Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition

Creating an Editorial Guide

An editorial guide is a reference that will help you and others produce outstanding content. An editorial guide is the instruction manual for mixing your rocket fuel for optimal performance.

Rather than suggesting you start from scratch, I'd like to provide you a sample.

SocialMediaExaminer.com's Editorial Guide

What follows was sourced from SocialMediaExaminer.com's editorial guide. Feel free to model your own guide along these very same lines.

Audience profile: Please remember you are writing to a business audience who is likely not very experienced with social media marketing but is very knowledgeable about general marketing principles. Assume they understand some of the basic terms, like “tweet” and “retweet.” Our reader is likely a business owner or marketing professional. They are coming to Social Media Examiner to learn.

Article length: We suggest articles be at least 1,000 words in length (about two pages in Word). If your articles contain a lot of images, you can reduce the word count. However, content is key for us, so be sure to add plenty.

Use short sentences: Most online readers are skimmers. Accommodate them.

Add lots of subheads: Break your sections using Bolded Subheads. Try to get creative, as subheads lure readers to read your content.

Highlight key text: Please bold, or italicize key points you are trying to make. Feel free to mix the use as needed. Also, use bullets when you can.

Link to as many sources as possible: When you can, ...