The New Social Intelligence: 5 Indicators that Your Content is Working

As part of Social Intelligence marketing, content marketing is one of the best ways to provide value straight to the heart of your most influential communities, the visitors on your site. We have gone one to kinda pin point some simple yet often forgotten keys to content production.

It is a well-known fact that content is King. In fact, search marketers and consultants of all stripes have arrived on the scene offering their strategies on what makes good content, and how that content goes viral. Much to the chagrin of those who actually must benefit from good content, the word “good” is often relegated to subjective territory. But in reality, when we nail down the purpose of content – driving web traffic, going viral, generating leads, increasing conversion. – it’s easier to quantify what makes content good.

In other words, good content works:
1) it’s social,
2) it’s readable,
3) it’s valuable,
4) it’s motivational and
5) it converts.

Let’s take a deeper look at some tell signs of good content at work.

1. It’s Easy to Read – There are plenty of arguments as to what makes web content readable or not. There are also readability analysis that will tell you on a scale of 0 to 10, how readable is your content. But at the very least, web content should be easily grasped. Today’s web readers do a lot less actual “reading” and a lot more scanning. This means content developers must get to the point quickly, write short sentences, write shorter paragraphs and use simpler words. It has to be inverted triangular, with nuggets at the top! This must also be balanced on the fact that today’s web readers are smart. In other words, readers are not interested in being talked down to, but in getting the most information in the shortest amount of time.
2. Content is Valuable – Too many web content writers simply talk at their readers without attempting to engage them at all. A real, yet subtle indicator that web content performs well is found in its inherent value to readers. The bottom line is that relevant and meaningful content gets read, and by a lot of people. It will be obvious whether or not content is valuable by checking the analytics stats on specific content pieces.
3. Good Content Inspires – Introduce paradigm shifts. Whether writing a blog post, a tweet, a Facebook post or an about page, content should inspire readers to engage with the brand in question. This sounds a lot easier than it actually is. Engaging users also means having a deep understanding of who they are, what they like, what they dislike and what motivates them to engage online. This takes a great deal of research, trial and error, implementation and then a little more research.
4. Content Should Convert – Conversion is the final piece of the search engine marketing puzzle. The whole point of writing readable, valuable and inspirational content is to motivate users to act, which often results in a conversion. This can be anything from an online sale to a subscription or a donation.
5. People Share Good Content – When someone shares your content, they’re essentially putting their stamp of approval on your site, product or service. They’re effectively communicating that they are 100% onboard with what you’re about. In many ways it’s better than a backlink because the audience is larger, and depending on the social network, it can help position your brand as a thought leader in your industry. When they share, you build social signals.

Always track the performance of your content, more specifically, your social intelligence. At SocialMetricsPro, we track the performances of our content so all social intelligence is in our finger tips. From there we are able to provide content that our readers are looking for.

The online marketing landscape has pretty much transformed from content marketing to “social content marketing”. The great thing about the new age of social content marketing is that all five of the above-mentioned indicators work seamlessly together. It really comes down to respecting your audience enough to learn what language they speak, and speak it well. When companies engage current and potential customers on their level in a meaningful way, readers can’t help but share your content.