PowerPoint Presentation

Addressing the content conundrum

Australian businesses with a website 2012

0-4 persons in the business 34.1% (Micro)

5-19 persons 57% (Small)

Yet more than 200 persons: 97% (Large)

Source: ABS

Why?

Dont know how to go about it

Cost prohibitive

Dont believe in it as a marketing tool

Dont see the relevance for their business

Dont know what to put on their site (ie content)

WHAT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Only 30% of businesses use social media

Only 12% of small businesses believe they can benefit from social media

but 36% of SMEs using social media reported increased sales as a result

25% of social media users in Australia follow brands

Source: Sensis, 2013, Yellow Social Media Report

Why no social media strategy?

Its for young people

Not relevant to my business

Dont have time

My customers already know me

Dont know what to say (content)

Common THEMEs

Lack of understanding how to use website and social media

No content to share

Too busy running business to focus on writing content

Recent research findings:

Hard to have original or interesting thoughts

Educational or informative content has rarely been used before (usually use sales brochures or static advertising)

Sales cycle using content is typically much longer

No strategic direction

Social media speeds up purchasing decisions especially for B2B

Source: Lead Crea+ion

Where do I find something to talk about?

Content aggregation is the collection of content from all over the internet (including RSS feeds, social media and social bookmarking sites) which businesses can use to target current and potential clients through content marketing

What CONTENT DO I USE?

Content must be topical

Make a list of topics that may affect your clients based on what you know about them and whats going on around them.

Conduct some research to find out exactly what they want from you or use that research to share what you know about clients or marketplace

Subscribe to RSS feeds, blogs, use Google alerts, Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn, industry publications

My top 2 favourites

RSS feeds

Twitter

RSS Really simple syndication

Good RSS feeds to follow

Australian Bureau of Statistics

News sites

Industry sites and/or publications

Blogs

International news sites, ie you can drill down to separate sections of news site, ie sport, finance, business, technology

Twitter

Still only a small portion of the population using it but wealth of information

Good people to follow: journalists that write topics about your industry, industry groups, bloggers talking about your industry, publications like Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Mashable

Good information in 140 characters or less

How to use the information

Share content via the social media platforms ie re-tweet or make a comment about the post and share to your followers

Comment back to the person who posted the tweet by directly referencing them via their twitter handle ie, @jo_anneryan great article about using content

I have set up Twitter so if someone makes a comment to me I am emailed.

Use the content for your newsletter or blog

#hashtags

Follow and take part in the conversation

Aggregate content

Grab the content and do a short introduction

Dont plagiarise

Talk about why its relevant to your audience

Share on your website keep your posts to max 300 words

Share via your newsletter that links back to your website

If your website is built on Wordpress you can get a plug in to automatically share on Facebook & Twitter

Dont forget your call to action

Things to remember

In a digital world engagement is the key be proactive and reactive

Relevance is everything keep an eye on the news cycle

Measure your success its easy with analytics

One bit of content goes a long way

If in doubt

Work with a communications expert to develop a strategic plan (aka my call to action)

You have to get involved and stick to it because if you dont your competitors will.

Thank you.

Joanne Ryan Infodec Communications

Communications strategies that get measurable results!