Image courtesy of Sebastien Wiertz’s photostream
Blog content production for content marketing’s sake feels like the hard work where many of us spend the most time. The truth is that the promotion side is actually more important, since our content is only useful when others consume it. If you’re not getting the traction that you want in your content marketing efforts, it might be time to shift focus away, temporarily, from content creation and towards content promotion.
Here are six steps to getting the most out of your content through promotion.
1 – Post To Facebook, with an Image
Facebook is a must for sharing your content if you want to get maximum mileage, with such a large user population and simple sharing for viral traffic. A tip for posting to your Facebook page is that, regardless of the type of content, upload an image to represent your article, video or whatever it might be. Images get the most play, so leverage that and include a link and details about your piece in the description on Facebook.
2 – Share to LinkedIn, including Targeted Groups
If your business is B2B, then LinkedIn can be a gold mine. Since there’s just a fraction of the sharing going on in LinkedIn that happens elsewhere, you can stay top of mind and get more recognition for content shared on LinkedIn. But the LinkedIn crowd can be a little fickle, so don’t over share, save it for your original content and other really good stuff.
When you are sharing your content, also target LinkedIn Groups (since you can post directly to these targeted audiences) when you share your content. Be sure to put a little description and tell group members what the big takeaway is from your piece.
3 – Pin to Pinterest with a Link
Pinterest generated more ecommerce sales than any other social site in 2012, including Facebook, so don’t underestimate this platform. Pinterest actually offers an SEO advantage, as well, when pinning content there, since you can link back to the source. Be sure to upload images to represent your content and include that link back to your blog post or whatever else you’re publishing.
4 – Google+ Plus, plus Communities
While the word on the street is that Google+ is going to be dismantled into a few standalone products, you still have a combination of what LinkedIn and Pinterest bring to the table for SEO purposes and targeting an audience. Google+ (or whatever it’s spin off services will be called) will still be a strong player for businesses that care about search. Publish to Google+ and be sure to share directly to the communities that have a good population of users that would be interested in the content.
5 – Tweet and Retweet
Twitter is an obvious location to promote your content. Tweet a brief description and shortened link to your content and use a good hashtag, if appropriate. The secret lies not in these steps, but in the fact that there are some many tweets being pushed out at any given time that almost nobody sees all of what goes out there. Leverage this by tweeting your content multiple times, not just once. While you should vary your message a bit, you’ll reach many more users and get more clicks by repeatedly tweeting content, than just one time.
6 – Repurpose for Other Outlets
There are so many places to push out good content out. Depending on the content type, don’t be afraid to try new avenues, such as other sites to share audio, video, images or text content. Repurpose what you have into other formats and the opportunities for exposure just continue to open up.