In a previous blog post How to get a return on influence i discussed that :
as marketers, as business owners or even as someone building a personal brand , we have got to have : a content strategy AND a network strategy in order for our content to gain traction.
Yet most small businesses (and quite a few large ones) and many many bloggers believe that their strategy should be based on the “If you build it, they will come.” approach.
So these companies and people go out and create all this content, and wait and wait and wait …. and nothing happens.
The thing is – the content doesn’t matter (no matter how good it is) if it doesn’t move.
How to create a network strategy :
Most new bloggers and businesses have a great content strategy , but no network strategy to share their content. If you create content, you have to have a way to move it.
- Treat your online business like you would your offline . Why is it that in our offline business, we take a total approach to ensuring that our goods, our products, our services move? Treat your online strategy in the same way that you would your offline business. Have a strategy for moving your content, even before you start creating it.
- Field of dreams your online business is not. You can not decide to wake up each day and on the spur of the moment decide what you will blog about . So even before you create your content, and before you put together your network strategy, make sure that you have a plan for what your content will be. Plan then Do.
- You need to view the act of content creation as being a business task with a long term strategy, a strategy that has cost implications to your bottom line !
Ok so you have planned your content creation in advance like i told you to. You have even created some great content on your blog/site/facebook page , but the audience is nowhere to be found, what do you do?
4 Ways to gain traction for your content:
- Take some of that awesome that you created on your blog and rework it as a eBook or Presentation ! Then go and share it on places like Slideshare
- Guest post – Like the eBook strategy, take your best blog posts and rework them to produce content for other blogs . This is a great strategy to reach new audiences.
- In your offline business , one of the most important things that you can focus on is your customer list. Take the same approach to your online business/content. Have a email subscription strategy so that you can share your content with a dedicated subscriber base. A great book that i read recently on how to grow your email list is The Rebels guide to email marketing : Grow your list, break the rules and win by DJ Waldow.
- Amazon is your friend – not only can you get great deals from Amazon , but give away your content as a free amazon eBook . Like the eBook strategy , take your best content, rework it and give it away for free as a kindle eBook .
For even more great ideas and strategies to build your content and network strategy i recommend that you read Return on Influence, by Mark Schaefer.
For any thoughts, comments or questions send Yaseen Dadabhay an email at [email protected]