As part of my job duties, I help clients brainstorm different content ideas for linkbait and viral spread. Oftentimes I’m brainstorming for the same niche, meaning I have to come up with dozens of ideas for one industry. This process can get tricky, as it’s often hard to come up with fresh ideas for one topic week after week. I thought I’d share some things that I do to try and get the creative juices going.

Last week I wrote about the sting of real-time product feedback and how Domino’s appeared to be filtering out some tweets that were being displayed in a feed on their homepage. Some commenters pointed out to me that a few of the tweets might have been removed for having offensive or questionable content. While I don’t necessarily think that “projectile vomiting” is inappropriate to display (hyperbolic, yes, but still valid feedback), I can make the case for filtering out a user named “cyberphucker” for a family-friendly website. Still, other comments that were safe for work appeared to be removed, but I won’t get into that right now. What I do want to talk about is when you can justify removing user-generated content. Below I’ve outlined different exceptions where deleting comments, reviews or feedback is justified.

I’ve come up with a lot of content and link bait ideas for clients in the past few years. Most of the time they’re excited about the ideas, but every once in a while I’ll run into a client who is nervous or doubtful about the content I’m proposing. Most of the time they’re unsure of how appropriate the tone of the piece is, and it can often be difficult to let go of an idea that you know will do well virally. Other times they’re worried that their CMS can’t handle something as substantive as an infographic or other complex piece of content. Below I’ve outlined some suggestions on how to get your client on board with your content suggestions. Trust me, it’s much better to have your client on your side when it comes to content — if you can’t convince your client that a piece will do well, you’ll almost certainly run into roadblocks and failure down the road.

Need easy ideas for linkbait? Want to get all seasonal on it? Well we have a helpful list to get your pre-winter creative juices flowing! By looking at some of the topics and finding a way to relate to your field, you can harness the momentum of that topic and hopefully get more traction. November is jam-packed with possibilities, including the following:

A lot of folks still don’t quite understand the benefit of having user-generated content on your site. It seems logical to have someone else do the work for you, doesn’t it? They create the content and you reap the benefits of indexed pages, better rankings and more sales, or, in growing cases, a book deal. Below I’ve highlighted three sites that have scored book deals thanks to the content others have created for them.

It seems like it should be a no-brainer. If you are going to take the time to develop content and promote it on social networks, you should take the time to track your efforts so that you can showcase cold hard facts to your boss/client/company. This is where the details come in, and I have listed them out in an easy to consume social media checklist over at Search Engine Land!