Is Your Content the Beyonce of the Blogging World?

Whether you love Beyonce or can’t stand her big hair and sparkly leotards, there’s no denying that she’s one of the biggest popstars in the world.

Grandmas shake their booties to her music and little kids know the lyrics to her major hits. This thing is real:the love of Beyonce spans generations and the entire globe.

But what the heck does this have to do with content? I hear you ask.

Answer me this:

• Do you want your content to win awards?
• Do you want your content to bag you a loyal audience that eagerly anticipates your next post?
• Do you want your content to be known as the best in your industry?

Yes, yes, and yes? You need to stick around, then, because I’m about to break this thing down

(Photo: Nat Ch Villa via Flickr)

When we’re creating content, we don’t just have to look at other content for inspiration. We can get creative and look for snippets of genius in the everyday.

We can analyse pop culture to determine what the general public lap up, and we can look at news stories and narratives from different perspectives to figure out what’s important to our audiences.

THIS my friend, is where content and Beyonce become a blurred entity.

It’s where content snaps on its sparkly leotard and hits the stage in a sassy show of power and expertise.

But I don’t want my content put in the same category as Beyonce! I’m a serious business-person here! You might yell.

In which case, this post is 100% for you. Because when it comes to content? You can really look up to people who know exactly what their audience wants and gives it to them time and time again. Without fail.

THAT’S why you want your content to be the Beyonce of the blogging world.

So let’s break this down even more.

We all know that Beyonce is a big dog when it comes to the music world. She’s part of the richest power couple in the world, and 10 years after the start of her career she’s still absolutely rocking it.

Even if you hate her with a fiery passion, there are nuggets we can take away from her success and apply to our own businesses — in particular, our content.

Let’s imagine for a moment that people aren’t people and things aren’t things. Let’s imagine that everything is a unit. Beyonce is one unit, you’re one unit, your blog is one unit.

When we’re all simply units, we’re all equal.

But suddenly, the unit that is Beyonce starts getting bigger and bigger. It’s now NOT the same size as the unit that’s you or the unit that’s your blog.

You see its growth and you want some of that. You want your blog unit to grow in tandem with Beyonce’s unit, but you have NO idea how to do that. You might be:

• Simply watching Beyonce’s unit grow and wishing your blog unit was the same (basically, sitting back and hoping)
• Experimenting with this strategy and that strategy to get your blog unit to grow, and getting frustrated when you don’t see any results

But units are simple things. They don’t play games and they aren’t complicated. In fact, if you want to grow your unit in the same way Beyonce’s growing hers, you simply need to observe her techniques and apply them to your business.

This is where it gets good.

Why Should You Want Your Content to be the Beyonce of the Blog World?

Just 24 hours before she was due to perform at the Super Bowl this year, Beyonce dropped a brand new single on the world. There had been absolutely no build up or mention of it beforehand. It just came into being.

In 2013, she released an entire album without warning. One day it just appeared. Almost immediately it went straight to number one and the world and his wife were talking about it non-stop.

Imagine if you could do that with your content.

Imagine if, instead of hustling hard to promote the amazing blog posts, articles, and products you put out there, you could simply “release them” without any build up and people would buy them and love them.

People would share them with their friends and their families without you having to prompt them. Basically, you wouldn’t have to lift a finger.

It’d be pretty good, huh?

In fact, there are a lot of brands doing that right now. They release a post (epic, of course, because that’s the way it should be), and their readers do all the promoting for them.

Take ProBlogger or Neil Patel as examples. Once they’ve polished a post (and I mean seriously polished — do you think Beyonce would put anything less than spectacular out there?!), they can hit publish and pass it over to their loyal fans and followers.

It’s pretty much every business owner’s dream, right?

But it’s not something you can do with the click of your fingers.

The important thing to remember is this:

Beyonce didn’t make it big overnight.

She was in Destiny’s Child before she went solo and, when that broke down, she spent years creating her own sound and building a loyal fan base by consistently releasing great songs and albums.

She persevered to get where she is now and, unfortunately, there’s no short cut for you. You’ll have to persevere, too.

Let’s see what that perseverance might look like.

Creating Innovative Content

Beyonce’s latest track, Formation — the one she released just a day before performing at the Super Bowl — comes with a video we expect from Bey.

It’s artistic and beautifully directed, but it also holds a cutting political message. Unlike the colourful, airy pop stars that seem to dominate the industry at the moment, Beyonce adds a little something extra to her songs and her videos.

There’s depth to her message, and this is what makes her stand out.

This is exactly how you can make your content stand out. It’s not enough to simply copy everyone else’s 500 word posts that skim over a topic. You need to be creating something new and exciting if you want to climb the first rung of the Beyonce ladder.

How to make sure your content is innovative:

• Add your own spin to a popular topic, don’t just regurgitate what’s already been said
• Blend together two mediums to create a stronger message
• Give it substance — don’t skim over a topic, go into detail and really consider what your audience will get out of it

​Erika Madden at Olyvia.co added a template sheet to her recent blog post detailing 101 headline formats to use for blog posts. Formatting the same content in a different way makes it more accessible to a wider variety of readers and adds a little pizzazz to a simple blog post.

Creating Versatile Content

Did you know Beyonce isn’t just a singer? She’s also an actor (remember she was in Dream Girls?) and a campaigner. She’s added a number of different notches to her belt.

This a) gives her a three-dimensional persona, and b) gives her other platforms for growing an audience. Someone may not like her music, but they might love her films, or they might really admire her ability to campaign for what she believes in.

Beyonce isn’t just a one trick pony, and this is something you should emanate with your content.

You don’t want your readers to get bored when you produce the same type of content over and over again. They want to see different sides to you and your business. They want to be surprised (in a good way), and they want a variety of platforms where they can reach you and resonate with you.

How to make sure your content is versatile:

• Make multi-channel content which can be repurposed. For example, you might create an infographic for your blog and then share it separately on Pinterest where you might reach a different audience entirely
• Keep experimenting — don’t fall into a comfortable pattern with content creation. If you surprise yourself, you’ll surprise your audience

I recently repurposed and added content to some blog posts to create a free 7-day email course for readers of Wanderful World. It was a new way to share information with readers and a more intimate way to make connections (people don’t open their inboxes up to just anyone, ya’know?!)

Creating a Power Couple with Your Marketing Strategy

Beyonce is famously part of the world’s richest power couple with Jay-Z.

They’re a musical force to be reckoned with, and he’s one of the reasons her career has kicked off so much in the past ten years. He’s worked in tandem with her to create an empire that is rock solid and continues to deliver results.

Think of this when you’re designing your marketing strategy.

Your content should be a huge driving force behind it, but they need to work together to get the best results.

How to make sure your content and marketing strategy work together:

• Make sure you’re posting the right sort of content to each platform (you know the peeps that hang out on Facebook are different from those on Twitter, right?!)
• Plan ahead. Create an editorial calendar that ties in with your launches and social media strategy to create the bigger picture. It helps if you can look over everything at once and see how it all joins together

​The bare bones of an editorial calendar I use for Wanderful World. I use this together with a number of other spreadsheets and calendars to create an all-encompassing overview of my business.

Creating Content Bathed in Gold (A.K.A. Value)

I don’t know about you, but when I picture Beyonce, I picture glitter, gold, and extravagancy.

This is no coincidence. She (or her “peeps”) have created this notion of a highly successful businesswoman who turns everyday objects into gold.

This is helped, no doubt, by the fact that Beyonce produces results time and time again. She releases hit after hit, and everything she does seems to shoot straight to the top.

In an ideal world, you want to apply the ideas behind this strategy to your content. By that, I don’t mean add lashings of glitter and fork out millions of pounds for a super-luxurious office.

What I mean is create consistently fantastic content that offers actual VALUE to your readers.

That’s the most important word here: value.

Without it, you’re simply adding to the ever-increasing noise of the internet — shame on you.

How to make sure your content is bathed in gold:

• Ask yourself “what is my reader getting out of this?”
• Consider whether you’ve added your own personal touch to pieces (it’s not enough to simply regurgitate information that’s already out there — do you really think Beyonce would do that?!)
• Make sure you use stats, quotes, and stories to back up your points and add meat to any statements you make — this is what makes blog posts really valuable and not just another vapid addition to the blogosphere

So there you have it.

Your content may not be the Beyonce of the blogging world just yet, but there’s definitely time for you to shine in all your gold, sparkly glory.

And, if you take the time to really build an empire like Bey has done, you’ll start to see the fruits of your labour:

• You’ll be able to produce results time and time again that boost your name and increase your customer base
• You’ll create a loyal following who will promote your business and products FOR you

To the left, to the left. Let’s get going.

This post first appeared on LizzieDavey.com