Drive Social Signals To Your Site With A Solid Content Marketing Strategy

Ever since the social signals was introduced as a search engine ranking factor, online marketers and webmasters have begun to look at Content Management System in a new light. What does content mean? From being a mere tool to grab the eyes of search engines, content has become a multi-dimensional medium of information that can help businesses transform their brand into something that consumers can actually find valuable and engaging. That’s the essence of branded content marketing.

The dynamics have changed; instead of spending time and effort in optimizing for search engines, online marketers are now shifting their attention to optimizing content for PEOPLE.

As a content marketer, you are not a content-creating machine nor do you possess an array of Content Marketing Tools that would give you online presence instantly.

You work because you want to build an AUDIENCE around your brand.

High Quality Versus Huge Quantity Boost Social Signals

The old notion was that lots of content equals lots of traffic. People used to believe that having tons of articles lying around increases a website’s chances of getting noticed by internet users and search engines.

But times have changed. This technique might have worked in the olden days of the Internet when websites are relatively few.

The Internet of today is literally SATURATED with too much content. People are already swamped with information that they receive online – most have already become numbed by it. How can marketers grab the attention of these people?

Simple: the best strategy in this kind of situation is to STAND OUT.

Don’t write thousands of ho-hum articles. Instead, focus on a few pieces that are sure to blow your readers’ mind away. Settle for QUALITY not QUANTITY.

Diversify, Diversify, Diversify!

Don’t be satisfied with mere blog postings alone. People want VARIETY. You have lots of tools at your disposal which you could use to create all kinds of content. Here are some of the few you could produce:

a. E-books

You could offer free ebooks as incentives for people to subscribe to your blog or email list. These should offer people a glimpse at what your business could offer. Promote your free ebook every chance you get (you could mention it at the end of your blog posts or YouTube videos) to generate exposure. Content Marketing Blogs usually do well in terms of social signal generation.

b. Podcasts and Vodcasts

If you literally want to speak to your followers and customers directly, then podcasts and vodcasts (video casts) are the way to go. No need to hire a professional for this task, since you could make pod/vodcasts of your own with the gadgets you already have. Free audio software like Audacity lets you edit your own audio files with ease.

c. Pictures and Infographics

Don’t settle for stock photos, create unique images of your own. You could make your own infographics using free tools you could find on the Internet.

Why Authority Matters

People are more likely to do business with people they trust. When a person searches for something on the Internet, recommendations from his or her friends are more likely to show up on the top of the list.

But what if you’re not personally acquainted with your website’s visitors (which is about 90% of the time)? How are you supposed to earn their trust?

Simple: you have to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. And one of the best ways to gain this status is through content creation.

a. Be Consistent

If you have multiple websites and online profiles among a variety of social networks, make sure that each one of them can traced back to your brand. For example, you can have similar cover photos or themes between your Twitter and Facebook profiles. In writing, it’s best to stick to one voice (if you write in a professional tone, stick with it for the rest of your blog postings).

b. Know Your Keywords

Are you optimizing for better conversion rates? Would you love to generate more traffic for your pages? Generally, there are two kinds of keywords that marketers use in content marketing: short-tail and long-tail keywords. It’s best to identify what your goals are and determine what type of keywords you need to use to be able to reach these goals.

c. Claim Authorship

Do you know how to use Google’s rel=”me” and rel=”author” tags? If not, then you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. These tags allow people to claim authorship over their online works, thereby protecting their content from plagiarists and spinners. Also, studies have shown that people are more likely to click on a search result if it has the author’s name and picture on it.

d. Learn What Works

Social analytics tools and plugins are best suited for this purpose. These can help you track down and analyze visitors’ behavior on your site, thereby allowing you to see your content’s performance. Knowing your audience and knowing the kind of content that works for them is a cornerstone concept in content marketing.

Content marketing is not a one-shot deal. You need to be constantly involved with it in order to reap great results. Web Content Marketing is not all about selling products or promoting websites, it’s about building long term relationships with your followers.