The Power of Content: How to “Earn” Your Way into People’s Lives

Serina Fignole - September 18, 2017

When a reader decides to share your content, you have “earned” their attention, trust, and perhaps the attention of any followers or readers who might see or choose to engage with the shared content. However, they don’t call it “earned” attention for nothing!

Earned attention does not come out of nowhere – you have to work hard for it, and understand that it takes a lot more to achieve success than just showing up.

To achieve earned media you ought to do the following:

Create Shareable Content

Being a content creator, you should be aware of what causes a reader to share something. Typically, a piece of content that is relevant, interesting or useful can lead them to share. It is your job as a content creator to determine what this will be for your target audience.

To determine what your audience might appreciate:

• Take a peek at what your competitors are doing
• Simply ask them
• Question someone in your company who is regularly connected to your audience, if you’re not

Market the Content

After you’ve created this great shareable content, you may wonder what the next step is. You can’t just publish the content and hope the right someone stumbles upon it. To generate a buzz, ensure it is being marketed to the right audience. To do so, you should think about promoting your content through:

• Targeting influencers in your industry
• Paid placement, such as press releases
• Social media
• Offsite publishing
• Guest blogging

Build a Reputation

To build a reputation, your Social team (which may be you) can advocate on behalf of your brand, and encourage others to do the same. One way to do so is by creating ongoing social content that shares both branded content, and other content relevant to your followers, or potential followers.

The key to content creation is that it never stops. While content creation may seem overwhelming in the beginning, once you have established the processes, it will become a part of your operations in no time.