This month, we answer a question we hear often: How do I create great content for boring products?

Great question, content creation is a struggle for many businesses. If you aren’t convinced your business is interesting to write about, you’re not alone! For this very reason, the first key element in the planning and creation of interesting, relevant content is a change in your mindset.

We often think about our key selling points and unique product features as the things we want consumers to know about our product. Are you listening to your audience to discover what it is they want to know?

Your product might very well be boring. As long as it sells and you’re operating a sustainable business, people must be finding it useful in some way. It’s easy to fall into believing your brand must be fascinating, entertaining, and humorous to capture and keep the attention of social fans and online searchers. However, many people are simply looking for utility. They want information. They are looking for ways to make their lives easier.

Change your mindset and don’t try to compete as an entertainer. Instead, be a useful resource.

Content curation is a great strategy that will help your brand share a steady stream of interesting social content, without the burden of creating all of it in-house. Position your company’s social presence as a hub of information in your industry by sharing relevant, engaging content from non-competitors with your audience.

Repurpose existing content for more play across social channels. This is a tactic to improve efficiency, but can also improve the performance of each piece of content, as well. Say you’ve written a whitepaper to be downloaded from your website. The charts in that whitepaper can be used as standalone graphics on Pinterest, Facebook and Google+. A blog post can be written to summarize the paper and share highlights. An executive can create a video summarizing the paper’s content. In this way, each piece of content becomes an opportunity to create more around it, to promote it and to reach out to consumers across a variety of channels.

For more inspiration on content creation and a list of 30 content tactics, see Lee Odden’s Content Marketing – Tactics and Best Practices resource at Online Marketing Blog. If you’re looking for assistance with your digital content strategy, contact us to get started.

Persona development is a great first step. You may start with just three or four buyer personas and build out more as you gather additional data. These profiles help identify who the buyer is, what is important to them, why they are considering your product or service, which questions they need answered in order to influence their decision, and ultimately, what problem your company will solve for them.

We shared sample B2B buyer personas this month at Online Marketing Blog, including the Methodical, Spontaneous, and Humanistic customers. Building out these personas requires insights from your own company data, including site analytics, social sentiment analysis and analytics, purchase or shopping cart information, survey data and more. If you can get your hands on it, it can be used to shed light on your customers and how you can better suit their needs.

Buyer personas should be revisited every few months to make updates based on any new data or insights at your disposal. Once you understand what your buyers need and how they digest data, you are in a much better position to build your content to address those specific needs. Each content piece you add to your editorial plan already has a very specific audience in mind; you can stop trying to please everyone or win the popularity contest and connect with the people who truly matter to your business.

If you’re ready to improve your relationship with your customers through a holistic marketing strategy that better addresses their individual needs, contact us to get started.

Thankfully, both assumptions are false. A research report out this month shows that many of the top brands in social media are, in fact, B2B companies, including Honeywell International, Oracle, and Microsoft. Business to business networking is not reserved for LinkedIn; companies are finding success on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even Pinterest.

Small businesses also have a fighting chance; one of the companies featured in a recent Facebook business success story was The English Cheesecake Company. This bakery used their Facebook Page as both a promotional tool and a customer service channel, increasing their fanbase from 2,000 to over 23,000 people.

They were able to accomplish this through a creative content strategy that included content curation, which is the act of gathering, refining and adding your own insight to industry or product-related news and activity across the web. The English Cheesecake Company also used Facebook Sponsored Stories and other types of social ads to help expose their brand to new audiences.

We’ve recently seen some great examples of integrated on and offline marketing, such as NASA’s recent social media event at their Washington headquarters. NASA invited their top social fans to an exclusive event where they had a behind-the-scenes look at their operations and even got to chat live with astronauts on the International Space Station. This is a prime example of a brand offering extra value to fans in order to convert them to brand advocates, who then help promote the company across social networks.

Third-party tools often offer additional functions and features to help brands better connect with and engage fans. Experiment with different types of content, including written, video, visual and audio. In addition, work on your storytelling skills in order to appeal to fans with entertainment, rather than just information.

All of these tactics help companies build a better and more engaging content mix. If you would like help taking your online marketing strategy to the next level with social, contact us to get started.

Image via Shutterstock.

The truth is each of these tactics can be effective for a business. Used together as part of a holistic online marketing strategy, they complement one another and become an incredibly powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal.

Why use PPC ads?

Pay-per-click ads are especially helpful for:

• Getting your brand in front of people already searching for information
• Tapping into previously undiscovered market segments
• Connecting with people ready to make a purchase
• Lead generation
• Launching new products or services
• Directing potential buyers to pages optimized for their search query deep within the site.

Once a potential customer clicks on ad, smart marketers will have them sign up for an email newsletter or follow the brand on a social account. The first interaction was paid; maximize that investment with an opportunity to connect on an ongoing basis and build a relationship.

How to Get the Best ROI from Your PPC Investment

The key to successful PPC advertising is in getting the right message in front of the right people, at the right time.

Use targeting options such as geography, device (mobile, tablet, desktop), operating system, location, language and more. Create a profile of the ideal person you will reach with your PPC ad campaign. Write ad copy that will appeal to that particular person and direct people to a page on your website that answers the need that caused them to click on your ad.

In PPC advertising, you will have campaigns and ad groups to target different users with a variety of ads. A campaign will have a theme; for example, you might choose to run a campaign for your 20% holiday sale. Your ad groups could then each promote a specific product. Finally, you will have several ads targeting each of your “perfect customers” so you can test them against each other and identify which perform best.

Tips for More Effective PPC Ad Campaigns

Use these tips and best practices to improve your PPC strategy:

• If you are running ads on both the Search and Display networks, set them up as separate campaigns so you can more effectively measure performance.
• Write ad copy with the device in mind. People searching from a mobile may use shorter queries and be at the point of purchase. For example, you want it made clear in your ad that the user is being directed to a sales page so you aren’t paying for clicks by people doing research on an item they are about to buy in-store.
• Use the Advanced Search option in location targeting to drill down to specific cities and states.
• Try different bidding options; test and analyze carefully to ensure you are not overspending on clicks that are not converting.
• Begin with “Running all day” in ad scheduling, then use your own data to determine which times of day and days of the week are most effective.

Effective PPC advertising is a necessary component in your online marketing strategy and can help you build your following, drive sales and increase your overall marketing ROI. Talk to a TopRank PPC advertising specialist today to learn more about how PPC could help your company have a more profitable 2013!

How often have you searched for an image online and couldn’t find it? Or had a hard time finding an audio file? You can make sure that doesn’t happen to your videos, images and other multimedia assets with some good SEO best practices. Below are guides to help you increase exposure to your images, videos and audio with SEO.

Optimize Images

With the amount of images most websites contain, image optimization should be a priority for all marketers. When optimizing images for search engines, pay close attention to the following. File names. Name your image in accordance with your keyword focus and stay away from generic names.

• Good: Image-Search-Engine-Optimization.jpg
• Bad: Photograph10955.jpg

Alt tags. Add alternative text for images via the alt tag. If there isn’t a field for you to enter it, the HTML string would look something like this: <img src=”http://www.domain.com/image-search-engine-optimization.jpg” alt=”image-search-engine-optimization-important”> Captions & Other Copy. Search engines can’t see images, so content that appears with them offer clues of topic, context and relevance.

• Good: Good content marketing should include image search engine optimization
• Bad:

Optimize Video

Videos offer some of the greatest opportunities for viral content. In addition to file naming conventions and alt tags, there are other ways to enhance your video’s reach with video search engine optimization. Title. The title of your video is one of the most obvious targets for optimization.

• Good: How To: The Basics of Video Search Engine Optimization
• Bad: How to Optimize Video

Transcripts. A transcript basically doubles your content by offering a video and a text version of the same content. The text can also appeal to people who don’t prefer video content. Video Meta Data. Video meta data can be optimized such as titles, descriptions and keywords. A keyword optimized description can especially helpful if your transcript didn’t include many relevant keywords. Be sure to include the word “video” in your description.

Optimize Audio

If search engines can’t look at photos or videos, they certainly can’t listen to audio files.

Names & Content. Again, previous SEO practices can be applied to audio, such as including keywords in the filename, creating a transcript of the audio file, as well as optimizing meta data and other on-page text.

ID3 tags. Audio has a distinctive tagging system known ID3 tags. This allows for the embedding of detailed information into an audio file that can optimized according to keywords and relevance.

Include Images. Make the page on which your audio file resides more interesting by including relevant images. These can also be optimized according to the directions above, as the images pertain to the audio.

Here, I’ve covered the primary methods for optimizing multimedia assets for improved search engine ranking. As you can see, with few exceptions, many of the same basic techniques and tactics apply, though in some cases, like the transcripts, it can take a bit of time and forethought. Now that you know the basics, start using the information to optimize your multimedia assets. Apply these techniques in mixed media settings for even better results.

Have you been optimizing your multimedia content? Please share your tips for optimizing multimedia assets in the comments below. Image provided via Shutterstock.

Image provided via Shutterstock.

However, as with email lists, social media followers should not be bought. Not only is it not best practices to work with a purchased list that is likely full of unqualified leads and unmanned accounts, the idea of buying Twitter followers essentially undermines the purpose of social media marketing.  Let’s use Twitter as an example.

There are unfortunately some unscrupulous “vendors” out there that will take advantage of Twitter users longing for a bigger audience. They will tout their fake followers as an easy way for you to attract real followers. It’s just a tactic to get you to part with your cash.

Remember the emphasis for social media marketing is on that first word: social. What exactly is social about adding numbers to your follower count if those followers will never actually interact or engage with you? When you purchase social media followers, you’re not buying engagement, you’re buying a number to appear next to your name and that doesn’t represent at all what is valuable about Twitter.

Take the following scenario as an example of why this type of purchase would be a pointless, and potentially harmful, investment.

Okay, so you’ve bought 3,000 Twitter followers. At first glance, your profile appears to command a respectable audience. You tweet insightful thoughts, share blog updates and post links to your products and services.

But no one asks you any questions. No one re-tweets your posts or responds to your calls to action. Not a single one of your followers offers insights into what your consumer audience might be thinking.  Because none of your followers are real.

After purchasing followers, your follower count may increase organically, but you can’t tell which are human and which are thoughtless bots. It’s sort of like talking into an auditorium filled with mannequins: It feels and looks like you have an audience, but you can’t tell if anyone is listening or if your message is effective.

And if anyone walked into the auditorium and realized what your audience consisted of, they would likely run the other direction. Savvy Twitterers can identify a purchased follower list and tell their audience, which could damage your brand’s reputation in social circles. There are even apps to help identify accounts with a high percentage of fake followers.

What are some of the reasons people might consider purchasing lists?

• Deception, whether intentional or unintentional
• Feelings of inferiority comparing your numbers to others
• Frustration experienced in drumming up an audience organically

Let’s take a few moments to address those reasons and explain why you shouldn’t succumb to temptation.

• Deception. There are a few reasons why people might want to deceive on Twitter. Of course, you’re not part of the group deceiving to make a profit. You just want people to think you’re popular. It’s enticing, because it seems really easy to buy popularity, but this “easy fix” could put your brand at risk. Once people get the idea in their head that you’re not on the level, it’s hard to dislodge that perception.

• Follower-envy. Perhaps you compared your numbers to another account and feel a little down on yourself. Have you evaluated whether or not they have a bunch of fake followers themselves? They could be deceiving you. How long have they been on Twitter? If they have hundreds or thousands of status updates, it likely took them a long time to establish that kind of audience. It will take time for you, too.

• Frustration. Cultivating an engaged and active following takes effort and can be very frustrating at first. This shortcut of buying a list, however, won’t increase your Twitter effectiveness. As we explored in the scenario above, with purchased followers you might as well have an audience of 0 – at least you didn’t have to pay for that. Be patient and keep sharing and your customers will find you.

Put those fears out of your mind. Marketing on Twitter is not a race, it’s more like a journey of discovery – discovering what is important to your customers and how to best to appeal to them.

To grow your audience organically, consider reading the following posts:

Twitter Engagement for Business

 5 Steps to Build a Twitter Marketing Strategy

5 Ingredients for a Perfect Twitter Marketing Recipe

4 Tips For Motivating Your Social Media Network to Share

True, it takes time and energy to nurture a vast and engaged audience, but if you put in the work, it will be worth it in the end.

Image provided via Shutterstock.

Optimize For Your Audience

One word: Optimization. Right, I know, everyone is talking about optimization, but we’re talking about not just optimizing for search engines, but optimizing for customers.

What is optimization?

optimize (verb):  to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible (Merriam-Webster)

Optimizing your online content, whether it’s your webpage, a blog post, social message, online profile, article, press release, photo or other content, involves weaving in keywords and phrases that provide solutions for the business problems your customers are looking for help solving.  Synchronizing your keywords and content with both your customers’ needs and search engine algorithms can grow your audience and increase exposure to potential new clients.

Why didn’t I say strategy? Because an online content marketing strategy wouldn’t be much without optimization. You could have the greatest content online about your topic, but if it isn’t optimized to include the best keywords for your audience, it will likely languish nearly unread. If your social profiles and statuses don’t include keywords, you’re missing out on a big audience and potential leads. Your website is just not as likely to climb up the search results without effective optimization across internal links, incoming links and social platforms.

The good news is that everything online can be optimized in one way or another, even if you’ve already published your content. Beyond on-page text, tags of webpages, titles of blog posts, file names of photos and more – if there is a way to include text, it can be optimized. Even when there is no text, there are ways to optimize. If the content has already been published, you can simply go back and add keywords in the title, meta description, body and linking.

That being said, it’s important not to over-optimize for search engines. Don’t cram in so many keywords that the sentences become awkward. The content should be easy and fun for humans to read – and share.

Finally, optimization helps via analytics in determining how to move forward with new content and strategies. The data webpage analytics provides lets you know what searches and keywords attracted the most people, which of those people stayed on your site the longest, and how many converted. Keyword analytics can also tell which content isn’t working, what pages might need additional optimization and how to reduce bounces. All of this valuable information can help you decided content to create in the future and which sources of traffic are going to be the most likely to find it.

When preparing to embark on a content marketing program, set yourself up for success by learning and utilizing effective search engine optimization tactics. Once you learn how the building blocks of optimization fit together, it will be much easier to design a more effective strategy for marketing your brand online. It can also help inform your future content tactic

It is essential that you approach negative feedback with a level head and the right attitude. Also, don’t discredit the poster’s opinion. And even if your in a position to do it, do not delete the comment. Think of every complaint as a learning experience and an opportunity to change a customer’s mind.

How can you best turn that negative into a positive? With the right response, you can not only address the unhappy customer’s issues but possibly turn them, and others, into loyal customers.

1. Evaluate the comment. Not all negative feedback is equal. Some things to consider: Who wrote it? Where was it posted? What was the comment about? Why was the person upset? Is the comment likely to scare off new customers? The answers to these questions should influence how you respond. For example, a disparaging comment posted anonymously on Twitter is less worthy of serious response than a dissatisfied customer that wrote a blog post about their negative experience.

2. Determine who should respond. Depending on the severity, location or direction of the negative comment, you may want to evaluate who should reply. If criticism was left on a blog post, it’s probably best that the response come from the author. If someone published a bad review on Google, someone with authority within the organization should respond. If there is the potential for legal issues, consult your lawyer or legal department about a proper response.

3. Time your response. Don’t make the problem worse by firing off a reply in the heat of the moment. Take your time and do it right. If the complaint is minor, you have more time to respond than if the complaint is major, but don’t rush yourself. Taking too long to answer a major complaint could cost you current and future customers.

4. Respond as if to “Every Consumer.” Sure, technically you’re crafting an answer to the person that complained. However, with your response, you should address anyone else who might happen to be “listening” to your conversation. Odds are the average consumer isn’t going to know the full story behind the complaint, but they could make assumptions based on both the criticism and the response. With your words, let the disappointed consumer know you’re listening, while showing the rest of the world that you care about the experiences of the people using your products or services. Don’t forget to thank the poster for bringing his or her poor experience to your attention. Be sincere!

5. Choose your words carefully. Use short, succinct sentences and keep paragraphs to no more than four or five sentences. And don’t ramble on and on in your response, as consumers may view your reaction as defensive.  Once you’ve crafted your message, read it and re-read it over and over again, tightening up loose grammar or paring down any words that detract from your message.   Sign it with your real name, title, company name, and Web address.

Once you’ve sent your response, be proactive about determining if the reviewer received your message. When you seriously address a customer’s negative experience, there is a distinct possibility that he or she could update their review to explain how you made it right. Even if they don’t change their opinion, your direct and honest response could very well sway other consumers to your side.

I’ve noticed that when marketers offer their best ways for repurposing content, it seems to mean different things to different people. Some are content to call their content repurposed if it has been syndicated, while others are not satisfied until it is almost unrecognizable from the original.  “Syndicated” and “repurposed” are not the same, however – one is a method of distributing a piece over multiple channels, while the other is the practice of creating something entirely new out of existing content. And if you spend as much time repurposing a piece as you put into creating it in the first place, you’re losing out on the time savings aspect of this method.

In this post, I will discuss repurposing content in the most traditional sense of the word. Though there are ultimately many ways to repurpose content, most can be boiled down three basic techniques that can be applied many ways.

Update old information
One of the most obvious ways of repurposing old content is to create an update on a topic which you have covered previously. For instance, many bloggers that had written a blog post about Google’s Panda update last year had content ready to use as a reference and contrast for the changes that Penguin brought this year. New developments could happen with nearly any topic, so no matter what your industry, you will likely have plenty of opportunities to repurpose old content with new when updates to products, services and more take place.

Create new content out of a compilation of old content
Another popular methods for repurposing content is via a compilation or list post. Compilations are created by repurposing and combining several related pieces into one that connects them all. For example, every December and January bloggers around the world try to get more life from their content by creating “Top 10 Posts of the Year” lists that link back to their most popular pieces. Compilations can be created out of similar content, like a blog post that compiles information from other blog posts, or dissimilar content, like an article that combines related text, photos and videos into one comprehensive piece.

Transform content from one medium to another
This means to actually take the information from content that you have already created and present it in an entirely new way. It can be as simple as rewriting a blog post into an article for distribution or as complicated as compiling a video montage out of still photos. One of the hottest ways to do this is to create an infographic that takes data, like numerical statistics from a survey, and conveys it in a compelling, visually graphic form. Other ways to transform existing content from one medium to another is to create a text summary of an image, transcribe a podcast, make a video of your slideshow or expand an article into a white paper.

Though there are many ways to repurpose content, most methods can be boiled down to the techniques listed above. Even more repurposing power can be had by combining some of even all of these techniques. Take the information above and apply it to your content marketing efforts to see your reach expand and your audience increase.

However, the optimizing for your local customers may not be as difficult as you would think.  Below are 6 steps you can follow to enhance your local marketing efforts:

#1 – Keyword Research
Thorough planning is the best way to begin any strategy, and online marketing always starts with keyword research.  To do your own, simply research industry-specific terms plus geo-targeted terms.  If you are an auto dealer in Chicago, for example, research the term “Chicago auto dealer.”  Then, replace the word “Chicago” with the names of surrounding suburbs.

#2 – On-Page SEO
The next aspect of the local optimization practice to attack is your on-page SEO.  Don’t worry, this isn’t nearly as difficult as it sounds!  Be sure your primary keywords appear in both the META title and description tags.  Also ensure you have your physical address and phone number on all pages of your website.  If you have multiple locations, ensure to create a specific page on your website for each one.

#3 – Off-Page optimization
This type of optimization simply refers to performing SEO on places outside of your own website.  One of the most important things to do is to make sure you have a listing in the most popular local business directories, with Google Places being the most important.  Next, make sure your listing has multiple positive user reviews.  Not only does this improve your results in the rankings, but it also creates a positive first impression on people accessing your listing.

#4 – Link building
The link building process is one of the most important for increasing your rank for your targeted keywords.  Talk with other local companies in your industry who are not competitors, bloggers, and local events hosts and tell them why having your link on their page will benefit their site’s visitors.

#5 – Social Media
With more than 900 million users on Facebook alone, social media sites can be a  sensational business-to-consumer marketing tool.  Create a Facebook page, but be sure to tell Facebook you are a local business during the setup process.  Invite your friends and become a fan of other related, but not competing, local businesses.

#6 – Get in the Mindset of Your Customers
What do you think your customers would search for on Google?  Perhaps you own an Italian restaurant in Minneapolis, MN.  Will your customers be searching for generic phrases such as “Italian restaurant Minneapolis”?  Perhaps, but they are also likely searching for phrases such as “best italian restaurant Minneapolis” or “top 10 restaurants Minneapolis”.  As a business owner is can be easy to get caught up in popular keywords.  While keywords are important, it is also important to consider the end user, your customer.

There are many more tips and tactics for optimizing for local optimization but hopefully this short list will give you an idea of where to begin when seeking out new customers for your company.

Increasing Exposure to Search Engines

Assuming you’ve already identified your competitive keywords it’s essential that you keep your primary focus on providing value and making your content readable, while secondly focusing on keyword density.

Google’s algorithm (especially after the update released this week) is focused more and more in favor of quality vs. quantity, so the more difficult it is for your audience to recognize the use of keywords the better.

In the case of YouTube videos, for example, you would place keywords in the title and description of the video, as well as in the tags. The basic rule to keep in mind is that whenever a website allows you to post content, make sure your targeted keywords appear anywhere you are allowed to insert text, but be sure not to overuse them.

Steps to Increase Reader Shares

In addition to inserting keywords in your content’s title, description, headings, and body text, there are some additional steps you can take to maximize the number of shares your content receives.

1. Use calls to action. This seems rather obvious, as you would expect people to share internet content without thought – that’s the point of the internet after all isn’t it? But, your number of shares can increase dramatically when you use a call to action and tell people exactly how you want them to share your content.

2. Write an article opposite to the typical way of thinking. You’ve probably noticed many articles that begin with, “How to,” or, “7 Tips for…,” or,“Top 10 Reasons to…” There’s a reason people write this way – this type of writing often attracts people’s attention.

However, if you want to garner some significant attention, use a catchier title that goes against the grain, such as, “Learn How to Ruin Your Website in 7 Simple Steps,” or,“Terrify Your Site’s Visitors by Following This Simple Guide.”

Doing something different like this peaks people’s curiosity, making it more likely your content will be shared.

3. Know the best time to publish your content. Avoid publishing your content on Sunday mornings and holidays. Friday afternoons are also not a good time to publish because people are getting geared up for the weekend. Also be sure to be aware of differences in time zones.

In general, time your content to be published slightly before work breaks, lunch, and the early evening, when people arrive home from work. What’s the first thing they do in their free time? Jump on the internet and read the latest updates from their favorite websites.

If you take the time to follow these steps, the next time you create web content you would like shared, you will have a much higher chance for success.

I do know a thing or two that I can tell you that will most certainly help with improving the appeal of the content you create. In a recent post on TopRankBlog titled How to Increase Business Blog Traffic, Readership, & Community, Lee Odden shared some tips and tricks for increasing reach through content creation. Though the post’s primary focus was about growing an online community, it also briefly touched on creating a “matrix of topics and media types” that appeal to target audiences. Making a matrix like this can go a long way to helping you create a variety of content in order to appeal to the widest audiences.

Create Your Content Marketing Media and Topics Matrix
To begin making your matrix, first you must discover your niche by asking some serious questions. What about your company, division, department or product stands out – in general or from other similar brands? How do your customers see your brand and how do you want them to view it? What about your brand is the most important to them? Thoroughly explore and identify the major problems your business or brand solves for customers, your target audiences, and the messages that are important to your brand. Then try to group those ideas into a handful of categories.

Next, think of the varying types of content that you’re capable of creating. Content ideas could include blog posts, online articles, videos, photographs, infographics, surveys, interviews, liveblogging, reports, and more. Different kinds of content appeal to different people – some may be more visually oriented while others prefer reading text and a few gravitate to videos in particular. It would be most beneficial to pursue whatever types of content you’re able to create and which suit your brand the best.

Those two steps will help lay the foundation for your content creation matrix – or rather, they should create the “X and Y axis” of it! Using a table, list the brand categories you determined in the first step across the top of the columns and the content types you can create in the rows furthest left. It should look something like this:

Once you’ve mapped out your content creation matrix, it is time to start filling it out. That means getting more detailed about specifying the actual content that you will be creating. An example content creation matrix for a local coffee shop has been depicted below.

Though this is set for one niche, it’s easy to see how this same concept can be applied to other industries and markets. How many types of content you create, whether text, video, images, online articles or whatever, are only limited by your capabilities; the topics restricted only by your brand standards. You may even consider expanding them, too – if you can’t make video but want to, buy a video camera! Apply new concepts to brand messaging or even use your blog to expand your message.

By mapping out the specific media you plan to use for your content marketing and the topics you want to cover to appeal to different segments of the market, you increase your potential for reaching the widest audience.

Content Curation Best Practices

• Make sure that the content you are curating is relevant to your audience
• Adhere to all fair use laws as it relates to content and copyright infringement
• Determine a way to measure your content curation success
• Incorporate original content as well
• Always link to the original source
• Identify industry through leaders and influencers as a source of information

Different Types of Curated Content
Content curation comes in many forms.  Some of the types of content we recommend you curate might include:

• Videos
• Industry News
• Research & Reports
• Presentations
• Case Studies
• Events
• Tips or How To’s
• Lists
• Infographics

Content Curation Tools

• Flipboard
• Storify
• Curata
• Curation Station
• CurationSoft
• Scoop.it
• Paper.li

In order to get the most value from your content curation efforts it’s important that you remember to think like a curator,  always be on the lookout for new and interesting stories to add to your content marketing mix.  Most important, be sure to share your information in a meaningful way.

• What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
• When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
• What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?
• Does having no content plan really mean you’re planning to fail?
• If you don’t tie your SEO, Social Media and Online Public Relations efforts together in a way that’s “manageable” and efficient now, will you wait until your competition does?
• When will you need a community of supporters to help promote your content, provide you with new content and serve as an on-demand focus group?
• When is it a good time to create more efficient and effective means for journalists and the media to use your content in their news stories?
• When is the right time to measure which content messages are working, which are not and to gain actionable insights that will improve overall marketing and PR performance?

The questions above get at some of the core principles and benefits of content marketing. Online marketers rely on channels like email, online PR, search and social media to generate awareness, leads and sales. Content is at the core of all those means of communication and without a plan that coordinates content planning, creation, optimization, social promotion and measurement, companies are simply guessing and getting lucky with their current online marketing efforts.

Without planned content designed to attract, engage and inspire action with prospects, customers and industry influentials, companies may find themselves looking in the tail lights of their competitors in the distance. Why wait to start the race when you can get a head start with Content Marketing today?

Research & Use Keywords. Optimize your blog for search engines. Use a keyword research tool to create a keyword glossary of words related to your brand, business, topic or industry that are in demand. Content creators should use the glossary as a reference for planning, writing and publishing content online.

Create a Content Plan. Create a structured, yet flexible content plan for your business blog. Assign topics and keywords to any planned articles, blog posts, curated news and other content. Its okay to expect some “wildcard” posts in case breaking industry news occurs, as long as content creators expect to consult the keyword list when posting.

Use Keywords Everywhere. Have you noticed a theme? Keywords are a blog’s most important feature for attracting organic traffic, but repetitive use in body text can turn readers off. To increase keyword density without sacrificing content quality, use keywords everywhere: In post titles, anchor text for URLs, tags, post categories, image alt text, audio and video title names, metadata, etc.

Create Valuable Content. Varied, compelling content draws readers back frequently to check for updates. Include wide-ranging content and formats in your blog posts, as they relate to your business, brand or industry. Some examples of types of posts that are popular include lists, FAQs, how-tos, interviews, industry news, current events, photo spreads and infographics.

The Three Cs. Get some of your content from the outside your organization through Curation, Comments and Crowdsourcing. Share posts from important blogs in your industry. Write posts that address poignant comments. Create surveys, polls and contests that result in content from your target market. Give audiences motivation to participate. Don’t forget to link – outbound links attract inbound links!

Quality Over Quantity. Some people post once a month, others by the week and even a few swear by blogging every day. But the quantity of posts that you publish isn’t as important as the quality. Quality over quantity will keep the readers of your business blog engaged and coming back for more.

Balance. Find a balance of optimizing blog text keywords and context for readers and search engines: Don’t forget that your target reader isn’t a computer. Offset curated content with original content. Find the right timing, for you and your brand, to publish new posts and remain consistent.

Incorporate Gadgets. You can share your work, but truly successful blog posts are distributed far and wide by zealous readers. Encourage this with gadgets embedded in each post or on each page, like RSS syndication feeds, widgets for social bookmark sites and buttons to instantly share posts via Twitter, Facebook or other social media sites. This gives more visibility and can help to build more links.

Getting the most value from a business blog takes a little knowledge and a lot of strategy, but it doesn’t have to be time consuming. Follow the tips above and you’ll be well on your way to reaping the benefits blogs can provide to companies.