How to Promote Your Content Online
Writing compelling and beautifully expressed content is critical to the success of your business. However, that is only half of your success formula. The other half is sharing the content with as many high-quality connections as possible.
Your content is only as valuable as the people who share it with their friends. If you write content but don’t syndicate it, in other words, it sits on your website with nowhere to go, what good is it going to do you or anyone else? The answer is that it won’t make any sort of impact at all. You should regard your content as the beginning of the process, not the end of it.
Your content marketing strategy should include strong keywords and relevant and timely topics, an top-quality editorial (quality control) plan, and a plan on how you intend to promote your content. Because of the tremendous volume of content that is available online, it is very easy for other people to become overwhelmed and not have any clue about what they should pay attention to and what they should not pay attention to. If you don’t share high-quality content (on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), you may get people to engage with you once but you won’t be able to keep them. If you don’t want to or don’t have the time to write and/or syndicate the content, you should get someone else to do it for you. The most important thing is that it is shared with other people.
There are many ways in which you can effectively promote your content, such as the following:
Pushing your content toward other people
There are many people who really like to have content given to them. It is convenient and once they have started to read and appreciate the content, they will come to rely on it more and more. Why not make it as easy as possible for them to get involved. However, if you (as the business owner) are very busy and you really don’t have a lot of time to do this, this approach may be difficult.
Promoting your content through social media channels
Promoting your content through the various social media channels will most likely lead to increased exposure for your business as well as increased backlinks and high-quality traffic. The links can positively influence the way that the search engines see your web presence, which will add another source of traffic that is relevant to your business.
Promoting your content can inspire syndication of your content
The more content your offer other people online, the greater your chances of getting mentioned on other blogs and other forms of online media. Catching the eye of bloggers of influence can lead to future mentions and interactions.
Understanding your online communities
It is critical that you understand the other members of your online communities. You should try to engage them as much as possible in all aspects of your business. The more you interact, the more ideas you will have that will keep your content fresh and relevant. It is essential that you capture and maintain the interest of those people with whom you share a relationship. You should think about the approach that you want to take for your business before you actually do anything. It is important to customize your content marketing plan to be appropriate for those people who you are trying to influence and with whom you wish to engage.
Conclusion
Content is definitely king. It is extremely important that you never underestimate the power of your content. If it is done correctly (the writing and the syndication), it will touch many people, provoke them into thinking differently than they ever did before, and really want to continue to interact with you. The more you interact, the greater your chances of eventually turning them into loyal customers who will stick with you and your business through time.
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Great advise! You are an experienced marketer, no doubt:-)
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Marketing Communication
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
I agree also for your organic rankings with Google. It is extremely important.
With the new Panda update, if you do not have content-rich website, you will drop in their rankings.
Posted by Stephen A. Colangelo Jr.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Non-Fiction Writers
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
Hi, Carolyn,
I have been reading your postings with interest as I am just venturing into the Ebook marketplace with a novel "The Fabulous Dreams of Maggie de Beer", and am blogging about the experience as I go at.
Having been publishing books in the traditional way for many years as an author and a ghostwriter, I am now convinced that the internet offers writers a whole new world of possibilities.
Andrew Crofts
Posted by Andrew Crofts
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
even i completely agree , i deal with international clients and also use various CRM activities for my business . it gets very tough to analyse the exact expressions in words when dealing with existing clients or promoting through blogs /articles/newsletters. also to use the right contact for this purpose involves a smart strategy.
Posted by pooja bagga
Great article here, Carolyn!
It's always refreshing to meet another person that sees the SEM and SEO value in Social Media and focusing on Content Development. It's a great way to create referral AND organic traffic sources, while getting people to come back too!
Content syndication is an interesting thing. It's great when it's done with proper attribution.. but, if done wrong, it can hurt search rankings, tarnish your reputation, and create branding conflicts.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: MCCC – Morris County Chamber of Commerce
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
I couldn't agree more. Might I add, creating quality custom-branded video content is a perfect way to engage prospects. Couple it with SEO and you're on the right track.
Posted by Cathy Beck
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Digital Marketing
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
Carolyn,
Nice post. I shared these same 3 points with Matt from a prior discussion.
Here are three more things to think about with content marketing:
1. You are now a publisher. Make sure you have a well-tuned publishing engine in place.
2. Less is more in content marketing. You want the minimal amount of content which will create an exchange of value for the prospect and let them take some kind of action (if they want to) which brings them closer to your solution.
3. Be careful about requiring "registration" for content. Best practice is content associated with early buying stage should be free.
Posted by Debbie Qaqish?
Hi Carolyn,
Super points here.
I luv the note of understanding your online communities and engaging frequently. Engaging helps you better connect with folks, and when you connect your content becomes that much more attractive.
A good friend will gladly RT or FB share your posts before someone who you haven't formed a connection with.
Thanks for sharing your insight!
RB
LinkedIn Groups
Group: Guerrilla Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
Thanks! You just gave me an idea for sharing my theater column based in Oakland, CA.
Posted by Ashley West
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: NY Entrepreneurs Business Network (NYEBN)
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
Identify LinkedIn groups that would have the most interest in your content. Since you cannot join them all, pick the ones with the largest membership or membership that represents the best prospects for you. Consider writing an "expert column" for your chamber or trade group and make sure any accomplishments are shareds with your high school and college networks. They are always looking for news about their grads.
Posted by Mark Grimm
Thank you for a highly readable and intelligent article.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Intelligent Social Media
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
This article is exactly what I like to find. You don't need to sound like a Harvard professor to write something of value. You might want to check out http://www.read-able.com/ to find your readability score. If you want to be an appreciated writer on the web, you should be writing for the average 8th grader! Anyway, thanks Carloyn for a highly readable discussion.
Posted by Victoria Garcia
Great advice. Thank you.
Via LinkedIn Groups
Group: Books and Writers
Discussion: How to Promote Your Content Online
Authors also need to create content, which can be intimidating in and of itself.
Posted by Karin Bilich
Via Biznik
Syndicating your content is definitely a must when it comes to getting exposure. The good news is it does not have to be difficult with automatic syndication tools like Ping.FM. Also if your site is created on WordPress, you can also use plugins to syndicate your articles automatically to the top social networks, bookmarking, and microblogging sites.
Marc Marseille
Via Biznik
These tips are extremely valuable. Finding ways to share content and spread your message via the online sources is the key to any writing endeavor Increasing exposure is the key and understanding how to do that is vital.
Personally, I am a proponent of Twitter. Within that is a blog society called Triberr. We retweet other people's blog articles. Within that we take advantage of StumbleUpon. All this is in an effort to develop an online presence with the search engines.
James Ross
Via Biznik
Hey Carolyn you have really rocked it out with this article people go to the Internet looking for answers to their questions & solutions to their problems, our job in creating content is to make it keyword rich so they can find out site with the problems to their solutions! Thanks for sharing this article.
Toshiba Burton
Via Biznik
Thank you, Carolyn. Your commentary was very helpful; clear, concise, and to the point. I just published a book; A Doer Seller’s Guide to Being Successful at Sales. I have been looking for some guidance in promoting the book. You have given me some ideas that I intend on implementing after the first of the year.
I am active on LinkedIn but have not set up an account on Face Book or Twitter. Which do you all recommend, Face Book or Twitter for promoting a business book?
Howard Dion
Via Biznik
Carolyn's got a lot of good points here, especially the way many small businesses are under-utilizing social media. Also don't forget your local media outlets.
But also remember how difficult it can be to handle your own articles for these reasons:
It's hard to be objective about what makes a good story idea when it comes to your own biz.
It's VERY hard to make the time to do the writing when you have all the other business aspects to handle, especially sales.
Most people can't find their own typos.
There are actually different types of writing techniques for different venues: what works for your local paper isn't right for Diggs, which isn't what's needed for LinkedIn and definitely doesn't work as a Tweet!
Writing's a skill, like any other. I will never be an accountant, even with the world's greatest computer program. Most people cannot truly be viable marketing writers.
Remember, if you don't send out quality material, you'll actually hurt your image…not help it.
Wendy Meyeroff
Via Biznik
Your article is right on. Being in business takes work and too many start up an online business without thoroughly thinking it through – thus failing in short order. Marketing is key to getting your business out in front of potential customers. It's a process you either learn through trial and error or hire to have done for you.
Sandra Williams
At the same time there have also been those companies that have had good relations with their customers and as a result they have benefited from great business reputations. Your clients will always sniff out for verification about your business. And the conversion aspect is going to be tough as my client has a giant negative review showing up on page 1 position 2 of GOOGLE when someone searches for his name.