In our last few posts we have gone back to basics, as our clients have been clamoring for better approaches to blogging. Today, ContentRobot offers some inspiration for generating ideas for your stories in hopes to create conversation and that all-important buzz.

1. State Your Beliefs
What do you believe in? By telling these types of stories, you can connect emotionally to your readers. Help them to see into your (or your company’s) soul, they’ll know what you are thinking and why.

2. Be a Newsbreaker
Let your readers know about what’s happening at your company or in your industry first. By having the inside story before it’s widely known and intelligently speaking about the new ideas, you’ll lay a foundation for viral and pass-along effect that can will encourage people to come back for more.

3. Be Controversial
Be bold with contrarian, counterintuitive, or challenging views. Provide opportunities for debate and discussions with angles that are not commonly stated or well-known. Without being cruel, tap into anxieties, desires, and other strong emotions to get people fired up to offer up their own positions.

4. Offer How-to Stories and Advice
Get down to business with pragmatic how-to advice. Tell your audience how to solve problems, find next (or best) practices, and overcome common obstacles. Offer some life lessons, tales from the trenches, and solutions that you and your company can provide. Try to be fresh and original by providing a new twist to what people already know.

5. Be Seasonal or Relate it to an Event
Tie your topic into seasonal or major events. For example, discuss industry predictions around the New Year, advertising during the SuperBowl, or being thankful at Thanksgiving.

The above was inspired by a post at Robert Guy Kawasaki’s excellent blog as he described insights from Lois Kelly’s book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing.