It’s not too early to start working on your business goals for 2021. A business goal that often gets neglected is your content management. Having an online presence is essential for just about any business to be successful. Your content is at the core of your business marketing strategy. The content you choose is what sets your business apart from all of the others. Having a good content strategy in place is essential for your business growth and operations. We use content to educate, connect with, and promote to your leads and clients. Your content is like a window display for your business, so it’s crucial that it reflects well upon your business.
What is Content Management?
According to WhatIs.com, the definition of Content Management is the process of collection, delivery, retrieval, governance, and overall management of information in any format. The term “content management” is typically used in reference to the administration of the digital content lifecycle, from creation to permanent storage or deletion. The content involved may be images, video, audio, and multimedia, as well as text.
The content manager’s role is to build your brand and online presence, create and distribute your content, and manage your leads or clients’ responses. Whether you manage your own content systems or have a team do the work for you, it’s crucial to have a good content strategy and be consistent with it.
There are various types of content management, and the variations can range broadly depending on your type of business. Make your content management a business goal for 2021 to get your business off to its best start ever!
Blogs and Social Media
Posting your blogs to your website, FaceBook, and LinkedIn profile is also covered under Content Management. You can repurpose your content to each of the Social Media formats. When you have someone who handles your Content Management, they can take on all or part of your content management. From creating and publishing posts to managing responses, you will need to be consistent to reap the benefits and rewards. There are many benefits of blogging for your business and maintaining a presence on various social media platforms. You can use your social media to invite readers to your blog and vice versa. You can use your blog to invite readers to follow your social media profiles. Promoting engagement is an important step in your content strategy as you want your leads to keep coming back for more of what you offer. Building relationships with your followers and readers will build trust. When a lead is ready for your services, they will remember the value that you brought to them and want to have you be their go-to person for these services.
Collection and Retrieval
Every business has to collect and store documents and other content. The retrieval process should be smooth, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to find what you need. When I go into a client’s digital files I have discovered that most do not have an organized filing system. The system is set up by whoever might be working on the files that day and their mood when they save the file. The names of the files and folders should be such that somebody can easily retrieve them. You should think about how you set up the folder tree. For instance, if you work with projects, you might name the folders by the Projects, then you would have subfolders within that for Finance, Manuals, Drawings, etc. Create the folder trees according to your business. I recommend organizing your digital files in a simple way that anyone else who may assist you in your business can make sense of your systems.
Digital Content Lifecycle
The lifecycle of a document is variable according to your business. The rule of thumb that I use is to keep finance documents indefinitely. Most of the clients I have worked with will hold files for ten years. Then as the ten-year mark approaches, you can begin to delete the files and thus be able to keep your server clean.
How is your content management system working for you? Suppose you are someone who struggles to be consistent with their business content marketing or organizing your business content. In that case, you might want to consider hiring a Virtual Expert™ to bring order to your growing business and bring peace to your chaos. Spend your time focusing on your clients and doing the work you do best, and leave the content management to a trusted expert who excels in this area. Make the commitment to be consistent with your business’s content management in 2021!