What makes a new thing worth making?

The B2B Writing Institute launches January 2020. Get your beta invitation early at https://b2bwritinginstitute.com/.

If you're going to start something new, you need to have new value to add.

But when I sat down to start developing social content for the B2B Writing Institute, guess how much success I was having when I focused on "add new value"?

Yep. Big, ol' goose egg.

Then I remembered advice I've heard from interviewing hundreds of CEOs, COOs, CMOs for content projects over the past five years:

Everything good starts with alignment.

So, I went back to the drawing board. How will this plan for social engagement tie back to our mission statement? And suddenly everything made sense.

Here's a look at the planning process for the B2B Writing Institute social engagement strategy:

I started with the mission statement, underlining the meaningful words and phrases. Then I mapped each of those phrases to a way I could support it.

"What would help people understand business writing?" I wondered.

Answer: Examples of the different types of writing, like a really good white paper or case study to read. A Who's Who list of B2B writing coaches and mentors who've worked hard and built big followings based on their knack for explaining things well.

"What would make business writing more accessible?" I thought.

Answer: Must-know definitions that you usually have to learn on your own or by making a mistake. A "Writer Wednesday" theme that introduces someone who's active in the B2B writing space and making a career for themselves, so new writers can see that people of all different kinds and all different backgrounds are succeeding in this field.

And so on.

These ideas turned into a weekly social engagement strategy that will go out in the Facebook group, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and then be summarized in an email on Fridays:

Let's see how it goes! And let's see how much new writers like learning about -- and adding their own thoughts and experiences to -- different B2B writing terms, practicing B2B writing folks, and everything in-between.

The next step is already in process: preparing 25 weeks of this strategy so it starts up with the foundations course launch. And you know what the coolest part was? The minute I started brainstorming, it was easy to come up with 25 business terms writers need to know for B2B writing, and even 25 B2B writers worth following or learning from. Because it's all in alignment.

Love,

Sarah

P.S. You're in the Facebook group, right?

P.P.S. Speaking of thast "Who's Who" of B2B Writing thought leaders, course makers, and coaches... If you know of a mentor who's had a profound impact on your B2B writing career, please tag them in the comments!