5 Content Marketing Tips to Help You Get an Edge Over the Competition

June 5, 2012 by Daniel Sharkov|

People need to connect. Businesses need to connect. Back in the days this was easier said than done.

Nowadays we have social media.

Whether it will be Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or the latest trending network, there is no denying that social media is or at least should be an integral component to every content marketing campaign.

So we have a cheap way to connect with everyone and everywhere. This means that we have the possibility to build relationships with whoever we want.

Nonetheless there are obstacles on the way
and you are bound to make mistakes. I made a lot of them and learned a lot from them. That is what the following article will emphasize.

If you want to not only connect but to also get something out of the connections you’ve made (retweets, shares, comments, etc.), those five content marketing tips are for you:

Don’t be Scared to Promote Your Own Content That’s right! I often come across articles on Twitter claiming how bad promoting yourself on Twitter is. But wait a second… Why are you on Twitter in the first place? When signing up, was your main goal really satisfying your audience’s desire for quality content? I don’t think so. You created that account simply because you either read an article on Twitter and its potential or someone told you that it can boost your traffic a bit.

Since I did a research on my quest to find titles that get retweets, I also discovered something else. Tweets, containing links to my articles were getting significantly more clicks than many of the posts I was just retweeting.

That goes to show that
people are following you mainly because they are interested in your content , not the content you promote.

Never Skip the Editing Part
Blogging and content are both part of every social media campaign. One of the things that in my opinion leave a very bad impression are poorly edited blog posts.

Being a blogger and being a writer are two totally different things and as a blogger you have more freedom. That does not however mean publishing unreadable posts.

If you want successful content marketing i.e. your articles getting shared,
they need to be easy to understand and read . And since many people don’t read line by line, a couple of silly mistakes might prove more problematic than you thought. So in order to make your posts easy to scan throughyou should not fail on the editing stage.

Learn that Not All Sharing Buttons and Positions are Good If you want your message to reach a wider audience, you can’t go without sharing buttons. I believe that pretty much every blogger, who is serious about getting some traffic already does that.

The problem with many blogs is that although they incorporate such buttons, the same are hard to find and hard to use.
What people want is simplicity. For example the “ Sexy Bookmarks” provide a really smooth design but they don’t really prompt the reader to share.

As I have stated previously, I love testing different combinations and places for those buttons. I came to the conclusion that using a sharebar that is fixed and scrolls down is the way to go. That way the buttons are visible all the time, which undoubtedly increases the chance of getting a retweet or like.

Additionally you can add an image that invites visitors to share (as I have done).
As they say “ask and you will get”. You can’t expect huge improvements but who doesn’t want an extra like or two?

Reply to People but Don’t Overdo That one might seem kinda weird but allow me to explain. Everyone of you has probably come across articles, stressing on the importance of replying to people’s comments on the social networks. What I don’t like about such advice is that it is a bit misleading.

It is a fact – if you don’t engage, you will have a hard time building trust. Being too active has its cons nonetheless. What you should do is to sift out the important from the not-so-important and to pay most of your attention to the first type of comments.

Saying thank you to people on Twitter is a good example. I myself believe that showing that you appreciate other people sharing your work is a good thing.

What I also believe though is that replying to each and every person who retweets is a waste of  won’t get you step closer to social media success. Instead I either respond to people who have not only replied a word or two but also gave their feedback or to folks who are always there to support.

On the other hand you also need to consider peeps, reading your tweets.
Won’t they get bored if your last 40 tweets are all an impersonal “Thanks for the RT” kind of message?

Don’t Just Post Because You Need Fresh Content Every blogger who wants to get traffic from Google probably already knows the importance of frequent blog posting. Fresh content is also important for a variety of other reasons. A recent study done by HubSpotshows that the more articles you publish, the more customers you have i.e. the more money you earn.

However this leads to the question whether “filler blog posts” are a good content marketing strategy. It is fresh content after all, but at what price? Yes, a single bad post won’t be enough to ruin the trust you’ve built. You will probably get an unsubsriber or two and that’s it.

From a different perspective though, is it really worth wasting your time, writing mediocre stuff, just to receive negative feedback? You will end up with unretweetable and unsharable content that doesn’t really serve a purpose. You decide…

Your Turn So if you want to build a brand through social media and content marketing, you will need time and lots of it. Following the above tips will help you stay on track with your tasks.

Now it is your turn. What else do you believe can be added to the list? What other tips can you share based on your experience? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments section!

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