No *insert big event* Fever here!

Whenever something big happens (think sporting events in particular but royal events are right up there too) businesses around the world conjure up blog headlines and articles that have some link to it, no matter how tenuous. 

Is this a good idea? 

Topical articles can be good but only if they are  relevant. And by relevant I mean “closely connected or appropriate to the matter in hand”

If you’re a business coach or mentor and something happens on the pitch/court/track etc that relates to team work or self-belief or mental attitude then I can see how using that as an example works really well.

Alas, all to often the headlines and article just don’t hit the mark. 

Yet people do it because they think “ooh lots of people will be looking for <insert topical event> articles, this will be really good for our SEO and website traffic”

But really, when was the last time you were Googling for news on whatever sporting event was happening and you thought “ooh there’s a link from a knitting company about it… bet that’s got in-depth analysis of the event!”

I’ve just spent a good chunk of time this morning unsubcribing from a stack of newsletters because what they were sending was either boring, repetitive or irrelevant.

On the plus side, they did give me the idea for this article, which I hope you will find relevant. 

If you want people to value what you write and see you as a source of useful information, think twice about latching on to what’s in the news. Contact me for a consultation if you need some inspiration.

And here’s one of my favourite blogs for Digital and User Experience.