Controversy Creates Communication and Content

Bishop Eddie Long - REST

The other day I posted on my Facebook page,  the late Bishop Eddie Long -

"Eddie Long! Then and then and now RI_?" with this subtext - "I posted to see who would judge each other . To see who'd respond. I post all the time about greatness, but there are crickets. I post about controversy and judgement flows like a river. I love Eddie Long. Lastly I posted this because it's my page."

It was my intent to get interaction.  I have no heaven or hell to put anyone in.  It was my intent to see how many of my established friends would chime in on such a controversial statement.  I fished for it and I got it.  It was my intent, because I am in ministry, to do an azimuth check on myself when it comes to judgment and to have others do the same. 

It was a difficult decision to go this route because most of the time I am very mild about what I post because really that's my personality.  However, it is true that people do not appreciate sensibility and in this day and time, sometimes sensibility has to be stretched a bit.  I am not saying we have to revert to scandal in order to be heard but it is common nature for people to respond to what appears to be chaos and controversy. 

Again, I got the feedback I wanted plus some.  I was able to get people to think and pay attention.

Here is how to do the same for your social media or blog site -

How to Choose the Right Controversial Topic to Write About 

One way to capture more attention on the internet is to write about a controversial topic. Controversial topics can encourage more audience participation, which can actually go viral - thus grabbing even more attention than you may be prepared for. It's a fine line to walk when using it to get more attention on social media. But, there are ways to choose controversial topics to make it work for your needs.

Know Your Audience

Every blog post starts with an understanding of your audience. That goes double for choosing to write about something controversial. You don't want to completely alienate your audience; you want to, ultimately, get them on board with you regarding the controversy. Take the time to survey your audience about various topics that could be controversial to make sure you really understand them.

Ensure That the Topic Is within Your Niche

Remember the point of your blog. You can have a lot of lofty goals for your blog, but ultimately it's to attract attention in order to capture leads that will convert into sales. Your controversial post should attract visitors within your niche. If the controversy surrounds something outside of your niche, there is no real point in doing the post.

Choose a Position Based on Real Feelings 

Don't try to play both sides against the middle. You won't create the controversy you want, and the post will fall flat. Choose a topic in which you can clearly take the controversial side of the argument without question. The controversial side of an argument is always the one that fewer people choose. If you really believe in the opinion and are invested in the topic, it will help you move forward with your blog post. 

Back Yourself Up with Facts

Try to find a lot of statistics to help back up your opinion. As someone once said, "You always have a right to your own opinion, but you don't have a right to your own facts." Using facts to back up your stance will go far in making your post readable, understandable, and logical, while still keeping the controversy that will propel your blog post to become viral.

Be Willing to Change Your Mind

When presenting your argument, invite others to try to change your mind with facts. This is a great way to lessen the blow of your alternative opinion about a topic within your niche. If you're not being one sided, but leaving some sides open for exploration in comments, you can keep the controversy going longer in the discussion portion of your blog post.

To recap, remember to keep the topic within your niche, take the minority view (but only if you really believe it), back yourself up with facts and statistics, show examples and allow an open dialogue to ensue after your blog post. Be willing to change your mind once there is discussion based on sound reasoning and facts.


Engage and Attract with Targeted Content

You know by now that you need unique and regular content on your website and/or blog in order to get more traffic. But, did you know that you also need to be concerned with who you are targeting? You want to ensure that all your blog posts and all your content is well thought out, so that it attracts people who are ready to buy from you with a simple push in the right direction. Truly targeted content will attract, engage and delight your audience. 

To create amazing content that gets results you need to:

Know Your Audience

If you don't know who your audience is enough to create in-depth audience profiles or personas, then you need to do more research. You may have one major audience such as "Women who want to lose weight." But that is a very broad audience. You need to narrow that audience down to specific women within a certain income bracket, married or single, kids or without kids, and so forth. 

By marketing to a very specific person you'll actually make more sales. People will feel as if your content speaks directly to them.

Create Keyword-Rich Titles

You don't want to overdo keywords, but there are places where keywords are important. You will know what keywords to use based on your research of your audience as well as the product knowledge that you have within your niche. 

Place keywords in blog post titles, article titles, headers, sub headers, and anchor text. Shoot for less than two percent keyword density, otherwise you may get dinged for "keyword stuffing" on Google which can lower your page rank. The important thing about keywords within titles is that they make sense and go with the content of the blog post or article.

Know the Purpose of the Content

Understanding the purpose of the piece of content you're creating is imperative to knowing how to properly target your content. Do you want the content to raise awareness of your brand? Are you trying to let your market know about your offerings? Are you trying to teach your audience something important to show how your products are different from your competitors? Are you trying to make more sales? 

Knowing the purpose will help you know what type of content to create to get the results that you want.

Promote Your Content

No matter how targeted your content is, you'll need to promote your content on social media - sometimes even through paid advertising. If you want to get a good result and have a lot of eyes on your content, it takes some extra work behind simply producing the content. Once you produce the content, the real work begins with marketing the content and engaging with your readers.

Targeted content is a great start in attracting and engaging your audience. To create targeted content you have to understand your audience, research the right keywords to use, and finally promote your content across all your social media accounts and on your email lists. Don't give up after production; keep going to go above and beyond with your content marketing efforts.