How To Create Content That Will Cut Through The Clutter
According to AOL/Nielsen, 27 million pieces of content are shared each day.
With such a glut of online content creation and sharing, how do you get your content to stand out from the clutter? Here are some suggestions to help you do this.
1.
Create remarkable content What this essentially means is that you need to make every piece of content count.
Quality over quantity is the key to this.
Even if you publish only one blog post a week or post your own commentary about someone else's post, make it a great one.
Make your content insightful, give it depth and make people question their own assumptions.
You have more chance of creating viral content if you tell a story, trigger people's emotions, make them laugh or appeal to the goodness in people.
Even if your content is not unique and is curated from someone else's articles, it can still make a dent in the content universe.
This is the model that websites like The Huffington Post and Business Insider follow and their content is definitely some of the most shared online.
2.
Publish a blog and build a community around it That your blog is the hub of your social media presence has almost become a cliché.
But not everyone gets the fact that "social networks are not the holy grail of customer acquisition, retention and loyalty.
Online communities are".
(Source: SocialMarketingForum.
net) And that "people prefer to build relationships with brands in customer communities that are tightly integrated with the company website or other online properties, close to the brand".
A blog is one of the best ways to grow and nurture a loyal community of customers that love your information and your brand.
Communities like Mashable are built around the engaging content that they publish, and their posts often go viral, even if they are not always original content.
3.
Repurpose your blog into a video or Powerpoint Visual content is becoming essential as social networks like Instagram, Pinterest and Vine become more popular with certain niches.
Repurpose your blog post into a video and post it on YouTube, Instagram and other channels.
Also post your videos on your blog and share them with your social networks to give your content more traction and help it stand out from the clutter of text-based content.
Certain kinds of content can also be repurposed into PDFs or slideshows, allowing them to be shared on sites like Slideshare, Authorstream and other document sharing sites.
4.
Create attractive visuals to go with your post Visual content can help you cut through the clutter of content online.
A 2012 study by ROI Research found that 44% of respondents are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures than any other media (Source: Slideshare.
net).
It is so easy to create attractive quotes taken from excerpts of your blog posts using sites like Quozio.
com, Quotescover.
com and BeHappy.
me.
Or you can purchase attractive stock photos cheaply and create your own custom graphics.
You might even want to consider creating an infographic from your post, which gives it greater potential to go viral.
5.
Syndicate your content on authoritative sites If you're a B2B company, your content will get noticed and shared more if you join a number of expert communities online and syndicate your content on them.
Quora, ExploreB2B, Business2Community and Efactor are just a few of the authoritative sites that invite you to share your expertise as a blog on their site.
Considering that their updates go out to millions of readers, your content is bound to get noticed a lot more if you syndicate it on these sites.
With article directories taking a massive hit in the past few Google algorithm updates, we highly recommend making use of the massive reader base of these sites to get more traction for your content.
As the growth and sharing of content becomes even more prolific in the future, we hope that your business will benefit from these suggestions to help your content stand out from the clutter.
With such a glut of online content creation and sharing, how do you get your content to stand out from the clutter? Here are some suggestions to help you do this.
1.
Create remarkable content What this essentially means is that you need to make every piece of content count.
Quality over quantity is the key to this.
Even if you publish only one blog post a week or post your own commentary about someone else's post, make it a great one.
Make your content insightful, give it depth and make people question their own assumptions.
You have more chance of creating viral content if you tell a story, trigger people's emotions, make them laugh or appeal to the goodness in people.
Even if your content is not unique and is curated from someone else's articles, it can still make a dent in the content universe.
This is the model that websites like The Huffington Post and Business Insider follow and their content is definitely some of the most shared online.
2.
Publish a blog and build a community around it That your blog is the hub of your social media presence has almost become a cliché.
But not everyone gets the fact that "social networks are not the holy grail of customer acquisition, retention and loyalty.
Online communities are".
(Source: SocialMarketingForum.
net) And that "people prefer to build relationships with brands in customer communities that are tightly integrated with the company website or other online properties, close to the brand".
A blog is one of the best ways to grow and nurture a loyal community of customers that love your information and your brand.
Communities like Mashable are built around the engaging content that they publish, and their posts often go viral, even if they are not always original content.
3.
Repurpose your blog into a video or Powerpoint Visual content is becoming essential as social networks like Instagram, Pinterest and Vine become more popular with certain niches.
Repurpose your blog post into a video and post it on YouTube, Instagram and other channels.
Also post your videos on your blog and share them with your social networks to give your content more traction and help it stand out from the clutter of text-based content.
Certain kinds of content can also be repurposed into PDFs or slideshows, allowing them to be shared on sites like Slideshare, Authorstream and other document sharing sites.
4.
Create attractive visuals to go with your post Visual content can help you cut through the clutter of content online.
A 2012 study by ROI Research found that 44% of respondents are more likely to engage with brands if they post pictures than any other media (Source: Slideshare.
net).
It is so easy to create attractive quotes taken from excerpts of your blog posts using sites like Quozio.
com, Quotescover.
com and BeHappy.
me.
Or you can purchase attractive stock photos cheaply and create your own custom graphics.
You might even want to consider creating an infographic from your post, which gives it greater potential to go viral.
5.
Syndicate your content on authoritative sites If you're a B2B company, your content will get noticed and shared more if you join a number of expert communities online and syndicate your content on them.
Quora, ExploreB2B, Business2Community and Efactor are just a few of the authoritative sites that invite you to share your expertise as a blog on their site.
Considering that their updates go out to millions of readers, your content is bound to get noticed a lot more if you syndicate it on these sites.
With article directories taking a massive hit in the past few Google algorithm updates, we highly recommend making use of the massive reader base of these sites to get more traction for your content.
As the growth and sharing of content becomes even more prolific in the future, we hope that your business will benefit from these suggestions to help your content stand out from the clutter.
