When somebody talks about \u201ccontent marketing,\u201d they\u2019re really talking about \u201ccontent engineering\u201d \u2014 scientifically optimizing documents such as blogs, case studies and white papers to create search engine results and sales leads.<\/p>\n
This can be an extremely complicated, time-consuming and expensive proposition! So I started thinking about this in the context of my friends and small business customers who simply can\u2019t afford that kind of effort. It led to this idea: micro-content, or marketing content when you don\u2019t have time to produce content!<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s examine ideas about micro-content that even a time-starved business owner should be able to master in 15 minutes a day \u2026<\/p>\n
Preparation<\/strong><\/p>\n Like any marketing initiative, you must have a firm idea of your strategy, selling points and target audience. Spend time thinking through a set of keywords that represent your business and your customer needs. You\u2019ll need to weave these keywords into your micro-content.<\/p>\n LinkedIn Groups<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re like most people, you have a profile on LinkedIn and haven\u2019t done much with it. This platform is a goldmine of opportunity to create micro-content!<\/p>\n There are about 600,000 groups on LinkedIn covering every imaginable business interest. You\u2019re sure to find one with like-minded people who might be interested in you. If you are in a very specialized field, consider starting your own special interest group. Make sure you use relevant keywords in the title of the group so people can find you.<\/p>\n Look for some Q&A sessions within relevant groups and get involved. Simply answering questions is providing meaningful content that can attract attention to you and your website. I\u2019ve personally made some fantastic connections and acquired my two most profitable customers just by answering questions in LinkedIn Group Forums.<\/p>\n Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and helpful so people can learn about you. In the \u201cspecialties\u201d section of your profile, list your keywords! This is the ultimate site for making connections through micro-content. In this separate post, I\u2019ve provided some helpful ideas on building a targeted audience through Twitter. It makes no sense to work on micro-content on Twitter if you have nobody listening! Here is a suggested micro-content regimen if you\u2019re just starting to tweet.<\/p>\n 1) Create a habit of sharing<\/strong> \u2014 When you read something that interests you, share it on Twitter. It takes but a moment.<\/p>\n 2) Leverage your network<\/strong> \u2014 If you\u2019ve surrounded yourself with interesting people<\/a>, they\u2019re providing great content. When you find something great, re-tweet it! You don;t have to generate everything yourself.<\/p>\n 3) Try following the \u201c3 x 3 x 3 rule\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 If you\u2019re new and trying to figure what to do, tweet three times a day, at three different times of the day, on three different subjects: a) interesting non-work-related information you saw, heard or read; b) news related to your business, market or industry (use keywords), and c) your opinion on an item in the news or something funny. Pass on links and snip your URL\u2019s!<\/p>\n Remember that micro-content is still supposed to do the job of big content \u2014 drive people to action on your website. Of course you need to include your website in your profile and use your keywords in your bio.<\/p>\n Comments<\/strong><\/p>\n Commenting on relevant blog posts, videos, and Facebook pages is a quick and easy way to deliver micro-content that links to your website. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n \u2022\tA small business owner I know commented on a magazine\u2019s Facebook site and was invited to send her product to the editor for coverage. I find that comments can carry even more impact when they\u2019re \u201cmicro.\u201d People will read a few sentences, but probably scan a few paragraphs. There are so many great benefits to blogging but this is usually the place time-starved marketers stumble. Think about re-purposing your micro-content on your website as a blog, even if it only happens once a month:<\/p>\n \u2022\tCut and paste answers you\u2019ve already provided on LinkedIn and blog comments as new, unique posts. In summary \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n These are just a few of the ways you can effectively network on the social web with a \u201csprinkle\u201d of content instead of a flood. Obviously there are hundreds of other ideas I\u2019m sure you can share. But this is at least a start that a small business owner can work on for 15 minutes a day.<\/p>\n Mark Schaefer is Executive Director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions and CMO of Freesource Inc. You can find him on Twitter at @markwschaefer and on his blog {grow} at www.businessesGROW.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When somebody talks about \u201ccontent marketing,\u201d they\u2019re really talking about \u201ccontent engineering\u201d \u2014 scientifically optimizing documents such as blogs, case studies and white papers to create search engine results and sales leads. This can be an extremely complicated, time-consuming and expensive proposition! So I started thinking about this in the context of my friends and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,435],"tags":[420,552,587,588,589,590,442],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-markschaefer","tag-comments","tag-content","tag-content-marketing","tag-content-plan","tag-groups","tag-micro-content","tag-preparation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTwitter<\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tAdding your comment to relevant YouTube viral videos can create impressions with thousands of people who are interested in a related topic.
\n\u2022\tMy comment on a popular blog post contained a link to my website which is still receiving hits nine months after I posted the comment. That\u2019s not unusual since posts on popular topics can have a long \u201cshelf life.\u201d
\n\u2022\tComments on my blog have resulted in new business partnerships, guest blogs, and freelance assignments for my readers.<\/p>\n
\nRe-purposing micro-content <\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tStart a blog post with, \u201cI found this interesting article on Twitter \u2026\u201d and share the great content on one of your tweets.
\n\u2022\tShare a relevant article, video or blog post from a trade publication and simply write a few sentences commenting on it.<\/p>\n