How to have ideas Practical
skills to improve your creativity & idea generation for content

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh The thing about
thinking is that no one thinks too much about thinking

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh SOME CRITICAL ISSUES
FOR FUTURE RESEARCH IN CREATIVITY A TECHNIQUE FOR PRODUCNG IDEASLATERAL THINKING Edward de Bono James Webb Young Donald W. MacKinnon Experts on creativity..

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh “You can put
lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig”

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh “You can put
lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” A piece of content can look good but without substance it will struggle to gain audience connection

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“Concept is king”

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Content marketing needs
creativity & much less of this...

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https://klientboost.com/ppc/the-top-10-worst-infographics-ever-created/

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http://www.pennyjuice.com/htmlversion/whoispj.htm

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http://www.gatesnfences.com/

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Learning basic thinking
skills can drastically improve creativity

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh ˚F ˚C WeightsWeights
g oz OVEN TEMPS METRIC CONVERSIONMETRIC CONVERSION IMPERIAL METRIC ½ oz 15g ¾ oz 20g 1oz 30g 2oz 60g 3oz 85g 4oz (¼lb) 115g IMPERIAL METRIC 10oz 285g 11oz 310g 12oz (¾lb) 340g 13oz 370g 14oz 400g 15oz 425g THE HANDY REFERENCE GUIDE FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES TO COOK VERY SLOW SLOW 250 120 275 140 300 150 325 170 Simple ideas based on a users needs Everest Kitchen Cheat Sheet

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh ˚F ˚C WeightsWeights
g oz OVEN TEMPS METRIC CONVERSIONMETRIC CONVERSION IMPERIAL METRIC ½ oz 15g ¾ oz 20g 1oz 30g 2oz 60g 3oz 85g 4oz (¼lb) 115g IMPERIAL METRIC 10oz 285g 11oz 310g 12oz (¾lb) 340g 13oz 370g 14oz 400g 15oz 425g THE HANDY REFERENCE GUIDE FOR ANYONE WHO LOVES TO COOK VERY SLOW SLOW 250 120 275 140 300 150 325 170 http://www.everest.co.uk/products/kitchens/kitchen-cheat-sheet/

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Input – Process
– Output

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@shelliwalsh
Input...

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Moz, smashingmag, A
List Apart, The Manual, The Great Discontent, 99u, Entrepreneur, Poynter, Nieman Labs, Sitepoint, ConversionXL, Creative Bloq, The Creativity Post, Fast Company, Design Milk, Swissmiss, Grain Edit, Information is Beautiful, Contently, The Guardian, NYT, WSJ, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Wired, Laughing Squid, Neatorama, 3quarksdaily, State of Digital, Search Engine Land, Brian Solis, Dave Trott, Pscychotactic Zingers, Zen Habits, Adweek, Brain Pickings, Aeon, Delicious, Contently, Search Engine Land, The Guardian, Quartz, Redef

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh “The creative person
wants to be a know it all, he wants to know about all kinds of things. He never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea... but the creative person has faith it will happen.” Carl Ally, NYC advertiser

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Be an ideas
magpie

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh “You can find
inspiration in everything. If you can’t then you’re not looking properly.” Paul Smith

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh How to deliver
long form content New York Times

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ec0fMhs0Vd
http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/27/south-china-sea/

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Process...

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Pattern matching

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Intelligence is a
potential Thinking is an operational skill

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Vertical thinking Traditional
thinking Logical Methodical Sequential Stops at first solution Lateral thinking Non-sequential Non-selective Removing preconception Being wrong Open to all ideas

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Reverse information &
reject the obvious

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Oppose elements

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http://spin.atomicobject.com/2013/01/08/innovation-brainstorming/
Brainstorming

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Six Thinking Hats
Edward de Bono

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh White hat: Information,
the input and gathering of facts

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Who is the
target demographic? Where is the content to be placed? Who will we outreach to? White hat: Information, the input and gathering of facts

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Red hat: Emotions,
expressing feelings and intuition

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh I feel we
should My gut tells me I like this/I don’t like this Red hat: Emotions, expressing feelings and intuition

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Black hat: Risk
assessment critical thinking

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh What are the
selling parameters? What would alienate our demographic? What would be too much of a risk? Black hat: Risk assessment critical thinking

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Yellow hat: Positive
logical, how an idea can be put into action

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh How do we
plan production? Where can we get placements? Who can we use to illustrate/write/code? Yellow hat: Positive logical, how an idea can be put into action

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Green hat: Creative,
alternatives, new ideas, possibilities

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh What if? Can
we? This is different Green hat: Creative, alternatives, new ideas, possibilities

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Blue hat: Defining
the problem and what is being thought about

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh How do we
get more placements? How do we generate the most traffic in the budget? How do we produce the best piece of content within our limited budget? Blue hat: Defining the problem and what is being thought about

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5 Whys

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The ‘why’ technique

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Start with
an element of your problem that you already know the answer to

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Start with
an element of your problem that you already know the answer to Student: Why are mobile phones flat and oblong? Teacher: They are flat to save space.

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Focus on
a part of the previous explanation

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Focus on
a part of the previous explanation Student: Why do they need to be small and save space? Teacher: So that they can fit in our pocket.

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Keep the
flow and keep moving forward (avoid circling back to the beginning)

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Keep the
flow and keep moving forward (avoid circling back to the beginning) Student: Why do we need to keep phones in our pocket? Teacher: It’s convenient, and we can carry them around more easily.

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Generate discomfort
through provocation (this is where new ideas will break through)

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Generate discomfort
through provocation (this is where new ideas will break through) Student: But why does the phone have to be convenient? Teacher: To make our lives easier by having less to carry around. Student: But why do we want to carry less around?

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Alternatives and
solutions can be offered at any point:

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? Alternatives and
solutions can be offered at any point: Teacher: “If we had a small watch on our wrist that we could speak commands to and that fed back to a ‘base station’ at home or the office, then we could combine a phone and a laptop and have to carry neither, only a watch.”

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? The roles
can be reversed at any point, again to create discomfort and provocation

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Why? The roles
can be reversed at any point, again to create discomfort and provocation Student: Why would we want to combine a laptop with a mobile phone? Teacher: I don’t know. Why do you think combining a laptop and a phone would be a good idea?

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Keep asking: Why?

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@shelliwalsh
image from www.commonsenseevaluation.com/tag/old-spice

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh image from oldspice.com/en/videos/old-spice-smell-like-a-man
5.9m YouTube views on the first day

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image from http://www.brodominiums.com/

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh image from http://www.thefl
atteringman.com/

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Sharp humour +
social media Old Spice

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@shelliwalsh
https://instagram.com/p/5xNE_MNNXH/?taken-by=oldspice

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Look for connections
“An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” James Webb Young

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Combine ideas The
first camera phone in 2000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-SH04#/media/File:Sharp_J-SH04_CP%2B_2011.jpg

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@shelliwalsh
http://crazywalls.tumblr.com/
Ideas wall

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Content101.com keywords influencers
idea source hosts theme Quoragoogle trends news sites bloggers social media social media facebook people twitter people Reddit people media sites authority hub sites online publishers online publishers offline media hub sites emotion I like this just because trends new styles looks good love this brand offline media/ books niche hash tags trends seasonal

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Combining random ideas
Sportbluff.com

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http://www.sportbluff.com

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Output...

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Digest
Meditate
Contemplate

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distracted
emotionrelaxed

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Be prepared –
ideas come at any time – don’t lose them

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Feedback & scrutiny

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh Agile and targeted
responsive content Totino’s Pizza

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http://www.totinosliving.com/article/buzzfeeds-50-unusable-stock-photos-used/

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Takeaways

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh  Anyone can
learn thinking skills  Intelligence does not equal thinking skills  Input + Process = Output  Look for connections  Combine two old ideas to make a new idea  Break your usual routine to get creative

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ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh download free ebooks
at: CONTENT101.COM

ShellShock.uk. @shelliwalsh hey you! Web:
ShellShockuk.com Content101.com Creativity101.com Twitter: @ShelliWalsh Linkedin: /in/shelliwalshShelli Walsh