What makes a quality content and the importance of engagement

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Avatar for Kushyzee
2 years ago

When most people hear the phrase "quality content", they immediately start thinking about those articles that are filled with in-depth technical knowledge and sentences with a high level of English grammar and they believe that only a selected few can master this art but is that really true?

I believe quality content goes beyond technical articles and anybody can write an article with quality content, you just have to follow the rules and practice as well. But before we go on, you must first of all know the meaning of quality content, then you can know how to write one. According to Larry Kim on medium;

Quality content is successful content. Quality content achieves a goal (e.g., it drives traffic, Google search rankings, engagement, or conversions).

Quality content doesn't have one direct definition and that's because it's subjective but it generally conforms to some important objectives and one of them is achieving your end goal(s). For one to say an article is of quality content, you must first ask yourself if it has achieved the goals you set out and most of the time, our main goal is to bring in loyal readers who will always read our content and drive traffic and this brings me to the first tip to writing a quality content

Know your audience

This is the most important factor you will have to consider whenever you're writing your article because the audience is the driving force behind any content, they are the judge that will determine if your content is of high quality or not. Now, what does it mean to know your audience?

Knowing your audience simply entails you knowing who you're writing for and how to tailor your articles to their taste. Yes, it doesn't matter what you want because you're creating content for the benefit of other people out there who will gain something from your content (insight, knowledge, or entertainment).

Knowing what your audience wants will give you an insight into the type of content to create that will leave them satisfied after reading. If your target audience is those that can't comprehend high-level English grammar, using that in your article is only going to do more harm than good because they won't be able to relate to what you're giving out. One of the ways of finding out what your audience wants is by interacting with them and that brings us to another tip

Engagement is king

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An engaging article is a successful article. Structuring your article in a way that will make your audience want to engage with you is one of the features of quality content. Writing an article where no one has anything meaningful to say at the end is already tilting towards the area of bad content.

It doesn't matter if you believe in your heart that you have written something meaningful or of high quality, what really matters is how your audience takes it and what they have to say about it. Did they gain any new information? Do they find it funny like you originally planned? Are they able to relate to the experiences you shared? These are the things you should look at to know if your article is good content.

What are the ways to raise engagement on your articles?

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One trick I use is to use second-person pronouns, the "you" perspective. That means using words like you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves, instead of first person or third person pronouns like I, we, he, she, they, etc. But does this mean you have to use this trick in all scenarios? Of course not

First-person and third-person pronouns are best suited for fiction writing and personal blogs while second-person pronouns are best suited for technical writing, creative writing, business writing, and instructional writing. If you're writing an article that is all about teaching people how to do something, then second-person pronouns are suitable but if you're telling a story (either yours or a fictional one), then third or first-person pronouns are suitable.

It's preferable to use second-person pronouns most of the time especially in technical or creative writings because it helps you to form a bond with your reader and it gives an aura of confidence. It gives your reader the feeling that you're talking directly to them and it helps them to get more involved with your content.

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Another important trick that I use sometimes is to ask questions. Asking your readers questions will make them want to engage with you, especially when you ask the right questions. Asking the right questions can sometimes trigger some thoughts in your audience that they might not have in the first place and in turn, it leads to more engagement.

One good way to do this is to end your article with a question, or sometimes you can ask the question right from the start of the article (like in the title or during the introduction) and then ask it again when ending the article because some people might forget the question when asked from the start, so it's a good idea if you remind them at the end. Doing this will most of the time encourage your readers to share their thoughts with you, thus boosting your engagement.


Other tips to consider when writing quality content

  1. Use good grammar: Even though you don't have to use high-level English grammar, it still doesn't mean you should write with utmost disregard for proper English. Always make use of tools like Grammarly to check for spelling and grammatical errors.

  2. Properly format your articles: This involves making use of short paragraphs to improve readability, using subheadings for important sections, and you should consider using pictures relating to your topic to really drive home your points.

  3. Be knowledgeable: you should know what you're writing about and be knowledgeable in that field because trust me, it's going to be obvious in the way you write if you're not very knowledgeable and it's going to affect your reputation.

  4. Practice: All these I have said will become useless in the long run if you don't put in the work to be better. You have to keep writing and figure out your style, your target audience, and what they like.

Conclusion

That's all I have to share with you all for now. I had to shorten some parts of this article and I also left out some parts because it was already getting too long, and that's another tip I will like to share: avoid writing very long articles at a go. Most of the things I talked about here are what I learned from the content writing crash course I took when I registered on this platform, while the others are from research I did on the topic earlier today.

This is my entry for the community engagement writing challenge created by @Jane in collaboration with Club1BCH. Check out her article to read about the guidelines and rules of the challenge.

Lead image gotten from freepik and edited in Canva


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Thanks for reading 💖💖💖

Friday June 10, 2022

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Avatar for Kushyzee
2 years ago

Comments

Rewards sent. Thanks for joining 🙂.. Nft later

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Thank you so much Ate Jane! I have gotten it 😁

$ 0.00
2 years ago

When you provide helpful information to the right audience through your content, that for me is a quality content.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Exactly, it all depends on if your target audience gets something useful from your content

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2 years ago

Thanks for doing the research and sharing what you discovered. It surely is helpful for everyone who reads this!

$ 0.02
2 years ago

I am glad you find it helpful 😊

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2 years ago

I usually bring 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. I believe that gives a sense of universal relativity between the writer, the reader and other people too.

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2 years ago

Exactly, I use all 3 but the frequency of anyone of them depends on the type of article I am writing

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2 years ago

Spot on. A lot of people overlook the importance of engagement. They make a post, dump it and won't even have the decency to reply their audience. Understanding your audience is one thing but engaging them is another thing. It's not just about writing good post and ticking all the boxes but carrying them along and engaging them.

I hope everyone get to see this lovely post of your, brother. A lot to learn from it.

$ 0.02
2 years ago

Engagement is truly what it takes to be a good writer. The ability to carry your readers along both during the course of the article and in the comment section is something that is overlooked by a lot of people but it's very important because it creates a bond between you and your readers

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Absolutely...it's that bond and connection that keeps them coming and engaged.

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2 years ago

Omo, hardly I use big grammar in my article, unless in some cases when I want to prove to appoint but the English word isn't strong enough, I use the word that is envy for it.

$ 0.02
2 years ago

Grammar should only be reserved for academic articles, e no get who we dey try impress for here (except maybe Rusty 😆)

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2 years ago

To be knowledgeable is key, when you see some content, you will immediately know that it is copy and paste because it is not born out of their knowledge

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2 years ago

People like that start wondering what went wrong when their account gets spammed, meanwhile they have been copying other people's content

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2 years ago

I just feel when the article involves direct question from the topic people tend to engage more by answering it without even reading the full article and we can't be perfect because sometimes not all tricks work

$ 0.02
2 years ago

Now you know why I use that trick of asking questions sometimes, my end goal is usually to get people to answer it even though it means they won't read the entire article, I am just after the engagements 😉

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2 years ago

Engagement!! We are not all perfect,,,,but I've read numerous Articles that I stayed on the wall for two to three minutes thinking what to reply 🤦 . While some, Ordinarily the first paragraph I've gotten enough to comment. I believe so much in the engagement part

$ 0.02
2 years ago

Exactly bro, most of us are very busy with other things in the real world so most times we just want to quickly read through an article. Arranging your article in a way that makes it easy for people to read and digest is very important

$ 0.00
2 years ago

I think this will really be of great help to me as a newbie, I am looking forward to learn more from you my friend kushyzee.

$ 0.02
2 years ago

I am glad you found this article to be of great help as you begin your writing journey. Looks like you recently created an account on this platform, you should start by writing an introductory article to tell us about yourself and don't forget to read about the rules, welcome to the community 😉

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2 years ago

Alright thanks friend.

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2 years ago

Thank you kushy for sharing this. I am about to start writing a book and I have been looking for some tips and how-tos but thank God you posted this here. It will definitely add perfection to my writing skills. More wins

$ 0.02
2 years ago

This is just the tip of the iceberg, you should research more on the tips I talked about here to get better knowledge on content writing. I wish you goodluck with your book 😉

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2 years ago

Knowing your audience is very important because quality is subjective. Know what they want, because that will determine if it's "quality" or not.

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2 years ago

Exactly, it all depends on if your target audience truly get what they wanted from your content

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2 years ago

Very well-done Kushy. Thank you for sharing your research on this. And I agree with all your points there. Engagement is key indeed. Good luck to you on the contest!

$ 0.02
2 years ago

Thank you Ate 🤗

$ 0.00
2 years ago

You are welcome Kushy :)

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2 years ago

Great points. I agree with everything that you have mentioned above. Quality contents did not mean a perfect and no error composition. There might be minor mistakes, but what matters the most is how engaging the content is :)

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2 years ago

That's right, the readers will be the ultimate judge on how good your content is

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2 years ago

Ohooo, I can oy say that I write a good content if my readers reacted to it. I mean, sometimes my only goal is to make my readers laugh and sometimes I can get that so, goals achieved hihi

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2 years ago

If your article turns out to be well received by your audience, then it's good content 😃

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2 years ago

Thanks for sharing helpful tips on how to make quality content. I was expecting some readcash stories of you though 😅. But anyway, this is a great one. Thank you for participating..

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2 years ago

I decided to just focus on giving out helpful tips to help others write good contents 😁

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2 years ago