Written by: Kayla Mitchell
Close your eyes and envision a time where you and a group of people were gathered around a campfire. What do all of these experiences have in common? For me the one common factor is always the engaging conversations we all have and the sense of community we feel being all together. This same idea of a campfire can be applied to content by thinking of cultivating a community.
A common misconception is that if one of your pieces of content goes viral that you’ve made it and that the hard work is done. By creating a safe and engaging environment for your visitors “the longer they will stay, the more they will invite others to visit, and the more often they will come back.” (Handley and Chapman, 2012) Success is determined by creating a community of people who consistently engage in your content.
What are the steps in creating a campfire?
- Collect the materials for the fire
- Continuing to add branches so the fire doesn’t burn out
- Sing songs around the fire
- Connecting with the people around the fire as the night goes on.
These four steps of experiencing a campfire, can be used to create “the content campfire” too!
- Collecting Materials For The Fire.- In the same way that branches are the base for the fire to ignite is the way that your first posts are the base to your identity, but content as a whole. Your ultimately goal is to create content that is relatable and sharable. If you, the author, wouldn’t want to share your own post then it’s very likely that others won’t either. Thinking of content that is engaging and titles that will capture the attention of your audience is vital in creating a strong base.
- Finding the Bigger Sticks.– When a fire is first lit after a certain amount of time the fire will die out if you aren’t attending to it. In comparison to content, by creating a consistent uploading schedule and plan what actual content will be posted you ensure that the traction you originally had gained will stay. A content calendar is a great tool in helping to organize the creation/posting of your content. According to businessnewsdaily.com “A content calendar is a written schedule of content that you plan to publish.” (Simón, 2023) Having a calendar and plan for content ensures your fire will never die out! Momentum is vital in cultivating a loyal audience to your content. “Regularly dependable, recurring, reimagined content is the key.” (Handley & Chapman, 2012)
3. Singing Campfire Songs.- Once everyone around the campfire starts singing songs, you know that people are in a comfortable and safe space to have fun together. By creating that same type of environment in terms of your content creation, people are more likely to engage with the content itself, but also with each other. In an article posted by Ross Simmonds on Foundationinc.co provides helpful insight on how to encourage engagement on your content. Some of these tips include, but are not limited to using images and emojis to break up space with the text, writing with humor, and responding to the comments that your viewers are writing to show your interest in their engagement. (Simmonds, 2023)
4. Telling Stories by the Campfire Light.– As the creator of the campfire, it is your role to lead the direction of the stories that are told around the fire. You want to tell stories that have the goal of relating to other people and connecting with them, so that they are more likely to share and connect with others. If you are writing like it is for a grade or for an assignment, the structure and tone will reflect in less audience engagement. No one wants to read a paper for school! Adding personal anecdotes and writing with a conversational tone can make your blog seem like a comfortable space to interact with. If people are comfortable interacting on your blog, the better conversations will occur because they will feel more enticed to share more detail-oriented stories.
Cultivating a community and encouraging community engagement is vital in creating sustainable success on your content that you post. Remembering the steps of creating a campfire can help simplify the process of creating content and ensuring that people will continue to connect and share it as well. Feeling the warmth of a fire surrounded by people you love is an indescribable feeling, and if you can slightly emulate that environment with your digital content, there is no doubt you will have long-term success!
What kind of posts will you make to engage your community?
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/16011-how-to-create-content-calendar.html