If you don’t have a writing process that you regularly practice, you will be challenged with consistently turning out quality content.
Do you start with an outline? Do you rewrite? How many times will you edit? These and many other considerations, such as your writing environment, will greatly enhance your writing productivity.
Whether you work from an outline or start with free-writing as I do, there has to be a well-defined method that guides your efforts – one that gets and keeps you on track until your writing objectives are accomplished.
Commit Your Process to Writing
There are as many processes as there are writers. So, the first step is to find yours, know it well, and work to make it better over time.
Your method for reliably creating at least competent writing are unique to you, which is why you should put it in writing to make it less random. That effort alone will serve you well even if you take it no further.
Every writer has had excruciating experiences with self-imposed or real deadlines because their writing was simply not working. Sometimes it is the material, others times the practice. When you get into those situations, the best way to get out of them is to check your process to learn what may be been skipped or compromised.
More often than not, writing challenges are the result of taking minor short-cuts that make a big difference. Unfortunately, they will go unnoticed until you commit to writing out the steps of your practice, testing them over time, and progressively refining your process with experience.
Study and Steal from Other Writers
No, I not advocating you steal material from other writers, just their methods for creating it. The related articles below will lead you to some resources where you can do exactly that.
To help you find your process, I’ll share my own. What you should note is that in addition to what you do, when, where, and how you do it are equally important.
My Writing Process
1. Journal First Thing in the Morning
When you wake up in the morning your mind should be relatively fresh, having just taken the evening to digest ideas through dreams or mental thrashing. Taking just 5-10 minutes to journal will capture key thoughts that can lead to exciting breakthroughs.
2. Meditate to Clear the Mind
Meditation for me is a process of sitting still to release thoughts, including those that I may have just been journaling about. Ideally, this is 30 minutes in duration. The result is often another breakthrough in the form of a resurfacing a lost idea. So, I keep note cards handy to capture a few key words.
3. Free Write to Liberate Ideas
After a little yoga, then exercise, I’m back at my desk to write. I will often wear headphones and listen to instrumental music or nature sounds that help me get lost inside of myself, what most people think of as being in the zone. I’m writing for content flow only, often generating enough for multiple articles in one sitting.
When I wrote my book I used this technique to write nearly every chapter in one sitting. They certainly needed a lot of work after that, but at the very least I had something to work with.
4. Print and Find the Structure
Now that I’m back in the real world, so to speak, I spell check that content, print it out, and try to find the structure – what it wants to be. Then I set it aside.
5. Let the Material Breathe
One of the critical steps in my process is letting the material breathe. I simply cannot sit down and write even a short article that I’ll be happy with all in the same day.
How does the material breathe? It’s in my mind while I’m interacting and engaging with people on the phone or in person. This is where I find the intersection of that content with stories and new ideas that make it come alive, effectively breathing life into it.
6. Write Until The Piece is Finished
Late afternoon and evening is when I take my rough work and complete it. The objective of this step is simple: Do not stop until it is finished. The time investment to this point dictates that a finished result is imperative.
This is the grind. It’s a discipline that I may never completely master, but it sure feels great when it is completed!
7. Edit for Clarity and Flow
There will always be editing, with different mediums calling for more or less. Since what I write here on this blog can always be edited, I tend to only lightly edit. Whereas articles and my weekly newsletter get more scrutiny.
That’s my process. I like to think of it as a three-tiered series of starts and stops, with a little editing to wrap it up.
How about you? What’s your writing process? Please share in a comment below.
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About the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. Get more from Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.
Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)
Responding to Positive Web Comments
Why does the concern for managing negative web comments overshadow the practice of skillfully responding to positive comments?
Positive comments are the seeds of conversations and the beginnings of new relationships. Shouldn’t this be the focus of your social networking?
The focus on having a strong defense (as opposed to a strong offense) suggests that many businesses are using their social media to market in a traditional fashion. In other words, they want to control the message, instead of giving up control to their customers to get them talking favorably about their brand.
If your response to favorable comments on your social media channels is “Thanks,” then it’s time to learn how to better use this interactive platform to more effectively accomplish your objectives.
You’ve Received a Comment: What’s Next?
The first thing that should come to mind when receiving any comment is what to do next.
One thing is clear, any response to a comment is always better than none at all.
Fortunately, networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ allow you to favorite, retweet, like, +1, and share. These social signals are a quick and easy way to acknowledge comments with the bare minimum effort. This should be standard practice.
When you respond to social media comments you honor the commenter. In most situations, that is enough to give a boost to their day, especially if you happen to be influential or someone they look up to.
You would think that influential people with large followings are mostly unresponsive to comments. My experience and that of others is quite the opposite. While they may be using a team to manage their social media, they understand the need to be actively engaged with their followers.
Of course, there are people with large followings that seldom if ever respond, and if they do, it is usually only to influentials and their very best friends. This is a bad practice, sort of like giving preferential treatment to your largest customers and ignoring the others.
Remember that social media democratizes media, so it’s always best to be inclusive.
If you are a business, you should endeavor to respond to every single tweet, share, and comment, regardless of the social channel.
Responding to Positive Comments
1. Acknowledge Intent
The primary value of a positive comment is its intent, not necessarily the usefulness of what may have been shared. Thus, when you acknowledge that you honor the person making it.
2. Make a Connection
Do you have something in common with the commenter? If so, blend that into your comment. Now you are referencing a shared relationship to thereby establish common ground.
3. Share an Idea
We talk a lot on the social networks about sharing value, but that isn’t always appropriate with brand new connections. It could be interpreted as “selling.” A better practice is to introduce a new possibility.
4. Suggest a Next Action
This can be a little tricky. Once again, avoid the inclination to promote. Simply encourage the commenter take action on what they specifically acknowledged in their comment, which often is the message of your blog post or article.
5. Keep the Conversation Going
If you are building your systems, you will have a method in place for circling back to take the conversation further. This could be running through your starred tweets or recent comments on your Facebook business page. However you accomplish this, it should be part of an integrated plan.
Your Social Media Implementation Plan
If you are a subscriber to my weekly newsletter, you have already seen this recent issue for building Your Social Media Implementation Plan. If not, you can subscribe right here to get future (and free) updates.
Responding to comments, both favorable and unfavorable, should be a micro-process within your overall social media marketing plan. My experience is that most businesses do not have a social media implementation plan, or if they do it is not written down.
Your social media will not come alive until you discipline yourself to build a plan, have it written down in a step-by-step manner, and then endeavor to update it periodically. As you know, technology changes, and that will affect the focus that your business should be taking.
You will most skillfully respond to positive web comments by taking a few simple actions. If they are part of a larger plan, you will have the confidence that your entire team is working in sync.
And that’s a positive thing!
Share your thoughts with a positive comment.
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