There’s nothing new. There’s nothing original.

If social media and micro-blogging are blessings, the curse they bring is of endlessly recycled mediocre ramblings. With the need to feed search engines and provide a continuous supply of articles and content, today’s marketing challenge is how to remain interesting, useful, relevant or entertaining when the option to unfollow, switch off or ignore is so easy to choose.

When every business is scratching around for something original to say, the only realistic option is to relax and find another approach. Most media content – from adverts on television to gags used by comedians - is not new, but to be successful it has to appear fresh. Simply repeating the same unchanged story again and again, as many are doing, is an instant turn-off. It’s like meeting someone at a party who always tells the same joke, which wasn’t that funny the first time round: someone we try to avoid.

Give three people the same speech to read and each one will deliver it differently. Some will read woodenly and make the audience sleepy, others will be mildly interesting, while a few will project the words with the energy and emotion to hold the audience spellbound. That’s what we have to aim for: spectacular delivery.

Technology, tools and content are important, but it’s the manner of delivery that bind them to work together successfully. I’m sure that occasionally the new and original can be found, but much of what we say and read is based on or inspired by what exists already. We can choose to discard it in boredom, trot it out again flatly without enthusiasm or use our creativity to refresh it and relaunch it in a format that enables successful communication.

How do we do that?

By using our personality and creativity to add relevance and interest. What are our customers interested in? What will they find attractive? What will they take notice of? Strip away unnecessary words and details, adapt the story to our clients, our sector, the current climate. Use the tone of voice, language, cultural references with which people identify. The result will be the same story but fresh, relevant, targeted and useful: with more chance of people listening, following and taking notice.

Many businesses or organisations decided to publish a newsletter and launch enthusiastically into issue 1 as their first and last effort. Maintaining periodical production is like keeping a train or heavy lorry moving: it takes a tremendous amount of effort at first, but as long as you keep it moving it will roll along almost effortlessly. The danger is in letting it stop; then you have to start it moving all over again.

Over the years, I’ve edited newsletters and magazines for companies, business organisations and voluntary groups, and the above applies to all of them.

How do you attract people’s interest and participation? Obviously, producing a publication that is worth reading is important, but I also try to reach out to every area of the company or organisation to represent their interests. The result is that people start to send you contributions or suggest ideas for articles voluntarily.

I’m editing a magazine at the moment and have received a variety of articles ranging from the interesting to the ones where I’ve politely suggested some improvements to the writer. While not everyone is a natural writer, nobody likes to be told that their contribution is too poor to publish, and it’s surprising how some positive suggestions can result in an improved article the next time.

I really enjoy editing magazines because of the enjoyment they can give both to contributors and readers. It’s worth putting in the effort to maintain the momentum and keep interest alive.

Robert Zarywacz