Why quality is as key to your content as your product or service

Today is World Quality Day, which might bring to mind lots of European directives or checklists. And your product or service might well have all kinds of quality standards that you have to comply with. It probably takes up a lot of time to ensure that you keep those high standards.

When it comes to your content though, there’s no rulebook, no EU directives. You can measure quality though, and here’s some 5 possible ways on how you might do that.

With your gut

Come on, admit it. We all know when we’ve put out a piece of content that is not up to our normal standards or ideals. You’ve done it because you wanted to get something out, but that became the guiding principle. Anything was going to be better than nothing.

I think we’ve all done it. I could probably go back through posts on here and find some that would have been better left unpublished. Sometimes you just have to face into it, and either not post, or post to say why you’re not posting.

I’ve done both.

I find honesty pays. My post “Normal service will be resumed shortly” produced great open rates when it was sent out by mail, and good links through from social posts.

Guess you can never quite tell what people will find the most engaging!

It goes viral

Well, I guess this is certainly a strong measure. Perhaps you have created a piece of content that is that mythical creature, the piece that goes viral and is showing up all over the place.

You’re getting retweets and shares and comments. You’re on the Six O’Clock News. Okay, maybe not the last one, but you get the gist.

The thing is, in spite of the 182 million entries on Google, there really is no magic wand on how to make content go viral. And if anyone knows today, then it probably won’t be the same tomorrow, because customers won’t be the same tomorrow.

That said, I would say that the list that Jeff Bullas has created is a great checklist of things for creating quality content, not just viral content. He says it’s not a lottery, that doing these ten things puts you in the best possible position for it to go viral. Worth a shot.

Your customers and followers tell you it’s good

This is possibly one of the most satisfying measures, when people who already value what you do tell you that they think you did a great job. It’s even better when they do it by sharing what you’ve done with others who have yet to find you.

It’s still nice if they only tell you it’s good, but your business relies ultimately on getting the word out.

Someone unexpected shares it

I think there’s a moment for all of us when someone you admire comments, likes or shares your content. You can’t help it, but it feels like a big affirmation.

For me, it was Thomasina Miers liking one of my food posts, and then commenting on it. I was completely besides myself with excitement. Or maybe it’s a story being picked up the Huffington Post or the BBC. It’s a bit like it going viral, but every one of us is likely to have a different person or publication that’s our own tick of quality.

Do you know who yours is?

It brings a load of people to you

I guess this is part of it going viral, but if all people do is share your content and leave, then the opportunity is lost. What you really want to make sure is that it converts people to doing something. Are they signed up to your email list? Are they following you on your social media channels? Did they even buy something from you?

Those are just 5 measures that I think would tell you whether you’re hitting the quality mark. Which ones resonate for you? And which one would you work on to improve?