Social Strategies that Work to Promote your Online Content

You have your content strategy in place and the wheels are turning, fingers are tapping away building the engaging, keyword-oriented, and timely content that will draw the attention of your target market online. You have your offsite blog set up and have posted your content there as it RSS feeds back to your website blog page.

• Note: RSS, “Really Simple Syndication” feeds automatically draw your blog posts to whatever landing page you choose.

While it’s all well and good that your posts are up on your blog and can be found on your website, to take full advantage of the interactivity and reach extension available from Social Media, there need to be a few more steps to the outreach aspect of your web content strategy.

Social Media Networks – Social media profiles on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow for niche-related group membership, as well as cultivating relationships with like-minded or industry-related site members who may have a direct interest in your content. Share links to your blog posts in your status updates, in your tweets.

To take it a step further, sharing posts that are related to the subject matter of any of the groups you are a member of within your Social Media networks. Be sure to join in discussions that may crop up around your posts or cover a similar subject matter. Social media sites are about interaction, so following and being involved in those conversations will promote your brand and content that much further.

Blog Commenting – Drive your brand awareness and content reach even more by commenting on industry or topic-related blogs. Many times, blogs will allow for a link to be included in the comment area, so you not only share your opinion and show your industry knowledge, you can increase the potential for readers for your blog post.

Keep the comments non-promotional, but related to the topic. If you come off insincere or sales, the result could be negative branding, which is not the goal.

Email Newsletter – Do you have an existing email database? Email marketing is a natural progression of any content strategy. The goal of any email marketing plan is to keep the recipients aware of your news and to keep your brand front of mind to your existing clients and prospects.

Include links to your Social Media profiles in your e-newsletter as well as content from a few of your most recent articles to share your content with your contacts and increase your brand exposure.

Tip: Choose a monthly theme or topic to cover for your newsletter and keep your readers aware of upcoming topics for the best open rates.

There is simply more to an online content strategy than an editorial calendar and posting to your blog or website. Social Media allows your content to begin a new discussion that keeps your brand as the central focus.