Prior to the Social Media Strategies Summit last week, I tweeted about finishing my social media strategy workshop presentations in time. Reviewing the agenda, I also mentioned a hook included in the session description several months earlier that needed to be tied into the workshop opening. Another Social Media Strategies Summit presenter tweeted back that social media presentations should not be prepared more than two weeks before a conference since things change so quickly.
My reply was while some facets of the social media landscape (tools, terms of service, etc.) do change quickly and frequently, much of social media (i.e., the strategic side) is much more static.
Sitting through his conference presentation, I was hard-pressed to identify any of his content reflecting any important changes in the social media world from the prior two weeks.
How Quickly Does Social Media Change?
Contrast that with the mind-expanding presentation by Kansas City's Travis Wright on marketing technology. Teedubya’s Social Media Strategies Summit keynote was an up-to-date overview of the significant number and wide-ranging functionality among marketing platforms, apps, and services. These marketing technology tools are designed, in one way or another, so marketers can better understand and target their audiences. Travis' presentation felt like it had to be right down to the minute to reflect what's going on now or in the very near future.
Being that newsy and deep on a topic requires time – time many brands don't have (or want to expend) when creating content.
That's why we're big fans of brands creating a healthy amount of evergreen content as part of a social media strategy. Evergreen content, which holds up long after today's news passes, helps a brand develop a sizable online presence, paying website traffic dividends for an extended period of time.
5 Questions for Evergreen Content Success
If your brand wants to develop and publish more evergreen content, here are five questions to ask about your content. Your potential answers are Yes, No, or Not Applicable / Unsure. The more “Yes” answers on your content, the greater potential is has for being relevant for an extended period of time.
- Will this information be accurate well into the future?
- Will any techniques shared apply in future situations?
- Will the information shared, even when time has passed, still retain historical value as a reference source or point of comparison for the current day?
- Will this topic and any related issues change relatively slowly?
- Even if the principles shared here are varied or modified over time, will there still be value in knowing what they were originally?
News gets attention, without a doubt, but evergreen content makes your online content work much harder for you! - Mike Brown
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