Content marketing is quickly becoming a hot buzz word in the blogging and inbound marketing community, and for good reason. Content marketing is a fundamental inbound marketing tactic. Ever heard “Content is King?” So, what is content marketing?
Content Marketing is the creation and sharing of content for the purpose of promoting a product or service. Though the focus of this content may not specifically be about your organization or its offerings, often assets created for the purpose of content marketing include a mix of problem-specific information and thought leadership.*
Now that we all know what content marketing is let’s look at one of the most robust content distribution systems on the Internet, Twitter, and how best to use this platform to share your content with prospects.
Who should Tweet
Everyone in your organization (with few exceptions).
What to tweet
- Blog posts
- Articles
- Press releases
- White papers, videos, podcasts, images, advanced content, etc.
- Sweepstakes, contests, coupons, rituals, etc.
- Comments that help develop your brand and persona
- Comments that are required as part of engagement
- Other people’s comments (Retweets)
When to tweet
Every day, all day and throughout the evening – With tools like TweetDeck and Twitterfeed.com it’s never been easier to schedule tweets.
Where to publish content other than Twitter
- Website
- Blog
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- YouTube
- Slideshare
- Flickr
- Any other social media sites that are relevant to your content
Why tweet and distribute content
- To build relationships
- To build community
- To help people
- To entertain people
- To attain “Thought Leader” status
- SEO
- SMO
- Brand building
- To generate leads
How to distribute content via Twitter
- Repost older content daily if you have a large library of blog posts (create a schedule)
- “Drip” the day’s new content morning, noon & night
- Ask questions
- Answer questions
- Retweet relevant influencers & thought leaders
- Use Google Alerts to set up an alert for relevant related content to tweet about
- Create a reoccurring ritual at the same time everyday or every week
- Always follow T.H.A.R.G. (Transparency, Honesty, Accountability, Reciprocity, Gratuity)
- Thank people publicly for RTs, mentions, conversation and for following you.
- Include your initials in Twitter posts & account descriptions for company branded accounts (ex. ^CP)
- Use hash tags # in most of your posts
- Use TweetDeck or Hootsuite to keep organized.
- Schedule Tweets to post automatically (great during holidays)
- Use Twitterfeed.com to automate regular postings from RSS feeds
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should provide some ideas for using Twitter and social media to amplify your content marketing and inbound marketing efforts. If you've found other tactics that work well or I left something out feel free to leave it as a comment.
Image credit: Monkeyworks
*Definition provided by Marketo
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