Creating newsworthy content is an important step in the link building process, and arguably the best way to actually build those links. But before actually creating the content, you’ll need to do some research to ensure others find it just as newsworthy as you do. By looking into who your competitors are getting links from and what content is on the pages that are being linked you can get a good idea of what constitutes newsworthy content. From there you can brainstorm what content you need to create to get similar links. There are three main components to keep in mind when creating newsworthy content – data, emotion, and impact. Data requires you to essentially create your own news, drawing from research into industry relevant topics, emotion is important to consider to ensure the content makes readers feel what you’re wanting them to feel, and impact refers to whether or not the content’s subject matter actually effects readers.

Break Your Own News With Data

Data is probably the hardest component to come by considering most companies do not have a breaking news team, let alone any news operation in general. So where do you find this “breaking news?” You’ll essentially have to create it using a combination of internal and external sources. Your company’s own internal data can be a great place to find data that would be interesting to relevant publications, and you could even poll some of your existing customers to find out more. You’ll obviously need to be granted permission to take a deep dive into such data, but it could prove to be both rewarding and insightful. If you aren’t granted permission or your company data isn’t that interesting there’s always external data sources to comb through. There are tons of publicly available sets of data produced by the government and numerous other organizations, foundations, institutions, et cetera that give you the information necessary to “break” your own news. Combining data points from different sources is highly recommended, as you’ll likely be creating a new piece of insight that’s newsworthy.

Make Your Readers Feel Something

Injecting emotion is best done when it builds on the interesting parts of the content you’ve found, or created, with the data. When integrating emotion into your content you should be asking yourself “is this going to make someone feel something?” The content should not only resonate emotionally with the reader but also make them feel a specific emotion. The specific emotion you want to have manifested is up to you and will vary depending on the goal and subject matter of each piece of content. If you’re not sure what emotion should go with the content, surprise is always a good fallback because new and unexpected things tend to get an audience’s attention quickly. Obviously, you’ll have to work with what the data gives you and you can always inject the same emotion you had when first discovering it into the content.

Consider Significance

Lastly, impact will determine what content you actually end up publishing. You can find the most interesting piece of data in the world but if it doesn’t apply to your target audience or effect their daily lives it’ll hardly register as newsworthy. You may want to get a PR or digital marketing team involved with this component. A newsworthy piece of content needs to be original information with emotional resonance that appeals to a specific group of people. It may seem like a complicated process to go through for just a single piece of content but it’s hugely important considering the value it has in your link building process.   About the author: SocialSEO is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, near the base of Pikes Peak – “America’s Mountain”, (14,115 ft.). SocialSEO has grown from a “One-Man Band” to a National Brand with nearly 100 full time employees. SocialSEO has achieved over 1,000% growth in the past 5 years, investing in a business model that focuses on Customer and Employee retention/happiness. Greg Walthour, CEO and Founder, is a pioneer to the digital marketing space. He began his career as a commercial real estate broker. In 1996, his boss asked him to “help get the web site to rank higher in the search engines” (Yahoo, Lycos, and Alta Vista, at the time).