The Sun Newspaper in the UK is one of the Top 10 Read papers in the world because it has mastered two main aspects of media “Content” and “Reach”.
Content is obvious; We have all heard the saying that content is King. But the King needs a Queen in this case she is Reach.
Without reach, content will not spread and is as useless as a chocolate fireguard.
I often observe clients who have a proposal from another agency in hand that recommends creating a blog, Facebook page, new Twitter profile, YouTube Channel et al. This is fair enough if those agencies have the right strategy and established audiences for these channels. Often times the client is left stranded when it comes to amplification and promotion of the content. It is left to a Social Media Manager with key contacts across the social sphere to leverage and push out sometimes dissjointed content off the back of favours and goodies to save a campaigns KPI’s from sinking into the abyss.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Users and Consumers now seem to have inherited a severe case of low concentration due to information overload. When a client starts a Facebook page and tries to make it discoverable, there are a series of steps that they need to undertake. Facebook paid media / Sponsored stories is just one of them. There are other organic ways like including the Facebook URL in email signatures of all employees, on print ads of the company, in the corporate website of the company and the best way; is by optimising and promting the viral aspects of the page itself using the fans and followers across all channels to spread and discuss meaningfull content with each other thus extending the network. This is might not be a new learning in the PR world but it is so often used incorrectly as is our old favorite the ‘Press Release’. Press releases are pushed out and expected to spread and grow a brand campaign offering often to no avail. The content must be compelling and resonate with its audience, also the content is only as good as its location and distribution networks. If there are no readers or the readers are more interested in Cat food than Modern Automotive technology then why should they read, quote and share it?
So, how can great content be amplified?
Lets take a blog, as our first example; A single Blog post is a piece of content that needs promoting to its target audience based on interest and subject. The simplest method of pushing it out involves using an RSS feed. Tools such as Feedburner can simplify this process and make your blog accessible to many more people that the original website. Are your posts, descriptions and post titles search optimised each post should also gain some individual SEO so as to levearge search traffic. If you have other popular channels such as a Twitter / linkedin account use these to also spread the word about your new post and grow your audience.
Many Campaigns simply creating a new Twitter stream and add content via links. This is just tweeting to a vacuum and not going to get results very quickly.
Look for influencial ambassadors for your area ideally influencers / forums / communities that may be interested in your subject. You can find these by growing a pair of Social Media ears and listening to others in your area. This must be done from Day Zero and should continue all through the time your brand is in business. If you listen and measure interest carefully enough it will be obvious which influencers and locations you should be adding to your contact list. These are communities you should activley engage with both posting and responding to their content as well as asking them to respond to yours.
The most accepted method of accessing these groups initially is to politley respond to content and contribute to discussions currently happening then go through the group moderator or a popular group member and convince them within context to share your blog link with the larger group.
Other organic methods include getting existine community members / employees / agency staff to spread the word about the post but always remaining in context using their personal online vehicles. Company newsletters and industry news feeds are also a great way to amplify content as these locations will have existing readership and contextual interest.
Fianlly, once everything is in place and you have accessed communities and influencers, gained credibility and set up a site with clear navigation and conversion paths consider further amplification using paid media. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter ads are a cheap and efficient way of targeting your niche. It may seem overkill to promote a single blog post using paid media but this is something that most agencies may have already considered but it is probably the easiest way to build “Word of Mouth” once everything else is already in place. A blog is not something that builds on its own even if the content is super clear and useful It needs to seeded with the right initial influencers and communities for it grow virally.
So, content remains the King, but people will never know that the King exists. Without its Queen providing the reach and promotion.
Without Reach the King will remain lonely and make your social media effort pointless.
As a final note: Pariser suggests, “Giving people what they think they want is easy,” he said, “but it’s also not very satisfying: the same stuff, over and over again. Great editors are like great matchmakers: they introduce people to whole new ways of thinking, and they fall in love.”
These introductions require context and reach otherwise the revolution will never begin.
