Writer's Block

As I sit at my desk staring at the blank, white page on my laptop screen I think to myself, “What the heck am I going to write about?” When your class assignment is to post three blogs every week, you run out of ideas fairly quickly. Writing good, quality content that people are interested in and benefit from is a task that’s much easier said than done. For example, it’s pretty obvious that you have writer’s block when you actually start typing about writer’s block.  After a few Google searches and trips to my Twitter page for inspiration with no luck, I decided to open my class textbook (I know, exciting stuff).  What I found were some helpful tips for my frustrating situation that can benefit anyone who suffers from the dreaded laps of imagination.

In “Social Media Marketing: How to use Social Media for Business” Jason McDonald explains the two main types of content, other people’s and your own. Your own content consists of a message, photo, and article that has been written and created by you. This can take the form of a blog post, infographics, short text post, slideshows, videos or images. Other people’s content is just that, something that has been produced by someone else and shared by you. The first step to successfully using other people’s content is to systematically collect inspiring content whenever it comes across. McDonald says, “Your goal is to be the helpful expert...” You want your followers to be informed, interested and thankful they follow you. Some helpful tools to find good quality content include Buzzsumo, Google Alerts, Feedly and Easely. Also, remember to always cite your sources. 

When you’re looking for your own content for a blog, like myself, the process is somewhat similar. Keep a running tab of interesting ideas and stories. You never know when inspiration is coming, so always be prepared. When you plan ahead and write things down you can easily avoid writer’s block. The next step is to add a relevant and memorable photo or infographic. People are drawn to visuals and are more likely to read your post if it contains an image. Finally, share your posts on other social media sites.

Writer’s block may have gotten the best of me this time, but thanks to McDonald’s tips, I'm sure I will have plenty of ideas and content to choose from next time.