Everyone wants to be noticed. Your company’s brand is no different. It needs the attention, most importantly the attention of your target audience.

Humans need to communicate. Social talk is the most common driver for sharing content. The content does not have to be ground breaking or controversial but simply act as a social lubricant.  It should give us something to talk about and comment on what we agree with or disagree with.  Audiences need to care about your content. Design content that is inter-personal and get a discussion started by providing different perspectives about topics.

Quality over quantity. Create useful and informative content that your audience cannot resist. Ensure audiences are getting value from what you provide them. Sometimes you have to open the cookie jar to give potential clients and customers a taste of what you can provide for them! Do not be afraid to show the world your value.

Give the people what they want. To ensure continual improvement and growth, assess your past content and the patterns of its usage. If the analytics are available, look into the amount of time readers have spent on web pages for a certain type of content or the amount of comments or discussion cultivated. Sometimes, if you ask your audience directly what they want, they are not able to answer but analyzing behavior can be invaluable with planning future material.

A word of caution

Numbers can lie. The numbers are a safe way to track progress towards a goal and measure how you are doing but the metrics of likes and shares have their limitations. The extraction of numbers of likes and shares can cause you to lose focus on whether your content is having a real impact or has actual value. It is important to know who is using content and why they are doing so. It is also important to look at who is engaging with your material. Sometimes your intended audience is not concerned with your post and all the attention comes from people who are unlikely to develop your business.

Don’t be too pushy. Most content that gets shared will not have a call to action, or at most, a very weak one, such as signing up for more information. Content that appears to be direct marketing will only be shared a little or not at all. People are less inclined to recommend things that have strings attached, that mixes friendship with commerce and feels like multilevel marketing.

Not all shared content is heard. Using an influencer is not a guaranteed path to success. Content that is seen but does not connect to the audience becomes background noise. Work on connecting with, rather than force feeding your desired audience

Final Thoughts

There is no simple formula to create meaningful content that works all the time, however, consistency and being genuine with your audience is a necessity to success. Don’t be tempted to take shortcuts by using gimmicks and flashy headlines to drive up click through rates which have the potential of hurting your brand. Instead, put in the work and keep your brand’s integrity and credibility in mind. Building something great is a journey with many twists and turns, but as you start to grow and increase your reach you gain credibility, even more so by having trusted people distribute your message.