Ditch These 6 Content Idea Cliches ASAP

I had an interesting conversation with my mentor a few days ago about cliches. It came out of the blue when I mentioned the word, ‘Cliche’ and he shared one of the greatest instances of breaking a cliche.

Remember that disastrous movie ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’? It had a special 30 seconds scene of an airplane right during dusk and in a way that captures the World Trade Centre. And it cost the director 80k dollars!

Yep, you read that right!

Why?

Because the director wanted to BREAK the cliche of landing a plane ordinarily in some remote airport where loved ones either go apart from or come running hugging each other and being emotional and bla bla bla.

Yes, that’s how crazy people go when they are determined to break cliches. And really, you cannot win the content experience game if you refuse to be creative and competitive. And the hard work behind that one scene saved that not-so-great movie after all! (Or so I heard.)

And to make your content distinguished and make it 80k USD shot worthy, here are 6 content ideas cliches you need to ditch now:

• We don’t do it like that: You cannot be rigid and templatize everything. You can either be creative or stick to your formats and templates. Ideas come from what people like talking about, what’s trending, what’s the latest hot takes and they can never remain the same. Templates are good for starters but you cannot say ‘we don’t do it like that in the long term.
• Measuring everything in numbers: Don’t write content just because it’s trending and getting views. Since LinkedIn boost the polls, I have seen people giving polls about anything and everything. Just another day, I saw a poll that asked “Who’s the new CEO of Twitter?” Like seriously, anyone can Google it, you don’t clutter my feed with that useless thought. Original ideas and beliefs might not give you an eye-pleasing engagement or impressions but it’s the only way to survive in the digital community.
• Let’s do it because they are doing it too: No No No! Being aware and imitating are totally different things. You need to know what others in your line are up to. But that never means you should straightaway follow their footsteps and post all those things they talk about. Relevance and originality are going to be the only key to the success door.
• Talking about what’s obvious: “Yes, I know the Earth is not flat, it’s round and revolves and rotates around the Sun. Now what?” Repeating notions that your customers already know and experience every day doesn’t make sense at all. The only way to cut through the noise is to surprise them with solutions. What if people do it in this way? How can your idea make their life easier? Why should they consider reading your thoughts? Make sure to answer that before you frame your content ideas and content.
• We want to play it safe: There’s nothing called ‘play safe’ in the content world. Out-of-the-box always wins. Zomato, Cred, Paytm, Ola is killing it with their unconventional punches and storytelling. Take risks with your content and observe how the audience reacts. It’s the only way to know what’s really on people’s minds.
• Rewarding results only: You cannot rely on short-term results, jump to conclusions based on a few metrics. You need to come out of your bubble and create content that makes the audience feel like interacting. That’s the ROI you need to rely on.

These are just a few of the content cliches for you to escape. What else would you add to the list? Mention in the comments.