5 ways to generate lots of great content ideas
Consistent publishing is tough. The joy of hitting publish shifts to fear as you realise there's nothing else in the pipeline. It's a rollercoaster and, sometimes, a completely exhausting one.
The good news is that, while content can be expensive, ideas can be cheap - and ideas are the feedstock of quality content. Focus on ideas, and everything else becomes that much easier.
Ideation is an ugly word, and a useful one. It means actively generating lots of ideas in a focussed process. To do it properly you need to put in the work.
Here are 5 ways you can turn your team into an ideation machine.
1. Dedicate focused time and resources to ideation
Great content comes from great ideas. And great ideas require attention and time. Sometimes we don't make enough effort to get this process right.
Put aside dedicated time each week to generate ideas for your content channels.
Here are some useful sources:
Relevant journals and publications from your industry. Set up RSS feeds to give you a comprehensive view of what's happening
Competitor social channels, blogs and feeds
Industry influencers or experts
Industry events, webinars, or courses
What's happening this week? What's changed? What can you add to the conversation?
Consistency is key. Every week, block out time to do ideation and only ideation.
2. Make ideation a team sport
It may be important to plunge into the universe of ideas, all by yourself. But it's equally important to come together as a team and have an active discussion. Take time to brainstorm, reflect and bounce around good ideas and bad ones.
This is where the magic happens. Hearing your teammates' suggestions could help you think of another 5 great stories!
Set up a regular dedicated ideation session and have people submit ideas beforehand so that you can go through them together. The process of going through ideas and commissioning them as content pieces helps everyone understand what. makes for a good idea, and what doesn't.
Encourage people to come up with lots of ideas and throw most of them away, leaving only the best ones.
Tip: include as many people as you can in the ideation sessions - if your colleagues are involved in the content generation process from the very beginning, they will have the satisfaction of seeing their ideas come to life on your channels. Also, bringing in the people who review and approve content is a great way to vet story ideas and minimise the risk of content being stuck in endless approval loops or scrapped at the last minute.
3. Don't be afraid to fail
There's no such thing as a bad content idea.
What's not suitable today might be very relevant tomorrow. Save rejected ideas and look back at them once in a while.
Rejected ideas also help you and your team get a better picture of what to focus on - and what not to focus on - in your communications. You become better at suggesting relevant stories.
When an idea is rejected, celebrate! Be constructive. Ask for feedback and learning. Why shouldn't we do this? Adjust for next time.
You can't win if you don't fail.
4. Have a clear process to collect and track ideas
I can't tell you how many times an idea has popped into my head and I thought... "Nice! I'll share this with the team later...". Guess what happens next. How many great ideas have been lost because someone in your team didn't write them down?
At The Content Engine, we use digital idea cards to help us capture the next big story. Do you have a process or tools in place to make sure you don't lose what could be your next viral video?
5. Reuse, recycle, repurpose
Not every idea and post needs to explore uncharted territory. Get inspired by other sources, topics and people you're passionate about. Follow them, learn from them, extract ideas, re-purpose and share others' posts with your own reflections.
Finding time to focus on ideas can be difficult. But trust us, it pays off.