Suppose a colleague is at your desk with a – according to that colleague – brilliant content idea. What do you do then? Do you jump straight into action mode? Have you written a dazzling text for social media within five minutes that – you think – sounds good? Or do you really take the time to consider which approach is most effective? Even though you may not have that time and the pressure is high: think carefully about the angle for your content.
Because really: this makes the difference between content that is drowning in the massive supply and content that makes an impact. And thus achieves better results in terms of reach and interaction. While your social media post, newsletter article or web text may still seem a bit boring, you can still trigger your audience by choosing the right angle. But above all, variation in your perspectives ensures that your content continues to surprise and remain interesting for your audience groups.
Perhaps you are mainly ‘broadcasting’ with your content at the moment. We often hear from organizations that they actually want to get rid of this. At least; there needs to be more balance. Better listening, more dialogue and responding to the world of your audience are regularly at the top of the wish lists of content creators and strategists. Then realize that choosing an angle can help you turn that perspective around.
Instead of ‘from the inside out’, you create content ‘from the outside in’. By this we mean: stories in which the perspective of your audience is central, not the point of view of your organization.
The 4P method
In our previous article we described how you can work on focus and structure in your content every day using the 4P method. That’s great for you, your team, your manager or supervisor. But it also actually contributes to the success of the organization.
Do you remember? 4P stands for this method Pillar, Audience, Perspective in Platform. After you have established the framework within the four Ps when formulating your content strategy, you make conscious choices every time when devising content:
- Which pillar does my topic fall within?
- Who am I creating this content for?
- Which platforms can it reach people through?
- But also: what is the most effective way to bring my message into the spotlight?
Choose your angle
Choosing a smart approach to your content is essential for the latter. It makes you think carefully about the questions and needs of your audience and what you want to achieve with your content. Which answer or solution do you offer that your target group can really benefit from? A conscious choice here also means something for the way you deliver your message.
- Informative (‘We present our new policy on…’)
- Activating (‘Become a volunteer at our association…’)
- Inspiring (‘Do you want to make a difference in your neighborhood, just like Henk?’)
- Educational (‘How to work on more reach in 5 steps…’)
- Amusing (‘Our director is participating in the TikTok challenge..!’)
Tips
Okay, five options: that remains to be seen. We think they sound quite logical too. But how do you determine which angle to choose for which content item? What should you pay attention to? We summarize it for you in three tips.
Tip 1: choose the angle that suits your objective
There is a simple mnemonic or mnemonic you can use to determine your angle. Ask yourself: what do I want to achieve with my content? There’s a good chance that the answer to that question will bring you very close to the angle you want to choose. Here are some possible objectives.
- ‘I want to inform residents about a road closure.’
- ‘I want more customers to participate in our customer survey.’
- ‘I want to explain why we apply this production process, based on a best practice’.
This makes it easy to quickly find the most suitable angles for these goals.
Of course, these perspectives are not rocket science either. We can imagine that they sound very logical. But do you really make a conscious choice before you start creating content? In practice, we see that more than fifty percent of the content on social media has an informative approach, while these platforms are actually much more suitable for content with a different approach.
Activating content is also common. It is very tempting to want to send your audience to your website through your content, have them register for an event or take part in a survey. Then ask yourself: is it likely that your audience will actually do this immediately? Or might an inspiring story followed by a call-to-action give you more results?
In short: weighing all options and then making a strategic choice is always better than doing something ‘ad hoc’ or ‘by feeling’.
Tip 2: vary the angles you use
You now know how to make a well-considered choice to arrive at the angle for your content. But that also raises the question: what is right and what is wrong? Is one angle better than the other? The ‘golden formula’ always consists of a healthy balance between different perspectives.
You can imagine that a Facebook page with only likes and competitions will eventually lead to dropouts among your followers. This is also the case if you only share news items and do not challenge your audience to actually interact with your content. Something that social media is precisely intended for.
It is not without reason that we describe the angles of your content as ‘the content disk of five’, referring to the Nutrition Center’s disk of five. It also applies that simply choosing food from disc 1 does not ensure a healthy diet, which you will quickly get tired of. In the world of content, this applies not only to you as a content creator, but also to the recipient.
So make sure that you continue to vary your perspectives and continue to surprise and captivate your audience.
Tip 3: take your audience group(s) into account
Of course, the public groups of a government institution are different from, for example, a sanitary shop. When choosing your angle, you should always keep in mind who you are creating your content for and which angles best suit your organization or company.
When you start working on your content strategy, you think about which angles are promising and which will be less successful with your audience. A like & win campaign will appeal better to a young company than to a municipality, water board or ministry. Informative content, such as an announcement or news item, will feel more familiar at a government institution than at a company.
Good to know: entertaining content can also be a beautiful photo of the environment. In this way, this perspective can also be applied well by government institutions and other public organizations. In short: don’t rule out any angles in advance, but be aware of where the opportunities lie for your organization.
Approaches in practice: trade mission
After the theory and tips, you will probably ask yourself: how do I see these perspectives reflected in content? You may now recognize them in your own content, even though you were not consciously involved with them at the time. We like to make it concrete and tangible using an example from practice.
A few years ago, the Spain Business Platform (part of the Dutch embassy in Spain) organized a trade mission for the water sector. Gaining knowledge was central to the morning program. The Ondernemersplatform communicated about this on their LinkedIn page as you can see below on the left.
If we zoom in on the angle used, we immediately see that this is the informative angle. The core message is that the morning program has taken place, with an insight into the most important topics. The selected images show a room with a barely readable presentation on a screen. Gaining knowledge will undoubtedly have been successful among those present, but the LinkedIn user gets very little of this.
In the image above you will find a possible alternative to this LinkedIn post on the right. This is a fictional example, so this post was never posted as such. Do you see what angle was used here?
By choosing the educational approach, you also share the knowledge shared during the meeting in broad terms with followers on LinkedIn. The title is ‘5 economic opportunities in the Spanish water sector’ and the focus is on a PDF slider in which those five opportunities are presented slide after slide and are briefly explained. In this way you optimally connect with the power of the LinkedIn platform (sharing knowledge) and the questions and needs of the entrepreneur who follows this account.
Approaches in practice: innovation
Let’s use another ‘fictional’ example. Suppose you create content for a technical consultancy firm. Your company has developed an innovative solution to provide commercial roofs with recycled insulation material. The company management asks you to make a big splash on social media. How do you proceed?
We will immediately address the various perspectives. Are you going to inform, activate, learn, entertain or inspire? The good news: it’s all possible. The less good news: you first have to make a conscious choice before you can really start creating your content process.
- Informative: ‘We are introducing our technological innovation for the application of recycled insulation material for commercial roofs.’
- Activating: ‘Would you like a no-obligation discussion with our advisors about the possible application on your company roof? Then register on our website.’
- Inspiring: ‘This is how customer X reacted when the company noticed that our solution also gave them good results.’
- Educational: ‘This is how we ensure that the recycled insulation material is optimally used in your commercial roof.’
- Amusing: A 1-minute time lapse video in which an existing roof is completely renovated.
Conclusion: choosing a good angle is an integral part of your creative process. Ideally, you use all five options, in the right proportion. What that relationship is depends on your audience and you: which perspectives suit your organization best? Based on the results, you will soon notice which approaches work better and which you should use less.
How conscious are you?
Now that you know how to play with angles, your content will not only become more interesting; it also makes your work as a content creator a lot more fun and challenging. Are you already aware of the chosen angles in your content?
Source: www.frankwatching.com
