Beyond Twitter: Content That Will Grow Your Business

Beyond Twitter: Content That Will Grow Your Business

Chances are, you’ve heard once or twice (or a thousand times) that your business should be on Twitter — and Facebook and Pinterest and Tumblr and hey, why not YouTube too? But establishing your brand is about so much more than Tweeting. To really do it right, it’s important to master every content channel available to you.
Let’s take a look at just what these channels are, and why these types of content are chock full of potential.

1. Curated Content

There’s a classic rule of thumb in social media, and that’s this: 80-20. That is, 80% of the content you share shouldn’t be in any way promotional or even yours, while that remaining 20% can, indeed, be about you. If you look at many of the most successful brands out there, 20% is even a little high. The reasoning behind this is that social media is a place that should be social — that is, a place to build relationships rather than blaring out advertisements about yourself. What’s more, it’s a medium upon which users are looking to be entertained and to learn.

That presents a fantastic opportunity for you to curate the best content relevant to your area from across the web. In this way, your feeds can own your niche, becoming your followers’ first stop when they’re looking for the best, most valuable information in relation to your topic. You are, in short, building 80% of your expertise simply by having good taste.

What does this curated content look like? It can take many forms, and can include blog posts, online magazine articles, infographics, statistics culled from the latest research, interactive charts, and even games that teach.

This content is valuable not only in how it will make you look, but also in the sense that when you’re sharing influential data, you’re likely to forge relationships with influencers who either respect what you do, or who have produced the very content you’re sharing. This makes them far more likely to share your content in turn.

Tips for Digging In:

• Make good use of hashtags. Hashtags are your research friend! Keep your eyes peeled on your social media feeds for hashtags related to your industry, especially those with the word “chat” in them, as they often indicate a conversation around a certain pressing topic. You’ll want to save those searches and regularly check back, while also keeping your eye out for trending hashtags to latch onto. Within a few clicks, you’re sure to find content worth sharing.

• Follow influencers and potential customers. Both big time movers and shakers in your industry and potential customers are likely to share content that’s worth curating. Follow both, and you’ll always have good material.

• Sign up for good newsletters and Google alerts. The most respected publications in your industry will always have something worth sharing, and if you have their newsletters sent straight to your inbox you’ll always be the first to know.

2. Foundational Content

Of course, along with curated content, you still want to invest time and energy in creating what is called foundational content. This is any content that is posted to your website, and can range from a blogpost to an FAQ or informational page, to an interactive infographic. Again, this type of content is essential in proving your expertise, but it’s also an important way to help your potential customers get to know you. After all, you could find yourself in a heavily competitive field, but if you’re the only brand that feels like the one your customers can relate to, you’re much more likely to snag their business — all the more so if you’re also answering their most pressing questions along the way.

In its most stripped down form, your foundational content could be as little as filling out your website completely and updating your blog with a new post every week. Alternatively, you could treat your blog like a magazine, with regular features and sections. You could feature your customers, produce a vlog (video blog) about life around the office, do product demos, post photos of a work in progress, sponsor contests, or simply provide the best expert tips around.

Do it all, or just do a little slice. Just do something — your customers will be impressed.

Tips for Digging In:

• Hunt for topics. Start by thinking about what you know about your current customers. What questions are you most commonly asked? What do you most wish your customers knew? Back these hunches up by doing a little keyword research with the Google Adword tool, looking for phrases related to your business that your potential customers are querying frequently. If you already have a social media presence and a website, also take a look at what’s getting traffic right now. You can even ask your audience outright on your feeds for their most pressing questions.

• Put together a content calendar. With a good list of topics in hand, it’s time to get organized with a content calendar. If you’re planning on having regular features on certain days, add those to the list. Determine your posting frequency, and at the beginning of every month, gather the team together to brainstorm what you’ll tackle this month, paying close attention to any pressing industry or company developments or events.

• Grind those production gears. If you’re planning on producing a fair amount of content, it’s a good idea to distribute the tasks across your team. Agree to regular due dates, and determine who will be the writer, the editor, and the poster.

3. Exclusive Content

Writing content for your site typically falls under the marketing umbrella and is therefore viewed as something that should be free. But there’s free, and then there’s “free, but we’ll provide more for you if you provide more for us.” Having users subscribe to a mailing list, for instance, essentially pays you in the form of a valuable piece of data: the customer’s email address, a lifeline into the customer’s private world.

Of course, in order to maintain that lifeline, you must ensure that every time you activate it, you’re offering value — and that’s where exclusive content comes in.

With exclusive content, you’ll provide members who sign up for mailing lists or VIP memberships with the type and level of content that no other customers are receiving. This could mean covering a wider range of topics. It could also mean digging much deeper into the topics you already cover, and adding more value as you go.

You could, for instance, offer a free eBook tutorial for download, rather than just a blogpost, and provide in that eBook a clickable chart to help your clients track their progress or check off tasks they’ve accomplished. Alternatively, you could offer the same blogposts, but add comprehensive video tutorials to them. And why not offer complimentary services to go along with those other juicy extras?

Whatever routes you choose, make sure that it will be worth your audience’s time. You’ll also want to make sure that you’ve created a landing page dedicated to pushing these extras without, of course, being too salesy. And if that landing page is separate from your home page, you’ll want to make sure there are clear Calls to Action (CTA) on your homepage. You’ll also want to share the news about VIP offerings on all of your social media channels (though still remember to keep the 80-20 rule in mind).

Tips for Digging In:

• Do your analytics. Take a look at the content that’s performing well and driving a lot of traffic in your Google Analytics and on your social feeds.
• Get brainstorming. Using those posts as a base, brainstorm ideas for expanding upon that content and making it even richer. Can you add more to each section and expand the post into a series or an eBook? Is there a tool or a guide you can put together to walk your customers through a specific task or technique? Think not only in terms of the content itself but also in terms of the unique tools you can offer additionally.
• Determine how you will deliver your exclusive content. Will you place it behind a login? Will you host it at a private URL? Will you offer it for sale (with a $0 price point) on a third party shopping site? Will you deliver content through a drip email campaign using an email service provider? Think it out for seamless delivery.

In Short

These days, getting into the content game is a must for every business. With these three content types, you’ll never run out of ideas, and your customers will respect you as the most trusted voice in the game. So get brainstorming, get typing, and start growing that business!