog.

This may feel like a shocking culture change, but it’s necessary in an age when your company is judged and made visible by the calibre and frequency of the content you produce. Your company can minimise the risk of content no-nos – for example an employee talking about something that’s commercially sensitive, or attacking a competitor too vociferously – by publishing a social media policy that employees need to read, and by quick reactive responses if issues arise.

The greater risk is not creating content at all: a large, established company with a big brand can easily be outpaced by a nimble new competitor with fewer resources but a bigger voice online.

(Want proof of that? Just look at how well-known some of the biggest tweeters have become, starting with few resources apart from their own initiative and ideas.)

No time to write content? Think again

This may have not occurred to you, but you don’t actually need to write the content yourself. A content marketing agency such as ENNclick can work with you to make your brand and website more visible to Google and other web search engines, by helping you create fresh, unique and, most important of all, interesting content.

In part two of this blog we’ll look at just how you go about this task, by exploiting resources you already have or can easily access, in order to create original and relevant content that will get you seen as part of your search engine optimisation strategy.

Sheila
@sheilaenn