Category Archives: Content Marketing

Why you need a Facebook page and how to increase your fans with quality content

Getting more Facebook fans with quality content

Eventually it all boils down to what sort of content you post on your Facebook page. Remember that you have to engage your audience. Your content must be inspiring, informative, provocative and thought-provoking. Since they have liked your page they expect you to say something authoritative, knowledgeable and useful. You are like a thought leader. They look up to you.

Publishing content on your Facebook page differs from field to field. It depends on your audience. A Paris Hilton audience would be totally different from, let us say, a Salman Rushdie audience (yup, I’m stereotyping here but that’s the reality). So you have to understand the dynamics of your audience and post your content accordingly.

A professional content writer can help you study your audience and then create your Facebook page content accordingly.

Three things get you a greater number of fans on Facebook:

Regular posting
Sticking to the interest of your fans
Interacting with your fans however much possible

Regular posting

Regular posting gives you constant visibility. Timelines on Facebook move very fast. No matter how popular you are if you don’t post for a couple of weeks nobody really misses you unless your presence is indispensable. So you have to appear in the timelines of your fans as much as possible. There are different frequencies for different types of audience, 4-5 postings everyday is the least amount of content you should create and post.

Regarding creating quality content, it doesn’t always have to come from you. If you come across an interesting link that you think your fans will find useful, post that link. If you find something controversial, post that and invite your fans to give their comments. You can also share stuff from people you are friends with on Facebook and other social networking websites. Use different sources to keep your Facebook page timeline buzzing.

Sticking to the interests of your fans

Your fans follow you for a reason. If you are a writer, they expect literary content from you or something related to your writing pursuits, or whatever is happening in the field of literature, writing and publishing. Of course you can also express your views on whatever is happening in the world at a particular time, but you should maintain a ratio of 80:20 – 80% your subject and 20% general interest.

Interacting with your fans however much possible

Social networking is after all 1-1 interactions. If you just post and never respond to your fans’ comments people gradually begin to lose interest, especially when they are addressing to you and they don’t get a reply. It gives them an ego boost when you personally reply to their quarries especially if you are a budding celebrity. If you are a business then people will most probably comment about how fantastic or how lousy your product or service is. Try to respond to positive and negative feedbacks as early as possible because timeliness makes your conversations more effective and relevant.

So keep on posting relevant, quality content on your Facebook page and see your fans growing with great speed in a matter of a few months.

As a business person or as an artist it is not feasible to focus on your core area and also focus on your Facebook page. Sooner or later you will need professional help, especially when it comes to regularly posting quality content on your Facebook page.

4 billion videos are watched on YouTube everyday

Why original Internet content is worth the effort

What makes you an outstanding content writer?

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Becoming an outstanding content writer

So are you an outstanding content writer?

I was just now going through this “Business Insider” article that talks about how you have to be above average, or rather extraordinary in order to survive today’s work environment. Of course we have different definitions of exactly what is extraordinary and outstanding; it depends on your level of expertise and the degree of competition you face around you. But the article makes sense.

Since I provide content writing services, I am thinking in terms of a content writer; what makes you an above-average content writer? To understand this we have to go to the root of exactly what service you have to provide in order to become extraordinary.

Although my primary business is providing content I have no hesitation in admitting that it’s not the most important thing in your Internet marketing kitty, nonetheless it is the most fundamental thing. I mean, if you don’t have content, you have got nothing. It isn’t just content that can help your business. You need to disseminate that content, you need to market it (and hence, content marketing), you need to grab attention, you need to improve your search engine rankings, and you need to maintain a constant buzz on social media and social networking websites.

Of course you should be able to write quite well and create compelling content that converts, but that’s a given. Listed below are a few things you can do in order to become

An outstanding content writer

Practice your art, constantly: Like any other art or skill, content writing needs brushing up every day. It is an invisible muscle that begins to grow weak if you don’t use it all the time, and use it in the right manner. Write as much as you can. You should write even if you don’t have work right now. I have seen many aspiring content writers and bloggers shying away from writing unless they have got paying assignments. This atrophies their ability. Write just for the sake of writing and you will sooner or later – provided you promote your services in the right manner – will get paying assignments. But unless you write well, you’re not going to get paying assignments. So practice, practice and practice.
Stretch your content writing abilities: You shouldn’t just write about things you are comfortable with. Write on totally alien topics because this is how you have to write when you begin to create content professionally. You are not just going to get what you like. Many times you will get assignments you have never even heard of. You will have to learn many things, and learn them in such a manner that you can write about them clearly. So you might as well start writing on “difficult” topics right now rather than getting into a fix later on.
Read constantly: There are very few professional writers who don’t read regularly. Reading isn’t always about entertainment and passing time, it gets you into that mode that creates conducive environment for writing. Reading begets writing. It triggers your muse. You get to learn many new expressions and you also get to learn how various writers express various emotions and expressions in their own ways. You should also read contemporary literature, articles and essays so that your language is not antiquated.
Expand your intellectual horizon: Writing doesn’t just mean you can write error-free sentences. Good readers can read between the lines and they can easily make out what’s your intellectual level. Always try to broaden your perspective. A big reason why I constantly get new content writing assignments (I have been providing professional content since 2004) is because I haven’t limited myself to providing just content. When my clients hire me, they get a complete package and in most of the cases, especially when it comes to doing business online, they rarely have to brief me or provide me extra information. When you know stuff, you can write with conviction. It also saves you lots of time and speeds up your writing.
Create an active presence for yourself: Unless people know of your existence how are they going to give you work? And since most of the people these days come in contact with other people via social networking websites, you have to be present there, and not just as an inactive account, but a vibrant and active profile. You don’t have to be present on every platform. For example, you can just choose Facebook and Twitter and be regularly visible there. It also reassures your prospective clients that you’re not someone lurking around quietly without any testimonial and reference. When they know that you can be easily found, it’s easier for them to trust you as a reliable content writer.
Provide a turnkey content writing solution: Your client shouldn’t have to work with different vendors in order to meet his or her content writing and content marketing requirements. Provide exceptionally well-written content, and if your client also has to market the content and disseminate it, you should be able to help him or her out. Even when your client needs to formulate a long-term content strategy he or she shouldn’t have to seek another content provider? Have enough experience and knowledge to provide strategy and consulting whenever required.

So these are a few work habits and professional traits that can help you become an outstanding content writer. You don’t always have to wear different hats at the same time, it’s all about knowing what you do. This is where you can get an edge. You will notice that most of the content writers simply create a website, somehow manage to create a search engine presence, and after that provide totally uninspiring content writing services. You can survive that way, but you cannot thrive. In order to thrive in the content writing business, provide a package, instead of a service. Provide a solution, instead of a product.

Should you create content or curate content

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The fundamental strength of your online marketing and promotion heavily relies upon the quality of your content, whether it is on your blog, your website or your social media profile. Generating quality content can be a bit difficult if you don’t have sufficient budget and resources. Mindlessly publishing at low cost doesn’t do any good. It may, by hook or by crook, increase your search engine rankings for particular keywords and expressions, beyond that nothing much can be achieved, because eventually it is the quality that converts visitors into paying customers and clients.

Quality content can be generated using two methods

Creating new
Curating existing from other sources

The basic idea is providing quality information to your visitors. When they come to your website they must go back enriched and informed. So before deciding whether you want to create or curate you need to decide

Why you need quality content on your website?

The content on your website solves the following purposes

Informs and educates your visitors
Helps them make better purchasing decisions
Conveys to your visitors that you have authority over your subject
Encourages your visitors to come back to your website for updates and more information
Engages your visitors and creates opportunities for interactive experiences
Increases your search engine rankings
Helps you maintain a vibrant presence over your social media and social networking profiles
Encourages other website and blog publishers to link to your website resulting in more diverse traffic
Helps your present and prospective customers and clients look beyond the corporate wall and experience the human side of your business

All these objectives can be achieved either by creating new or curating existing content.

Why create new content?

For the obvious reason that if everybody started curating we won’t have anything original to link to. Other than this, creating your own content generates more trust and a sense of authority. It gives you an opportunity to share your knowledge. It also makes your website a unique source of valuable information. It increases the intellectual value of your online presence. If you just curate you are simply referring to external sources with your own comments in the and perhaps. You are always sending traffic to other websites and there are very few websites that send traffic to your website.

Why curate existing content?

Content curated from external sources introduces variety and some different perspective. When you need to provide value to your visitors you shouldn’t discriminate against other publishers. Since your primary concern is providing good information, and if that information already exists and it exists in a better manner than what you can produce, then there is no harm in linking to it with your own opinion. Content creation also helps you when you want to present in-depth information from different sources. For instance, on a single page you want to compile the best content writing tutorials from different websites. Along with your own opinion, you can also introduce opinions from other content writers of repute.

Creating the perfect balance between original and curated content

So you can create a good balance between original and curated content. I would prefer a ratio of 60:40 – 60% original and 40% curated.

Of course you can use any ratio and even in the reverse order (40:60) – it depends on your audience, the familiarity that you enjoy with your audience, and your true intentions. If you curate simply to increase your search engine rankings, people can easily see through it. But if you really want to provide valuable, high-quality content without bothering whether that content comes from your own website or from other websites (just make sure you are not plagiarising and simply linking with your own comments), this can be a good strategy.