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Getting Attention for Your Content

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Everyone is in the content marketing game. We are all vying for attention. Getting attention for your content requires that you have an intentional content strategy.

There are 5 steps to developing content that gets attention: planning, audience targeting, creation, distribution, and optimizing.

Plan Your Content Strategy

You are busy, but you need to be strategic to get the most from the time you devote to content. The best way to guarantee that is to take time up front to plan. Focus on your content strategy, write down what you will do, and you will have a road map that will keep you on course.

Be sure to document:

  • Goals
  • Topics
  • Sources
  • Creators
  • How often
  • Where
  • Marketing plans
  • Meaningful measurements

Understand Your Target Audience

Take time to deeply understand your audience. Where are they online? What are they interested in? What do they react to both positively and negatively? How do they feel about your topic and brand?

The more you understand your audience, the better you can be at creating content that will grab attention.

Understanding your audience is a continual process. Be sure to keep track of how their interests evolve over time.

Develop Great Content

This is the step where many content marketers begin, but the first two steps should provide you with insight into the content that makes the most sense for your audience. Be sure all of your content is well-developed with great writing and clear imagery.

Be sure to provide a mix of many forms of content:

  • Blog posts
  • Visuals
  • Audio
  • Micro content (tweets)
  • Video
  • Guest content
  • Text
  • Infographics
  • Quotes
  • Facts
  • Etc.

Post, Share, and Share Again

Post your content and then share it on all relevant channels. Track what you have posted and post it again in various forms on various channels.

You want to increase the odds that your very busy target audience sees your content at least once. Several times is better.

Measure Impact and Make Adjustments

Some elements of your plan will hit the target, some will exceed expectations and some will fall flat. That’s fine, as long as you pay attention and use that intel to make your content even better.

Be sure to take periodic assessments. This should be easy if you have defined your measures in your plan. Stop doing the things that don’t get traction and adjust to the insights that have the potential to increase the engagement with your content.

 

 

Content Curation 101

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Effective digital marketing requires that you share content online. That content can be created by you or by others. Content curation refers to effectively sharing content created by others to establish your expertise.

The balance of original and shared content differs for each situation. For some, most of their content is original. For others, sharing other content is the best way to maintain a steady stream to engage online.

Choose the Right Content to Share

How do you pick content to share? The right content is accurate, interesting and useful to your target audience.

People follow you because the information you share is worthwhile to them. They don’t need more information just for the sake of it, they need information of value.

A concerning phenomenon I see all the time is content that is shared without being vetted. I see links shared thousands of time that few actually click. I see people comment that they did not know what the content said when challenged or questioned about the contents.

Read the articles and watch the videos BEFORE you share with your followers. Have criteria to determine what is worthwhile and what doesn’t make the cut.

Find Worthwhile Content

Here are a few tips on how to find good content to share:

  • Ask Google – A simple Google search for a keyword or phrase will turn up relevant content. You can also Google ‘Best Blogs (or other online source) for X to find sources.
  • Monitor Your Existing Network – Your network of connections online should be a constant source of quality content.
  • Use Hashtags- Check the trending hashtags on Twitter, Instagram and other channels to see if anything is relevant to you. You can also use hashtags to search those platforms.
  • Follow News Outlets – News organizations are all about sharing the latest. Follow general outlets as well as any that are specific to your niche.

Add Your Own Thoughts

When you find content, sharing the link is not enough. You need to add your own perspective. You need to tell your audience why you have shared the content – what’s particularly interesting? Do you agree or disagree? Etc.

Your comments can:

  • Summarize a key point
  • Ask a question
  • Highlight a quote
  • Clarify a statement
  • Add context

Share Socially

When sharing content, tag the original creator in your post so that they know that you’re sharing their content. While you don’t need to get permission to share someone else’s content, connecting your share with the creator is a win-win, since you’re both tapping into new audiences.