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#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Get More Mileage, Shares and Traction from Your Content Efforts with Susan Moeller

by | Oct 27, 2017 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Get More Mileage, Shares and Traction from Your Content Efforts with Susan Moeller

How would you like to get more mileage out of your online content? If so, you’re in the right place! That’s exactly what we discussed in this week’s #ContentWritingChat. Our participants shared tips for implementing an influencer strategy, how to increase social media shares, and tips for content efficiency.

Keep reading for all the amazing advice they had to share with us!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Get More Mileage, Shares and Traction from Your Content Efforts with Susan Moeller

Our guest host this week was Susan Moeller. Susan is the Business Development Manager over at BuzzSumo, which is a tool we love to use here at Express Writers. She had some valuable tips to share with us, which we’ve added to this week’s recap.

Q1: Do you think social media shares are a valuable metric to track? Why?

Do you pay much attention to the amount of shares you get on social media? Some of our chat participants found this an important metric to track, while others felt there were better things to focus on. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

Susan feels social sharing is more of a vote for the relationship than the content itself.

A social share could mean someone deemed your content valuable enough to share it with their own audience, which definitely means a lot.

As Amanda pointed out, social shares from those who have authority or relevancy in your field can really help generate awareness.

When you see people sharing your content, it’s a good sign that you created something that spoke to them.

There’s nothing wrong with an endorsement from your audience!

One great way to look at it is that social shares help you potentially reach even more new people.

As Julia said, social media shares a good metric to track, but it’s not a success metric on their own.

The important thing to remember is that a social share doesn’t necessarily mean someone read your content. They could have shared without actually reading it.

As Lexie said, social sharing can be very passive.

Q2: What is your top suggestion for getting more shares on social media?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting a few extra shares on your content, right? To encourage people to spread the word, these are some great tips to remember:

Susan encourages you to collaborate with influencers throughout the process. Creating with other people can help you reach a new audience, but it also helps build relationships within your niche.

Knowing your audience is a must! As Ken said, you need to create content they’ll find relevant.

Kyle agrees that it’s so important to know who your audience is. He also recommended looking at past sharing from your audience, as it’s a good indicator of what they liked and may be willing to share again.

If you want to encourage social media sharing, you need to create shareable content in the first place. Ask yourself if you’d share your own content. If not, you should head back to the drawing board.

Julia knows it’s important that you create your best content. You also need to be consistent with publishing. Those social shares will come to you.

You should also make it easy for your audience to share your stuff. Add social sharing buttons to your blog posts to make it super quick. It’s just a few clicks and they’ve shared it for you.

Andrea agrees that you need to make it easy for them. Those social sharing buttons need to be clearly visible to visitors of your website.

For Andrew, he feels lighthearted, relatable content is where it’s at. He also recognizes the power of a call to action.

As Kristen said, a great headline and amazing images never hurt!

Q3: What are some techniques to get the most mileage out of your content?

You’ve created an amazing piece of content, so now what? To make the most of the content you’ve published, here are some great ideas:

You can repurpose your content by summarizing a webinar in a blog post and using questions that were asked.

Sarah knows it’s important to repurpose your content. You want to keep it fresh by updating evergreen posts regularly to ensure they’re still relevant with the latest information. You can even take blog posts and make them into different formats.

Kristen suggests turning an eBook into a webinar, blog posts, and even infographics.

Julia shared some great ideas like creating quote cards, Instagram posts, Snapchat content, Instagram Stories, and SlideShares. All of this can be created from one in-depth post.

Brandie recommended creating videos, slides, and infographics.

Don’t forget to mention or tag any co-authors or brands that are part of your post. You can even potentially “newsjack” or “trendjack” on social media to gain more traction.

Q4: Do you use an influencer strategy to gain traction on your content? If so, what do you do?

Many brand are taking advantage of influencers in their niche as a way to reach new people. If you’re considering trying it out, these are some great tips:

Susan said the team at BuzzSumo focuses on how they can help the influencers they work with. They use a relational approach, as opposed to mass emailing cold contacts.

Remember that you’re all in this together. Find a way to offer value to the influencers you partner with.

Qualifying the audience an influencer has can definitely be a tricky task, but it’s an important one. You want to ensure you work with the right people.

After all, Lexie knows choosing the right influencer is so important if you want to see success with your social sharing campaign.

Make sure you’re doing the necessary research on influencers before you reach out. Meghan said they should understand your brand and message.

Shawn is spot on with his answer. Choosing an influencer doesn’t mean you should go with the person who has the largest audience. It’s more important to work with someone who has a quality, highly engaged audience.

If those bigger influencers are out of your reach, there’s no need to worry. You can see great results when partnering with micro-influencers in your niche.

Julia also sees the value in working with micro-influencers. As she said, niche wins.

Q5: What pitfalls do you try to avoid in your influencer strategy for content?

To help you avoid any troubles with your influencer strategy, we asked our chat participants to share the things they strive to avoid. Here’s what a few of them said:

When you have a small team, you have to be careful that you don’t stress yourself too thin. Don’t go overboard with commitments because you need to make sure you can still deliver.

Jim’s advice is to choose influencers that are aligned with your values so there’s no disconnect.

Don’t be afraid to be selective when choosing the influencers you work with. They should share your vision.

And remember that it’s not all about a large audience. It’s about an engaged audience.

A great piece of advice to remember: know your influencer’s audience. You want to research potential influencers to choose the right one for your brand.

Q6: What roadblocks to content efficiency are you trying to overcome? How’s that going for you?

Are you struggling with content efficiency? You aren’t alone! Our chat participants shared their biggest struggles and how they’re working to beat them:

Sticking to your plans can be tough when you have so many good ideas floating around. Susan said a system needs to be in place that allows that flexibility, but still encourages you to finish projects.

Kristen knows an evolving organization goes through a lot of transitions. Keeping messaging, language, and themes consistent and on-brand can be a tricky task.

Creating for clients can sometimes be pretty challenging. You want to make sure you’re getting plenty of information from them to do your job successfully.

Cheval knows that writing long-form content isn’t always easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to create an amazing piece of content.

There’s no denying that time is a struggle for all of us!

Q7: Are there any tools you rely on to help repurpose your share your content online?

What are the best tools to help you repurpose and share your content? Check out these great suggestions:

Susan’s go-to tools include Rev for video transcription and Canva for creating images.

TweetDeck, Canva, and Pablo from Buffer are all great tools to check out.

Cheval’s must-have is Hootsuite. He relies on it to schedule his Twitter posts.

Buffer is a great tool to schedule social media content. Their Power Scheduler really comes in handy when you want to schedule content far in advance.

For Kristen, it’s all about reusable templates and an amazing designer.

Q8: Which brands do a great job at getting the most mileage out of their content?

If you’re ready to make the most out of the content you create, you can draw some inspiration from these brands:

Susan is a big fan of Content Marketing Institute’s content. They’re always amazing!

Julia loves the work that CoSchedule, Buffer, BuzzSumo, and Canva create.

Narmadhaa is also a fan of Content Marketing Institute’s work, as well as Hootsuite’s.

For Gaby, she knows Red Bull is great at taking one piece of content and repurposing it into a variety of other formats.

Want to join us for the live hour? Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat and join us every Tuesday at 10 AM Central!

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Tags: content strategy