Meta, Data, Whatta?!

On social, have you ever noticed how your favorite websites always make you click over to their sites? Then, once you’re there, isn’t it kind of annoying how you read exactly the same two lines you had just read before on FaceTweetIn?

Well, my friends and readers, that’s called content and creative strategy.

The semi-official name is metadata writing for social. For those of us who may have a vague idea about the subject, those are basically the little breadcrumbs left for websites and social media sites to have relations with each other.

It’s simple: one piece of code connects with another piece of code. Then, a beautiful image and message appears in your favorite social network(s).

Here’s a much smarter person, Thomas Bradley, explaining it. BONUS: It’s a YouTube video, so no more reading! Metadata: social media tags

But that’s not why I’m sharing this with you today. I want to go back to that strategy thing.

See the cool thing about writing for the interwebs is that you can control (hold hands, if you will) your audience’s experience. Most people may not know this, but when you are creating content for your website, you absolutely need to think about how that content will express itself on other networks. After all, you do want people to care about whatever it is you are doing. Yes? (Hopefully.)

So, here’s an even simpler trick: Think about what you want your audiences to take away from your content or message on the other side. And make that part of your headline, hero image and opening statement.

These three things are literately (OMGah!) the deciders of whether or not people will give zero or all the cares (self censorship) about what you have to share, sell or say.

Happy (digital) creating.