My 2-year-old daughter hasn’t been a big talker (at least in the form of words that adults can understand), mostly just a word or two at a time.
Last week, however, she started singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and as toddlers are known to do when they find something they like, she does so repeatedly, and oh so cutely, I might add. Over the weekend, she added singing her “ABCs” to her repertoire, to the delight of my wife and I.
It got me thinking. It was a big change in little time that expanded the reach of what my little girl could do. Content marketers should also be able to do some quick things that expand their reach — with HR influencers — too. What would they be? Well. Read on.
1. Create social media partnerships
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Bring more traffic to your blog and other content is
a crucial part of making your content marketing
efforts successful.
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I’ve been a fan of the Fistful of Talent blog since I first encountered it. It has strong writers with strong opinions about HR topics. That’s one part of Fistful of Talent’s not-so-secret sauce. Another is that there is strength in numbers. The individual bloggers get more readers by being part of the “Fist,” than if they were just one finger going it alone.
Content marketers should apply the strength-in-numbers concept to social media. Create partnerships with others who have content to promote. There are four key things to remember for determining potential partners: 1. They should not be direct competitors. 2. They should have the same target audience. 3. They need to be marketing quality content. 4. They need to have social media following of similar size and quality to your own (you both need to benefit relatively equally), but that is not made up of the exact same people.
You, of course, also need to create quality content, to be worthy of the partnership.
What you do with these social media partnerships: You share each other’s content, thereby improving the reach of both parties’ content marketing. For example, set up automatic retweets of each other’s blog posts — it’s one of the best ways to increase your page views (by the way, Fistful of Talent’s bloggers retweet each other’s posts to put them in front of their combined followings).
How to set them up: Reach agreements with those already in your network. Find potential social media partners, then add them to your network via social media (e.g. retweets, blog comments), before engaging them in a social media partnership discussion.
2. Focus on certain keywords in blog, tweets, etc.
We’ve found that by using specific keywords in our own blogs and social media conversations that were getting more followers in areas related to these keywords (e.g., SEO, content marketing, marketing to human resources). Figure out the keywords that matter to your business and to your target audience, then make sure to use them as often as you can in quality content, blogs and social media posts.
3. Find great links for your blog
Make your blog more attractive by finding relevant links to send readers to great, related content. If people find your blog a place where they can find good content — not just your own, but others’ content as well — they will be more likely to return. Also, let the authors of the content your linking to know via social media, and perhaps they’ll give you a social media lift (e.g. a tweet/retweet).
4. Use JustUnfollow.com’s “Copy Followers” feature
Are there companies and influencers whose follower lists you are envious of? Sign up for JustUnfollow.com (it’s free, and they didn’t pay us — or even ask us — to say this, and we’re not partners in any way), and use the “Copy Followers” feature to add their followers to the people you follow. Some people will follow you back, and if your Twitter feed includes quality content that they find useful, many of them might do so.
5. Use SocialEars HR
This is our own social content marketing software, but SocialEars HR can help with each of the first four tips above. For setting up social media partnerships, the “What’s Hot?” tool will help you identify good, timely blog topics. The “Find Influencers” feature will help you identify people who are influencing the topics relevant to your business (e.g., mobile recruiting, big data, PPACA, leadership development, social recruiting, etc.) on social and may be willing to form partnerships. For focusing on keywords, the software’s Content Analyzer identifies the keywords in your content, and suggests other related keywords that are popular among HR influencers. The “Find Content” feature is a great way to help find quality, popular content for any HR topic to link to in your blog, and will also give you great content for your Twitter feed, which will encourage people to follow you back.
Conclusion
These were just five ways to quickly improve the reach of your content marketing. Each can provide you a significant boost and if you like them, you can do them repeatedly (but not as often as my daughter sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” — it’s just not possible). Ultimately, however, the best way to benefit from each of the five ways above, and to enjoy success in your content marketing, is to create quality content.
Post written by HRmarketer / SocialEars HR team member Eric Anderson.
Labels: content marketing, Eric Anderson, Fistful of Talent, keywords, SocialEars
