The ‘have a go’ spirit of Strictly: whose content ranks best?

Amy Wilson says organisations can create content to encourage and enthuse people to do something different. Here are some examples, which are already gathering crowds online

This TED talk given by Google engineer Matt Cutts on the subject ‘Try something new for 30 days’ has amassed an incredible 5.3 million views online.

The offbeat recruitment firm Escape the City, which advertises non-corporate jobs for frustrated corporate people, ranks seventh on Google for a search on “do something different” and has constructed its website around the testimonials of people who have upped sticks to Ghana or Chile, or joined tech start-ups and charities, and appealing images of them doing it.

Voluntary organisation VSO last year began campaigning to get more retired people to join its work overseas, beginning the push by surveying older people about using their skills and the way society viewed them post-retirement. The results it published on its website are the top-ranking content on Google for a search on “new experiences after retirement”.

The Smithsonian, the venerable Washington DC museum, gets its “28 Places to See Before You Die” list (published in its magazine) on the first page of Google. It ranks ahead of newspapers and travel companies because it is an authoritative voice and chooses its sites by criteria appropriate to its knowledge-seeking audience: the 28 places are split into “Portals into the Past”, “Feats of Engineering” and “A Matter of Timing” for natural wonders.

Finally, AARP, the interest group for retired people in the US and one of the most powerful lobbying organisations in that country, highlights the physical and mental benefits of dancing and where to do it to its members, in a website entry which ranks in the top five on Google.