The Strange Art of Content Marketing

Over 220 million people have seen this video, have you?

Finding and creating good content seems like such a crapshoot when something like this blows up to be a bigger deal than Linsanity. It can be overwhelming to so many of us, mainly because it’s time-consuming, it’s frustrating, and we feel like we are behind a step before we even start. We risk sensory information overload (is this even a thing?) but we know we need to keep putting up good content, so what can we do about it?

A lot of things are on the web right now (other than you) and it’s growing every day –your biggest competitor when you are out there creating content for your business is not just your business competitors, it is the rest of the internet. You are competing for the attention of online users and you are competing against companies that probably have a much bigger budget than you do. When creating content, you need to consider this: is this article, picture, tweet, blog post, good enough to get people to pay attention to it?

In order to keep growing your followers and fan base, and to get the most value out of your Social Media platforms, everything you put out there should be good enough that your followers want to share it with others. This is the best long-term content marketing strategy. The sooner you can get there strategically, the quicker you will see results. You need to appeal not just to your community, but also to your community’s friends, and to their friends, and to their friends, and so on. This is key. Enough other people are doing this, and it’s not about getting ahead anymore; it’s about keeping up and not getting left behind.

At the same time, be realistic about what you can achieve and maintain. Not everything you put out there will be a home run. If you track your results, over time you will figure out what works and what doesn’t work. You modify accordingly. It’s about putting out lots of good quality content over time and aiming for slow stable growth, and not hoping and praying your “good content” will go viral and make you rich (see 220M+ You Tube views for Gangnam Style). It’s a mix of luck, timing, working hard, and being diligent. Recycling your content is ok, but repurpose it and update it rather than just reposting it with nothing new to offer. Make sure your SEO is optimized, but don’t just stuff your posts randomly with keywords.

A few more tips: Post anything that people can form an opinion on – it could be an image, a tweet, a video, a screen capture, or a survey. Anything we can agree on, disagree on, love, hate, or converse about. Don’t have barriers to entry like making people log in. Make it as easy as possible for people to share your content with others, including social media icons on your site.

As soon as information is acquired, it is almost instantaneously replaced by newer information. Continue to provide information that is relevant, easy to consume, but doesn’t sacrifice in quality. This is probably the hardest thing to do on a regular basis. You want to be authentic and sincere, but you also have a goal of getting content out there. e selective. Sometimes less really is more.

At the end of the day, people love stories. Tell a story that makes people like you and want to follow you. Include links and photos and visual-rich information. It doesn’t end with being seen or shared, you need to create a reason to keep people engaged after the first view – get them to return. People’s time is precious, so recognize them their efforts – thank them for following, ask for opinions, encourage dialogue. You might just learn something new too.

And lastly, if you can’t sum up your message in a way that would be useful to your viewer, then honestly, don’t even bother.