Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with consumers, to build online visibility, and to generate more traffic to your website. But to be successful with social media marketing, you have to understand how to write content that social media users will want to share with others.

 
Start with the Headline

Perhaps the most crucial part of social media content writing is the title. Without a compelling headline, you have virtually no chance of creating an article that will go hot. Social media sites are crowded with thousands of new articles each day. How do users decide which content they should read? By viewing the headline. If the headline demands their attention, they’ll read on. List headlines tend to be among the most effective headline formats.

Understand Your Audience

One of the biggest mistakes people make when writing content for social media marketing is to not understand their target audience. Each social media site has its own unique community. What works on Digg might not work on ReddIt. Likewise, what goes popular on Sphinn might not go hot on Design Float.
In order to give yourself the best chance of creating hot content, you need to take the time to understand the community you’re targeting. Figure out the types of stories that work on each network, and write for those unique requirements. Give the people what they want.

Don’t Advertise

Even though the ultimate goal of social media marketing is to promote your brand, you don’t want to come across like a salesperson. Your content should add something of value to the community. It shouldn’t be a sales pitch for your products. The most successful social media content offers useful information that has no underlying promotional motives.

Show Your Personality

The Internet is a social medium. Social media is all about connecting with others. The only way you can truly connect with other people is to show them your personality. By being personable, you set yourself apart from others, and you build quality relationships that keep people coming back. No one wants to read stiff, robotic articles that offer no unique insight. They want something fresh; so, just converse with your readers like you would in real life.

Keep it Scanner-Friendly

In the past, we’ve talked about the importance of creating content that can be scanned easily. Online readers tend to scan content rather than reading it. This is an important part of social media content writing. Make sure your content can be scanned easily so that people won’t click “back” whenever they land on your article. Of course, it’s important that you never sacrifice quality for scannability. You can be engaging, informative, and scanner-friendly all at once.

 
What tips would you add to this list? Tell us about them in the replies.

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Eric Brantner
SEO Content Writer

The benefits of social media have been well documented. You can earn tons of inbound links and increase your brand’s exposure. However, just because you’re a member of a social media site doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed success.

Creating content for social media sites requires careful planning. To get the most out of your social media content, follow these tips.
• Choose the Right Site- It doesn’t matter how great your content is if you’re submitting it to the wrong social media site. For example, if you’re submitting content on the medical industry, it does you no good to put it on a social network for internet marketers. These days, there are social networks for virtually every niche. Sign up for accounts on the sites related to your industry.

• Understand Your Audience- Each social media site has a unique audience. If you want your content to get attention, you have to create content specifically for this audience. If your audience promotes complex industry articles, give them something detailed. Likewise, if late breaking industry news tends to go hot often, try to be the first to break relevant news for your niche.

• Participate in the Network- Remember, it’s called “social media.” You have to be social if you want to gain respect on these sites. This means voting for other people’s content, engaging in discussions, and submitting content from other sites besides your own. If you’re a good participant on a site, people will be more likely to promote your content.

• Create Useful Lists- It’s almost a given—lists make for great social media content. Creating useful lists that can be read quickly and easily will grab the attention of the site’s users. People love lists because they are so easy to scan through. If you don’t believe that lists work, just look at the cover’s of magazines at the bookstore. You’re almost guaranteed to see a music magazine with “20 greatest songs of all time” or a sports magazine with the “10 greatest NBA stars in history.”

• Write Great Headlines- I don’t care if you’ve written the greatest article in the history of the internet. If it doesn’t have a great headline, no one will ever click on it. Social media sites have thousands of articles submitted all day long. If you want to stand apart from the competition, you have to write eye catching headlines that demand users click.

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Eric Brantner
SEO Content Writer

Do you ever wonder why some blogs seem to get all the attention? While a great deal of it does have to do with promotional strategies, at the end of the day, it all boils down to content. You can promote your blog all you want, but if your content doesn’t connect with your audience, you’ll never have a successful blog.

Here are 5 components of a solid blog post.

1. Good Title- If you want to entice readers to visit your blog, your title needs to grab their attention. While having a keyword rich title is certainly important for SEO purposes, your first priority should be creating a title that demands the reader click through to the article. Remember, there are millions of blogs vying for the reader’s attention, set yourself apart by having a great title.

2. Relevant Content- If your title is good enough to get the reader to land on your blog, the way you can keep them there is to have great content. Your content needs to be unique, and it needs to be relevant. Again, the internet is brimming with blogs in your niche. Don’t just parrot what everyone else is saying. Take the time to create your own unique perspective on relevant topics, and the readers will begin to flock to your blog.

3. Unique Tone- What many writers fail to realize is that a blog isn’t like any other form of content. You don’t have to be as formal as you would in a standard article. Likewise, you don’t (and shouldn’t’) have to promote yourself like you would in a press release. A blog is a social tool. Be yourself. Use a conversational tone that brings readers in and begs them to interact with you.

4. Informative Links- If you really want to establish yourself as a resource for your niche, you should consider linking out in your posts. By including links to outside sources, you show your readers you really are giving them a well rounded perspective on a given subject. It rejects the notion that you’re just about promoting yourself.

5. Interesting Comments- One of the best ways to retain readers is to interact with them in the comments section. Sure, your blog may only get one or two comments, but if you respond thoughtfully to those comments, you’ll start to build a relationship with your readers. This keeps those commentators coming back, and it encourages others to participate as well. Soon, you’ll have a lively comments section full of people you have strong online relationships with.

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Eric Brantner
SEO Content Writer
There’s no doubt blogging has taken over as one of the most effective ways for communicating news and opinions with one another. When done properly, blogging can be a great way to increase your exposure and to build your authority. For this reason, I’ve come up with this list of the 5 P’s of successful blogging.

 
• Personality- Personality is one of the most important aspects of blogging. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most overlooked facets. Blogging is a social activity, and it’s important you have a unique personality that people want to communicate with. With so many blogs on the internet, the best way you can separate yourself from the competition is to display your unique traits to your readers.

• Purpose- The best blogs are those with a strong focus on a particular niche. You need to have a clear purpose for your blog. This will attract targeted visitors who are more likely to become loyal readers. If you’re constantly bouncing around from topic to topic, no one will want to read your blog because most of the topics won’t appeal to them.

• Participation- As I mentioned earlier, blogging is a social activity. This means you have to be willing to participate in discussions on both your blog and other blogs in the industry. First, you should always respond thoughtfully to comments on your blog. Engage your commentators, and they’ll be likelier to keep returning. Additionally, you should comment regularly on other blogs in your field. This will build connections, attract new readers, and establish your authority.

• Persistence- Successful blogs aren’t built overnight. Persistence is necessary for growing your blog. This means you need to post regularly. If you wait too long between posts, readers will become disinterested, and they’ll move onto another blog. Be consistent, and you’ll give yourself the best chance for success.

• Probe- With so many blogs on the internet, readers crave something fresh. Too many blogs are just repeats of others. Everyone seems to have the same opinions, making the blogs indistinguishable from each other. I’m not saying you have to disagree with what everyone is saying, but don’t be a “me too” blogger.  Be willing to probe to dig deeper on the important topics everyone is discussing. By giving your unique insight, you’ll separate yourself from your competitors.

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Eric Brantner

SEO Content Writer

Managing a blog can be a difficult task. You have to provide quality content on a regular basis, and you have to ensure people are actually reading it. With all of the online marketing tools at our disposal, it can be easy to get caught up in marketing your content. But have you ever stopped to think that maybe you’re over-marketing your blog?

This might seem to be a contradictory statement coming from a blog on Internet marketing, but there is something to be said for marketing yourself too much. You can actually hurt your blog by forcing it in people’s faces on a non-stop basis.

Here are a few common ways bloggers over-market their content.

• Incessant Tweets- Yes, Twitter can be a great tool for brand building. However, there is no need for you to constantly use your Tweets to promote your content. In fact, the quickest way for me to stop following you is for you to Tweet 10 times a day about your business. If you insist on promoting your content through Twitter, do it sparingly. Also, linking out to other sources will make you look less like a greedy spammer.
• We Don’t Digg it- Not every post is worthy of the front page of Digg. In fact, almost none of your posts are. Linkbait is best used sparingly. If you’re constantly Digging your own content and shouting it to your network, you’ll soon experience a backlash against your blog. People don’t go to social networks to view advertisements. Over-market your content and you risk people ignoring you forever. Build a solid base of quality content, and occasionally make an attempt at linkbait.
• Commenting on Other Blogs- We’ve discussed how contributing quality content to other blogs can boost your online visibility. However, you’ll never earn authority from your comments if you’re constantly pitching your own content. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen comments saying something along the lines of “Hey good article. You might be interested in reading my take on it (insert link here.)” If every comment you make is about your own blog, you’ll make a lot of enemies quickly. Add something of real value to the conversation, and people will naturally seek out more information on you.

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By Herb Firestone
Marketing Coordinator

Wikipedia defines social media as “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.”

The following resources, Commoncraft’s “Social Media in Plain English” video and Marta Kagen’s “What the Bleep is Social Media” SlideShare presentation provide much more user friendly and easy to understand explanations.

“Social Media in Plain English” explains that social media means new opportunities to create and communicate with people that care” while “What the Bleep is Social Media” says that “more simply put, social media is people having conversations online.

Social Media in Plain English

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