Writing content for non-profit organizations

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Of late I have started taking care of the online presence of a few non-profit organizations including their websites, blogs and social media profiles. Aside from maintenance I also prepare and strategize content for these organizations.

Writing and organizing content for non-profit organisations is totally different from creating content for commercial businesses. In this case you’re not trying to sell a product or service, but a cause. You need to touch people emotionally (although personally I believe the work these organizations do is a lot more practical than many for-profit organizations do). Rather than promoting products and services you promote stories and experiences that really make a difference.

Many hard-core marketers often say that everything eventually boils down to selling. After all, you are trying to sell the inherent benefit of a cause. Why do you have a website for a non-profit organization? Almost every non-profit organization is looking for donations and fundings and a vibrant online presence can help reach out to a wide audience whether it is from website, blog or social media/networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Of course it is selling but then we all have our way of expressing different things.

Publishing content for non-profit organizations

As already mentioned above you can use different platforms to publish content for non-profit organizations. The idea is to reach as wide an audience as possible without diluting the niche. My personal observation, when it comes to niche concerning with social causes and social work, is that people who feel emotional towards one particular cause also are eager to associate themselves with another cause. For instance I have closely worked with organizations helping persons with disabilities and most of these organizations readily get involved with causes concerning natural disasters, environment and ecology, social justice, animal care and old age care (just to name a few). The underlying idea is, doing something good and constructive, and doing something that makes a positive impact. This is the message that your content on various platforms must convey when you publish.

Content on Twitter normally involves publishing small updates, links to useful information, news releases links and answers to some urgent queries.

Content on Facebook profiles is a bit more detailed, It involves messages that trigger conversations and other sorts of engagements. Since discussions can be threaded (multiple comments can appear under one posting) and there is no word limit, you can publish detailed messages, although they shouldn’t be as big as articles and blog posts.

Blogs are the best way to publish impactful stories and experiences. As long as they are interesting and gripping you shouldn’t worry much about their length. The style should be as conversational as possible although most of the non-profit organizations avoid publishing content on the first person basis (many businesses do this these days and it is recommended).

Making positive impact with content

When you write and publish content for non-profit organizations you are trying to achieve the following:

Raise awareness about an issue or a pressing need
Encourage more and more people to get involved
Encourage more and more people to spread the word regarding various activities and engagements of the organization
Encourage more and more people to provide monetary assistance

It is a humane activity and this is what you have to highlight in order to make people want to become a part of it. The stories should be personal as well as non-personal. Non-profit organizations are as much about people working there as well as people and environments they are impacting.

Quality content is the best SEO

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As rightly mentioned in this blog post titled “The big SEO secret for bloggers” there is nothing like high-quality content when it comes to improving your search engine rankings. Long gone are the days when you had to use “SEO tactics” to get good rankings; right now it is primarily the quality of your content that decides what rankings you’re going to enjoy over the search engines.

So it doesn’t matter how you publish and organize your content? Sure, it does. You have to organise your content in such a manner that it is easier for search engine crawlers to find your content, index it and rank it.

Do your niche keywords matter?

They do. But you don’t have to go overboard. Using “keywords” doesn’t mean a certain density, it just means using the right words to convey your message and prepare your content. For instance, if I write a blog post on content writing, this expression should appear in the text rather than “content preparing” or “content formulating” (I know it doesn’t mean anything, but it is just an example). The basic idea is, delivering some value that makes people come to your blog or website again and again, and this is what search engines are looking for. They want to present relevant links to their users.

Doesn’t bad content rank well any more?

It surely does. Search engine algorithms are not foolproof and sometimes links that don’t deserve good rankings get good rankings. But they don’t enjoy good rankings for long, sooner or later they are discovered and then allocated ranking they deserve.

Spend more and more time on producing better quality content rather than lots of content and you will see a marked difference in your search engine rankings and also, your conversion rate.

It’s not necessary that a native English-speaking person is a better content writer

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Can a John Smith write better website content than a Kwasi Nkrumah from Ghana? Do you need to hire the services of Lindsay Cambridge from Virginia to write great contents for your site? Interesting enough, most people think it takes a native English Speaker to write quality web contents that prompts the reader to take an action. A good content can pave the way to success. Putting right words at right places doesn’t just ensure the outcome of quality content but it also guarantees a steady growth in the conversion rate of a website.

A well structured, search-engine friendly, informative content can ensure regular flow of traffic. But does it necessarily have to written by a Native English Speaker, preferably an American or a British?

First thing first, the purpose of this article is not to prove that native English speakers are not good content writers. The purpose of this article is to show that even people from non-English-speaking regions can create professional, good quality and relevant content.

In this article, I intend to convince you why you don’t need to ALWAY hire a native English Speaker to write your content. For those of you who don’t know what content writing is; Content writing is a service offered mainly to website owners and businesses, where the individual (content writer) specializes in providing relevant text content for the website. Content writing itself can come in many forms and companies or individual that offers it can write about one specific category or a broad range, usually the ones that target a certain niche.

Content writing is a skill; and like any other skill the more you practice the better you get. You can be born in London, by parents who are English Teachers and even might have attended the most prestigious Journalism school in London. That would certainly not make you a good content writer. Never ever think because you are surrounded by native English Speakers or you are a native English Speaker; you could one day wake up pick your laptop write some few words, get it published on a website and bam! You are the next Ninja content writer sensation on the Internet.

Content writing is an art, and just like learning how to play a game of Chess; the more you practice the better you become. You can’t learn Martial Art by watching videos from a Martial Art Expert. Likewise you don’t become a better content writer because you are a Native English Speaker. Of course you have the advantage of already knowing the language and not having to spend too much time learning the finer things, the subtle nuances of the language.

Characteristics of a good content writer

The role of a content writer and the process of developing content for a web site is often an unclear task. Generally, when a company decides to redesign their site, they do not take the task of content creation and management fully into the scope of the project, and very rarely understand the nature of the role, the process or the deliverables involved. Finding someone to manage the content process for your website requires the person to have (some of) the following characteristics:

Self-Running: A good content writer needs to be self-running or a self starter and must have the understanding of what is required to develop website content. Each project and situation is different. This person will need to manage a very daunting and deadline driven process. Digging for information, pushing to make deadlines and running solo without much guidance is a prerequisite.
Organized: Every content writer needs to have the organizational and management skills to manage the process of content development. This generally requires the ability to set and make deadlines, manage resources and budgeted time, set expectations and communicate effectively. In addition, good content writers use a writing checklist, a calendar or task organizer. The individual needs to be detail-oriented and able to handle multiple tasks at one time.
Web savvy: Content writers don’t need to know the ins and outs of HTML but should be familiar with enough markup to call out links and bold or italicized text to increase the chances of the content being ranked higher by search engines. A good content writer should also master the art of creating catchy heading and sub headings for any piece of article to grasp the reader’s attention.
Ability to write and Edit: A good content writer should have the flair for writing and submitting nearly flawless (preferably, error-free) work. Despite living in an age where texting and three letter acronyms are common, writing issues like misspellings, typos, improper subject-verb agreement, poor grammar and slang should not be a part of a properly executed Content Writing.

There are some characteristics that make one stand out as a good content writer. So if you are a Kwame from Ghana, a Thiago Brazil, Asmara from Indonesia or an Amrit Hallan from India; if you develop these characteristics your chances of becoming a good content writer would increase exponentially.

You do not need to hire a native English Speaker to write better contents. Content writing is a skill, the more you write the better you get, and the more effective you become in communicating with your target audience.

How to create content to engage your prospects

Your content has to be relevant in order to engage your prospects

Content marketing entails sending out content to your prospects on an ongoing basis. Now, sending out content doesn’t mean that they are automatically looking forward to it. They need to want it. Why would they want your content? It solves their purpose. Nobody is interested in hearing from you for sheer love except for your mom or your smitten girlfriend or boyfriend. You have to deliver them content that solves problems. You have to deliver them something that entertains them, informs them, and encourages them to remain in touch with you and engage in conversations whenever desirable.

But how do you deliver relevant content when different people have different tastes?

For that you have to properly understand your audience (your prospects). Why would they want to hear from you? Step into their shoes instead of assuming that they would like to hear from you anyway (because your product or service is so great). The relevancy of your content depends on

The product or service you are marketing
The format of the content people prefer in your market
The regional/indigenous preferences
The pressing needs of your readers/visitors

Once you have these things sorted out you can create relevant content for your market.

You need to publish content regularly

Just as quality and relevancy is important the regularity of your content publishing is vital too. You need to be constantly visible only then you can become familiar to your visitors. When you publish content regularly it gives everybody a reason to talk about it and consequently, maintain a buzz around it.

With the right mix of relevancy and regularity you can create engaging content that encourages your visitors and your friends and followers on social networking websites to engage in conversations with you and establish long-term relationships that eventually may turn into business partnerships.

What makes you an outstanding content writer?

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Becoming an outstanding content writer

So are you an outstanding content writer?

I was just now going through this “Business Insider” article that talks about how you have to be above average, or rather extraordinary in order to survive today’s work environment. Of course we have different definitions of exactly what is extraordinary and outstanding; it depends on your level of expertise and the degree of competition you face around you. But the article makes sense.

Since I provide content writing services, I am thinking in terms of a content writer; what makes you an above-average content writer? To understand this we have to go to the root of exactly what service you have to provide in order to become extraordinary.

Although my primary business is providing content I have no hesitation in admitting that it’s not the most important thing in your Internet marketing kitty, nonetheless it is the most fundamental thing. I mean, if you don’t have content, you have got nothing. It isn’t just content that can help your business. You need to disseminate that content, you need to market it (and hence, content marketing), you need to grab attention, you need to improve your search engine rankings, and you need to maintain a constant buzz on social media and social networking websites.

Of course you should be able to write quite well and create compelling content that converts, but that’s a given. Listed below are a few things you can do in order to become

An outstanding content writer

Practice your art, constantly: Like any other art or skill, content writing needs brushing up every day. It is an invisible muscle that begins to grow weak if you don’t use it all the time, and use it in the right manner. Write as much as you can. You should write even if you don’t have work right now. I have seen many aspiring content writers and bloggers shying away from writing unless they have got paying assignments. This atrophies their ability. Write just for the sake of writing and you will sooner or later – provided you promote your services in the right manner – will get paying assignments. But unless you write well, you’re not going to get paying assignments. So practice, practice and practice.
Stretch your content writing abilities: You shouldn’t just write about things you are comfortable with. Write on totally alien topics because this is how you have to write when you begin to create content professionally. You are not just going to get what you like. Many times you will get assignments you have never even heard of. You will have to learn many things, and learn them in such a manner that you can write about them clearly. So you might as well start writing on “difficult” topics right now rather than getting into a fix later on.
Read constantly: There are very few professional writers who don’t read regularly. Reading isn’t always about entertainment and passing time, it gets you into that mode that creates conducive environment for writing. Reading begets writing. It triggers your muse. You get to learn many new expressions and you also get to learn how various writers express various emotions and expressions in their own ways. You should also read contemporary literature, articles and essays so that your language is not antiquated.
Expand your intellectual horizon: Writing doesn’t just mean you can write error-free sentences. Good readers can read between the lines and they can easily make out what’s your intellectual level. Always try to broaden your perspective. A big reason why I constantly get new content writing assignments (I have been providing professional content since 2004) is because I haven’t limited myself to providing just content. When my clients hire me, they get a complete package and in most of the cases, especially when it comes to doing business online, they rarely have to brief me or provide me extra information. When you know stuff, you can write with conviction. It also saves you lots of time and speeds up your writing.
Create an active presence for yourself: Unless people know of your existence how are they going to give you work? And since most of the people these days come in contact with other people via social networking websites, you have to be present there, and not just as an inactive account, but a vibrant and active profile. You don’t have to be present on every platform. For example, you can just choose Facebook and Twitter and be regularly visible there. It also reassures your prospective clients that you’re not someone lurking around quietly without any testimonial and reference. When they know that you can be easily found, it’s easier for them to trust you as a reliable content writer.
Provide a turnkey content writing solution: Your client shouldn’t have to work with different vendors in order to meet his or her content writing and content marketing requirements. Provide exceptionally well-written content, and if your client also has to market the content and disseminate it, you should be able to help him or her out. Even when your client needs to formulate a long-term content strategy he or she shouldn’t have to seek another content provider? Have enough experience and knowledge to provide strategy and consulting whenever required.

So these are a few work habits and professional traits that can help you become an outstanding content writer. You don’t always have to wear different hats at the same time, it’s all about knowing what you do. This is where you can get an edge. You will notice that most of the content writers simply create a website, somehow manage to create a search engine presence, and after that provide totally uninspiring content writing services. You can survive that way, but you cannot thrive. In order to thrive in the content writing business, provide a package, instead of a service. Provide a solution, instead of a product.