This content strategy post is a future-focused and administrative update so please skip if you are just interested in more creative or philosophical writings. For various reasons, I’ve had some free time lately without some of my recent obligations as a father (nurseries have many upsides!) and I’ve done something of an audit of the CamZhu site.
There is much more to digital strategy (e.g. audience profiling and SEO) than what I will outline below, but this is enough to give any reader the idea of how I intend to grow this site. Firstly, I feel I should point out that this website is a personal project and a long term hobby of mine. It is highly likely to remain just that for the foreseeable future.
My vision is one of organic growth. I don’t sell a service through the site and I am reluctant to go down the ads route. Therefore, I will not be throwing any money at its growth. CamZhu has a steadily growing readership grounded mostly in people I know or have met. Over the next three years, I would really like it to take off in terms of visitors and that will require some planning and effort.
Branding and Visual Appeal
I decided to make stronger and more decisive use of colour throughout the site. Hence the change from plain white to a more vibrant orange header and introduction of strong reds. The colour orange is often associated with creativity, especially in Eastern traditions. I also thought it resembled the saffron robes worn by Buddhist monks throughout South-East Asia.
I have used the same style of edits on a number of my own pictures from recent China trips to use as featured images and headers across all my social channels. The colour works with the changes to the scheme of the site, so that is a bonus.
I’ve actually been thinking about a logo for quite some time but haven’t worked one through yet. There’s a couple of months in this year left though and I will be hoping to get something on paper and online before the New Year.
More use of Social Media
I very recently set up an alternative account on Twitter which will just be dedicated to my digital artworks. That way I can focus on being a normal non-promoting human on Twitter (a minority I’m sure). I retain @camzhuart Instagram account for the same reason.
As for my foray into the world of YouTube last year, I admit a marginal defeat on that front. I haven’t given up totally just yet though. I plan to repurpose my own original content, improve the audio and visual elements and use that to supplement the CamZhu blog during the early months of 2020.
I am not focusing too much on LinkedIn for the moment, but it’s still interesting. Primarily as it is going to be a growth area for lead-development and links. Therefore, I intend to post one original productivity or mindfulness-at-work type article on LinkedIn each week.
Sticking to a Content Schedule
Perhaps crucially I am going to stick to a posting schedule for ideally the first three months of 2020. I have yet to finalise this but it will involve two CamZhu blog posts a week. Most likely one will be of a philosophical nature, and one on creativity or my opinion.
The other important news for the blog is that I will reignite my use of email. I intend to send out an email update at the end of each month which will contain a summary list of content from the past month. I may end up making these more personalised, time permitting.
So that’s the plan
And that’s the basics of the plan for CamZhu’s growth. There is actually a lot more depth to a digital strategy than branding, content creation and regular promotion through identified channels. I’m just not sure the rest is at all interesting for my current readership.
Reach out if you have any thoughts or ideas on this.
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