Content Marketing Archives

3 Resolutions for Your Social Business

January 3, 2014/by Corey Padveen

It’s the new year and time to ramp up your social business with some resolutions.

First, let us start off by wishing everyone a very happy New Year. We hope that you enjoyed some well-deserved R&R and you’re ready to get started with a new year full of potential!

At the beginning of the year, it is customary to make a few resolutions to better our lives and the lives of those around us. Well, it’s always good to have some business resolutions in addition to those personal ones.

Below are the three resolutions that we think many businesses – whether yours is a fully operational social business or on its way – can benefit from.

Tell More Stories

Content marketing is all the rave these days. Though it is a term commonly used, it is not one that everyone fully understands. What exactly is content marketing? Simply put, content marketing is marketing through storytelling. Share content people love on as many media as possible, and watch it reach whole new audiences.

This year, a great resolution might be to tell more stories. Ramp up your content marketing and perfect it for your industry and your social business. Find out what your audience loves and create content to cater to those preferences.

Try New Media

Maybe you have a blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but have always been afraid of video. Maybe you’re camera shy or don’t know what to talk about. Well, the new year is all about starting fresh, so why not give a new medium a try.

You don’t have to change the way you do business. In fact, almost nothing has to change. Try something and incorporate it into what you normally do (for example, sharing your blog posts to Facebook and Twitter) and see how it works for your business.

Who knows? You might find that the key to getting your brand out there is a new type of media you haven’t yet taken a chance on.

Be Different

A great goal is to find a way to stand out among the crowds. Do something you haven’t seen before. We’re not saying this is an easy thing to do. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult things for a business to do and it is why so many businesses have trouble expanding. But the good news is that the year just started. You have plenty of time to figure out a way in which you can be different and go out there to show your industry what it is.

What are some of your social business resolutions for the new year? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! And happy New Year!

5 Places to Share Your Blog Posts Every Day

December 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

To increase your blog’s readership, you need to share your blog posts to a number of feeds every day.

While there are some writers that own a blog simply for the joy or writing, those of us with a business blog are looking for one thing above all else: readers. In order to increase your blog’s audience, you need to share your blog posts on a regular basis, and these five channels need to be on your daily list.

1. Your Business Pages

If you own a social business, then you undoubtedly have business pages on networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and others.

Your audiences on these pages are inherently your most loyal. They have decided to follow your brand and be notified of the content you are sharing, so why not give them what they are asking for?

Share your content to these pages for your highest CTRs as soon as it is published. Your audience is waiting for it.

2. Your Personal Accounts

It might seem obvious, but people often forget to share their content to their personal accounts. The mentality is that if it is for business, it should be shared to a business page. Yes, but also no.

First, you never know who might be interested in what you have to say. If you write an article and post it to your personal Twitter account, one of your followers might click on it because of the captivating title, read the article and subscribe to your blog. Right there, you might have found a new lead that you would have otherwise missed.

Second, as an employee or owner of a social business, you are your brand. People follow your company as they would follow you. The article was not written by ‘Brand X’, it was written by John Doe of ‘Brand X’. Employees are the best brand advocates out there. Take advantage of that.

3. Social Bookmarking Sites

This is good for both the short- and long-terms. Sharing your articles to bookmarking sites like Digg and StumbleUpon mean that they will be archived for a long time to come. You never know when someone might find it, bookmark it or even share it themselves.

Keep in mind that while your content might be most popular shortly after it is shared, it can still be discovered down the road. You’ll want it to be discoverable in places where longevity exists in much greater fashion than on some of the larger social networks (i.e. Facebook and Twitter).

4. Groups and Communities

If you are a member in industry-specific LinkedIn Groups, or Google+ Communities, then you are sharing and reading content that everyone in that group might potentially find interesting. When t2 employees first started sharing articles to LinkedIn Groups (particularly those in the social media realm) we saw our traffic more than double in the first month.

People join social groups and communities to find content relevant to the work they do. If you share it with them, they will be all the more likely to read it.

5. CommentLuv-Enabled Blogs

For those of you that are not familiar with CommentLuv, it is a WordPress plugin that welcomes all comments and links to be shared. Now be careful, this is not encouraging you to post spam. Spam is spam no matter what fashion it appears in.

Familiarize yourself with your industry’s blogs that have enabled CommentLuv and, when you find an article that is relevant to your most recent post, share a comment and provide a link to your relevant material. This is not going to come up as often as the other means of sharing your content. You are really going to have to do some work in order to find these blogs. However, when you do, be sure to leave a relevant comment (do not simply post a link – that’s spam) and share a backlink to your article. This is good for increasing readership and SEO.

Try out some of these tips and watch your readership and subscription rate increase. It is all a question of finding your most engaged audiences!

Where do you share your blog posts every day? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Ideation and the Secrets of Content Marketing

December 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Content marketing is all the buzz in social business, and the secrets of content marketing start with ideation.

What is ideation? Well, it is quite simple. Ideation is the formation of concepts or ideas. Easy, right? Much easier said than done. One of the great secrets of content marketing comes down to that simple task. In order to find success, you are going to need to have a great idea. Those aren’t always the easiest to come by. Luckily, there are ways to give your ideation a boost.

The strategies below are a few ways to go about finding inspiration for your next great content marketing campaign.

Use Tools at Your Disposal

There are plenty of tools out there that can give your ideation process a major boost. Trendsmap tells you what is trending on Twitter in different areas. Creating content around a popular event is always a great way to generate buzz, and Trendsmap is a good start.

There is also Ubersuggest, which describes itself as ‘suggest on steroids’. Type in a keyword, location and medium and watch the results populate with suggestions for other keywords and phrases with every letter of the alphabet!

Soovle is an incredible tool that provides you with the most searched terms based on your typed keyword – as it is being typed! See what popular searches look like and begin working with those terms to create highly sought after content.

Monitor Industry Chatter

Something as simple as watching your Twitter feed can give you the inspiration you need to create a great content marketing strategy. There is no greater inspiration than your industry’s conversation. Social channels offer us an opportunity to see what people are thinking, and what interests them at this moment.

Opening your eyes and ears to trends in conversations – either by simply monitoring your social feeds or with the use of a higher end listening tool – will help you better understand what people want to see. You can then use this insight to create a multi-channel campaign that generates significant engagement.

Incorporate Every Channel

The 2013 content marketing study by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs shows that the most successful content marketing campaigns are using upwards of 14 social channels to share their content. You can’t ignore any channels when it comes to creating a successful content marketing campaign.

When searching for an idea, consider one that can expand onto every one of your social channels (and then some). Your story should be capable of being told on any platform, with a variety of media types (e.g. text, video, photo, etc.).

These are just a few of the ways in which you can create a successful content marketing strategy starting with ideation. The secrets of content marketing are pretty simple; success is going to start with an idea.

What does your ideation process entail? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

15 Amazing Social Media Marketing Statistics (in Pictures!)

November 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

These social media marketing statistics will make the case for the transition into a social business!

As marketers, we are all looking for that one piece of crucial information that will help us convince our clients (and, in some cases, our own management) that the need to become a social business is greater than ever. These fifteen social media marketing statistics are certainly impressive, and should help any marketer get over that last hurdle when it comes to proving that social is a necessity!

Now, if those stats don’t get you excited about the prospect of becoming a social business, little else will! Social media is quickly spilling over into every demographic and in big ways. The marketing landscape has been drastically altered by the presence of social, and it is time for your brand to become a social business!

Find out what a social business looks like here and let us know how your company is social! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

6 Great Blog Content Sources

October 24, 2013/by Corey Padveen

These 6 blog content sources are great when you’re looking for fresh, new content.

If you have a blog, then you have, at some point or another, wondered where the inspiration for your next great article was going to come from. You’re not alone. Bloggers are always looking for great, new blog content sources. These six great resources should help you find the inspiration you need next time you hit a wall when deciding what you should write about.

Mashable

With everything from mainstream news stories to viral campaigns, Mashable has a ton of great content that can lead to inspiration for a new article. Every section on Mashable’s seemingly endless website has the potential to provide you with the content you need to get started on that next blog post.

Alltop

Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop is an aggregator of the best kind. The site brings together all of the top stories (hence, Alltop) from around the web to provide people with all the information they need and want to know in one location. For bloggers, the site is a great resource to find trending topics that people want to read about.

Scoop.It

This content curation tool is perfect for finding interesting articles and information. By following a targeted group of users, you can be sure to find plenty of great content filling your stream on a regular basis. Again, all it takes is time before you see the title or read the article that leads to you writing your next great article.

Quora

Quora is not only a great place to tout your expertise by answering questions related to your field, but it is also a source for inspiration. Look through the questions being asked in your industry and determine what people are talking about. This could give you a great idea for a post that answers the most popular questions, and could help drive traffic.

Your Social Feeds

Do not underestimate the value of your social feeds. If you take a few minutes to watch shared content fill your news feed on Facebook, your Twitter feed, or any other one of your social networks, you will see a great deal of content that might prove to be a source for your next article. Sure, social media is about being social with friends, but it is also about sharing what interests you. Pay attention to what your friends and followers find interesting, and you just might get a great idea for a blog.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, and Delicious are fantastic resources for great content (and for passing the time, too). Anything in the world wide web that someone finds interesting can easily be bookmarked and found by others. Sift through the content on these social bookmarking sites and it will not be long before you find that piece of content you can use for your next article.

What others ways are using finding content for your blog? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Fun Facts from the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Report

October 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

These facts and figures from the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America Report showcase why content marketing is crucial – particularly when it comes to B2B.

For the fourth straight year, MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute have released this B2B content marketing report and the results are quite impressive.

Once again, the numbers have increased year-over-year and B2B content marketing is becoming both more widely used and more structured. Below are a few of the key findings when it comes to B2B content marketing and some analyses of these findings.

93% of B2B marketers are using content marketing

There’s not much to analyze when it comes to this stat. Long story short, if you are not engaged in content marketing in a B2B company, you should be.

66% of B2B marketers with a ‘Most Effective’ content marketing rating have a content strategy

A content strategy is going to be your best friend when it comes to content marketing. Every brand’s strategy may differ; you are going to need to test content across every channel to see what works best. At the end of the day, however, there needs to be a clear strategy in place in order to measure the effectiveness and success that your content marketing drives.

‘Less Effective’ marketers do not have a designated content marketing point person

86% of ‘Most Effective’ content marketing companies have one individual overseeing nothing by the brand’s content marketing initiatives. By contrast, only 46% of ‘Less Effective’ companies have a point person when it comes to this. This ties in closely with the need to have a strategy in place. If you are going to take your content marketing seriously, then do just that. Have a strategy and department (one or several people) devoted to making the program successful.

Social media is a key area of focus

To all those naysayers who speak out against the use of social media when it comes to B2B brands, the numbers are in and all signs point to the contrary. 87% of B2B content marketing programs use social media as a means of sharing content to broader audiences and driving results from a strategy. In fact, sharing content on social networks is the most widely used tactic when it comes to content marketing.

55% or more of B2B marketers are using five of the main social networks

91% use LinkedIn, 85% use Twitter, 81% use Facebook, 73% use YouTube and 55% use Google+. More importantly, LinkedIn is seen as the most important network with YouTube ranking second in terms of importance (not use).

‘Most Effective’ brands are using content marketing for revenue-generating goals

While Brand Awareness tops the charts (82%) for the most common goal among marketers, Lead Generation comes in second at 74% followed closely by Customer Acquisition at 71%.

Content marketing is not done growing

58% of B2B marketers plan on increasing their involvement and budgets for content marketing in the next twelve months. Compare that to only 1% of marketers who plan on decreasing their budgets.

There is a lot more where that came from in this year’s report, so take a look.

Let us know what you think is most significant finding! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

3 Audiences on Social Media You Are Marketing To

September 24, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What audiences on social media are you targeting with your marketing?

We are all familiar with demographics when it comes to social media. We might be looking to target middle-aged women, or college-aged men, but these criteria are pretty superficial. We need to ask ourselves what audiences on social media we are really looking to target when it comes to social marketing.

There are three very specific types of audiences that we aim to engage with on social networks. Each of these groups engage with brands in very different ways, and our marketing efforts need to reflect that.

In order to simplify the explanation of these audiences, we’ll stick to one, easy example: a health research institute.

Direct Affect

When it comes to health, wellness and research, there is a small group that consistently has one aspect of the field or another on their mind. These are people who have been directly affected by the illness or condition that the research is looking to cure.

For the health research institute, the goal in using social media is to keep this highly and inherently engaged audience up-to-date with the work that is being done and breakthroughs in the field.

While sharing content every second of every day is not necessarily going to be the best course of action for most brands, there should be an attempt to keep this audience active on social channels by sharing content relatively consistently.

First-Degree Separation

Now a much larger population when it comes to this health research institute is going to be the one made up primarily of people who have not experienced the condition that the research is hoping to cure, but who can relate personally to it due to the fact that someone they know or are related to someone who has.

This is a group that does not consistently think of this ailment, but when it is brought to their attention, it certainly resonates. For the health research institute, there needs to be an effort every so often to remind this second audience on social media as to why they exist.

This audience does not follow the activity of the health research brand as closely as the first group, but calls to action will certainly resonate, often profoundly.

Societal Connection

The third and final audience on social networks is the one least aware or affected by the brand. This group is not thinking about the activity of a brand consistently, if ever, and will likely not pay attention to the content unless it is relevant within society.

One example of this is the month of October for breast cancer awareness. During this month, the cause is seen almost everywhere, from community fundraisers to the NFL. It is during this period that research institutes can generate new awareness within this third audience. From there, during the rest of the year, the content shared to the first degree audience may seem a little more relevant to this somewhat removed group, and calls to action may generate more success.

Of course, there are other audiences we may find on social networks. But these three categories need to be front of mind when creating content. Understand what types of audiences will be looking at your content, and diversify your content strategy in order to appeal to every one of those audiences.

How do you appeal to all three of these audiences on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Best Types of Blog Content

September 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are certain types of blog content that are going to generate some much better results than others – for any blog.

It’s no secret that blogs are a great way to increase business, showcase your expertise and ramp up your search rankings, but there are just some types of blog content that perform better than others.

It’s simple: there are things people like to read, and others that they do not. In this list are the five best types of blog content to share, regardless of the industry you are writing for. (Some people may have different opinions of what the best types of blog content are, but these are almost certain to be right up there, at least in the average blogging expert’s top 10.)

‘Best Of’ Posts

When is the last time you looked up a ‘Worst Of’ list when trying to choose among your the options you had available? Probably never.

People love ‘Best Of’ lists because it provides insights that they might not have otherwise known about. When trying to choose the best platform on which to publish your blog, you are probably going to type ‘Best Blogging Platform’ into your search engine and choose among the top results.

This should apply when writing your articles as well; people are always interested in knowing what the best options are.

Oppositional Posts

When you read a headline that completely contradicts everything you’ve ever thought, aren’t you at least a little interested in reading more? Think about it.

If you saw an article pop up on your search results or on a Facebook or Twitter feed that read ‘Why blogging will lead to the end of your business’, don’t you think you might be inclined to read about it? People like to get every perspective they can on a subject. Even if they do not agree with you, they might still be inclined to see why you are making your argument.

Practical Advice

When you have no idea what to do, maybe an unbiased third party has the answer.

Write an article that shares some practical advice that relates to your subject matter. Helpful insights are always appreciated by blog readers regardless of the field in which the blog categorizes itself.

Reviews

Why do you think websites like Yelp! or TripAdvisor have become so incredibly popular? People like to read reviews. Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregator for several reviews – both professional and personal – and it has become huge!

Before diving into something that someone might not be very familiar with, reading an honest review might be helpful. If your blog shares some of those honest reviews, you can certainly expect to capture some readers’ attention.

Lists

You’re reading this article, aren’t you?

Some of the most popular content on blogs today are lists that name the ‘Top #’ or the ‘Worst #’. People are always interested in reading lists – much like the ‘Best Of’ but a little more broad – to learn more about a particular subject or field.

Write with some of the types of content in mind and it won’t be long before you start to see your blog posts grow in popularity. This is, of course, assuming you are promoting them correctly!

What types of blog posts do you think do the best job of grabbing an audience’s attention? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Content Types that Generate Engagement on Pinterest

September 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What types of content should you be sharing in order to generate engagement on Pinterest?

We have all heard of the tremendous benefits associated with Pinterest. Not only is it one of the fastest growing social networks around, but it is one of the leading sources of referral traffic for businesses that use it. That said, it is only those businesses that are generating engagement on Pinterest that are reaping these benefits.

If you are sharing content and no one is talking about it, you might miss out on all that Pinterest has to offer. Take a look at the tips below to find out what types of content produce the most engagement on Pinterest, and try and apply them to your own content strategy.

Personalized Content

People want to know what makes you tick. Whether you are a brand or an individual, you should be sharing content that expands your profile. Do not simply share business-related images and videos. Show people who you are and humanize your brand.

Take Victory Jewelry, for example. In addition to boards that showcase their pieces, they also have a board of mermaids, and pictures from the ocean. When people can see into your brand a little bit more, they will have a much easier time connecting with it.

Customized Content

Engagement on Pinterest is a two-way street – that’s for sure. You will want to get out there and share the content of others if you expect to have your own content shared. That said, people will also want to see some original content.

Original content is one of the easiest ways to share embedded links, as it doesn’t require the process of going into an image and changing anything. Custom content also shows people your creative side and, once again, can help humanize a brand.

Optimized Content

Laziness is very apparent on Pinterest. If you share images with no descriptions, no links, no tags or, if you are an ecommerce business, no prices, people can tell that you are no putting much effort into your Pinterest marketing.

Be sure to optimize your content in every way so that people can both see that you care and find you more easily! Don’t make the mistake of hurting your chances to get found with Pinterest!

Resourceful Content

Infographics, tutorials, instructions and other resourceful content is great for generating engagement on Pinterest. People are more inclined to comment, share or click on content that they find useful. Whenever you can, try and share content that people can use and not simply enjoy looking at (although that is very important, as well).

What other types of content do you think is useful for generating engagement on Pinterest? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Influence Marketing on Social Media

August 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Your business can benefit tremendously from influence marketing on social media.

There are few forms of marketing that have as big of an impact as influence marketing on social media. With a very clear understanding of who your industry’s influencers are and a plan on how to leverage their power, you can reach audiences tens if not hundreds of times larger than your own.

In the past, we have looked at case studies like Kotex and Standard Life, where brands leveraged the power of influence marketing to quickly reach their goals and expand their presence online. Here, we aim to explain how this form of online marketing can really add a lot of value to your business in terms of Social Equity.

Influence Marketing Defined

So what exactly is influence marketing?

If you’ve read the case studies we mentioned above, you know that influence marketing has to do with leveraging the influence of others on certain social networks in order to reach a broad audience very quickly.

Generally, influence marketing can be a benefit when it comes to reputation management (e.g. having influencers speak to their audiences on your behalf) or individual campaigns (e.g. having industry influencers promote a campaign to their massive audiences). Furthermore, engaging with influencers and leveraging their power can save you a bundle as well.

The Savings of Influence Marketing

Reaching millions of users can be very expensive. You want to reach a targeted audience with any campaign. What’s more important, however, is reaching an engaged audience. If my campaign has 20 million impressions that’s great, but if not one converts, it’s a failure.

Perhaps the greatest value of influence marketing is the fact that by reaching out to your industry’s influencers, you are essentially reaching out to a very engaged audience by proxy. Influencers did not get to be where they are by building an audience of disinterested followers. People hang on their every word, and if they talk about your brand, you can rest assured that it will translate into buzz and intrigue for your business.

The speed with which all of this takes place – thanks in large part to the inherent nature of social media – makes it a very viable undertaking from an economic standpoint. You can start seeing return within hours of a campaign launching; this is assuming, of course, that it is well thought out and geared towards the right audiences.

By engaging with your influencers and leveraging their power, your business can benefit in a very big way.

Have you ever taken part in a form of influence marketing? Tell us what you did in the comments below or on Twitter!