What if your organization diligently creates compelling, inventive content but no one is seeing it? It’s time to take another look at your approach to amplification.
Creation of quality content is just the first step in executing an effective content strategy (albeit a critically important one). Equally important is a solid plan for getting eyes on your content—whether your goal is to engage existing members, attract new ones or impress industry professionals with the depth of your thought leadership. And unlike companies in your field or even media outlets that cover your sector, your organization has a secret content distribution weapon to leverage: Your members.
Here are three suggestions for better amplifying your organization’s content:
1. Slice, dice and repurpose.
An important component of effective content distribution is using every bit of the content in every available way. Here’s one example: You produce a profile of one of your members as a featured post on your content hub, and include a promo and link to the feature in your weekly email to members. Consider asking the same member to shoot a 30-second video you can post on YouTube (with a link back to the feature article) to further the reach of the original content. You might also pull a graphic or photo from the piece and use that to promote the content on social media channels.
2. Don’t overlook the visuals.
The best companion to intelligent, relevant content is visual engaging elements—in the form of stats, charts, photos, gifs, infographics, and even video. Strong visuals are a necessity to both break up copy and grab the attention of your audience, and multiple studies show that visual components make content far more likely to be seen and shared. Every piece of online content you post and share should include at least one visual element.
3. Promote a culture of sharing.
Don’t limit your reach to your association’s own social media channels. Leverage the social networks of your members as much as possible—especially members who are featured in or contributed the original content elements. Reach out to influencers tied to the topic and ask them to share a pre-written post and link. Cite experts mentioned or quoted, and include their social handles to get their attention. Also, make sure you include links in your newsletters to make social sharing easy directly from the email. Finally, share the post in relevant communities or groups, and approach related organizations to ask about opportunities to share content on their distribution outlets. As long as they don’t consider you a competitive threat, they’re likely to let you in exchange for sharing their relevant content over your channels.
Don’t let all of your investments and efforts in content strategy yield nothing for your organization. Leverage the full value of your content by maximizing its visibility.