a guide to content seeding

By Rebecca Hesilrige

becky.hesilrige@gmail.com@beckyhesilrige

linkedin.com/in/rebeccahesilrige

A Guide To Content Seeding

ContentsContent Seeding Plan

1. Plan2. Create3. Seed

What is Seeding?The Big 3

Also Consider..Social BookmarkingBlogs & Journalists

4. Measure5. Manage

The Ongoing Cycle

• 1. Plan– Goals– User Research– Message– Budget– Format– Source

• 2. Create– Quality– Evergreen Content– Links– Keywords– Clear Titles

• 3. Seed– Which Platforms?– Social Networks– Social Bookmarking– Blogs– Journalists

• 4. Measure– Understand what you are measuring– Proxies– Traffic– Leads

• 5. Manage– Keeping track of performance goals – Updating content regularly – Monitor content interaction

Content Seeding Plan

1. PlanGoals – What do you want to achieve with this content? Traffic? Buzz?

Sales?Reviews?

User Research – Know your users. Age? Gender? Location? Interests? Tailor

your content around this demographic.

Message – Your content needs to include a clear message, whether it be ‘buy me’ or ‘share me’, make sure the user has a call to action.

Budget – How much do you want to invest in your content? This will decide

what type of format you use.

Format – Articles? Blogs? Posts? Videos?

Source – Who will create your content? In house? Outsourced?

2. CreateQuality - Great content has to engage the reader, make that it is interesting, unique and well written.

Evergreen Content - "Evergreen" content means that the information will not be outdated a month from now, try to include this as often as possible

Links - Include links to point the user to your website or to other relevant content and pages within your site

Keywords – Include key words which you are trying to rank for in search engines. Help them to stand out to readers by putting them in different colours, fonts, or formats.

Clear titles – Make it clear what you are going to talk about, this will not only make your content more noticeable, but it will also help search engines to monitor your content.

Meta Data - Include meta data to help search engines learn what your content is about, and to categorise it effectively

3. SeedDepending on your goals, you will have to decide which platforms to seed

yourcontent

Social Networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and many more niche

sites

Social Bookmarking – There are hundreds of social bookmarking sites available,

however Reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon and Delicious will help you get the best results

Blogs – You can either set up your own blog to update regularly, or formrelationships with bloggers who will blog about your services.

Journalists – Journalists are always looking for new and interesting news. Form

bonds with relevant journalists so that they can publish press releases and articles

based around your services.

What is Seeding?

Content

Social Media Sites

Likes, Retweets, +1s, Shares

Buzz, Traffic & Conversions

Social Bookmarking Sharing & Links Buzz, Traffic &

Conversions

Blogs Keywords & Links

Buzz, Traffic & Conversions

Journalists Keywords & Links

Buzz, Traffic & Conversions

Social Networks – The Big 3

To help content spread throughout Facebook build a strong base of engaged fans to share your content with. To do this offer your fans something unique within your business page; discounts, promotions, unique content, competitions are just a few examples.

Content can spread quickly through Twitter via Retweets.

Firstly - make sure that you build up a large and (more importantly) relevant following to expose your content to.

Secondly, -interact with key influencers who are likely to retweet your content to their many relevant followers.

After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine. Therefore if you are looking to seed video content it is imperative you create an account with this site. Include relevant tags and keywords

Also Consider...LinkedIn is a site dedicated to professionals. Here you can make yourself an authority within your industry by publishing content within relevant groups and discussions

Vimeo is a video sharing site similar to YouTube. It has more of a community of established film makers and photographers, and is great for films which are arty, in-depth and well designed.

Google + is the fastest growing social network around. As it is owned by Google and is integrated within social search, it is important to establish a presence on here

The new kid on the block, Pinterest is growing at a rapid rate and is very popular with visual companies such as fashion, food and photography. ‘Pin’ your photos onto your Pinterest site and tag with relevant key words to get your photos found.

Social BookmarkingSocial Bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon and Delicious allow users who would not normally be exposed to your content to discover and share it.

By including links within your content, users can find your website and its services

By including keywords within your content, you are increasing your ranking in search engines, which will also result in users finding your website and it’s services

Content Social Bookmarking Sharing

Site Visits

Conversions

Buzz

Blogs & JournalistsBlogs – By producing a blog you can receive a variety of benefits, such as:

Including Key words Linking back to your siteInteracting with customersKeeping customers up to date with news/promotions etcMaintaining branding and reputation

Alternatively you can contact established bloggers and ask them to eitherwrite a blog post about your brand, or to publish a post you have already

written. Thiscan help your content to reach an relevant audience which has already been

built up

Journalists – Contact established journalists in your industry with articles andstories about your brand. Journalists are often on the look out for interesting

industry news, and if yours is relevant you may find it on one of your top industry

websites.

4. MeasureUnderstand what you are measuring – Firstly decide on what you want to measure, whether that be social buzz, traffic or conversions. Each of these have very different ways of being measured

Proxies – Proxies are a great indicator of social buzz and brand sentiment. A few examples of useful proxies are:

Facebook LikesRetweetsSharesReblogsCommentsFollowers@mentions

Traffic – Google Analytics is a fantastic tool to help you track traffic to your website. Here you can search Traffic sources to find out exactly which social platform your traffic is coming through, and whether there has been a general increase in traffic since you began content seeding.

Leads – Also by using Google Analytics you can track any increase in conversions, and from which platform they came.

5. ManageIt is important to continuously manage your content based around

the resultsyou are receiving to receive the best possible result.

Do this by:Keeping track of performance goals – Keep in mind what yourPerformance goals are and whether your content is reaching this

ideal. Ifnot, re-evaluate your strategy and change your content accordingly

Updating content regularly – Content which is out of date not only reflects

badly but can be misleading for potential customers, as well as potentially

affecting your SEO ranking.

Monitor content interaction – Never forget that your reputation is involved

In your content - reply to any questions or comments as quickly as possible

Plan

Create

SeedMeasure

Manage

Content Seeding Plans are an ongoing cycle

Once content begins seeding, you will be able to measure it’s success

Based on it’s success you can move onto planning further content based on your findings, or tweaking your current content for better results.

The Ongoing Cycle

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or need any advice

becky.hesilrige@gmail.com

@beckyhesilrige

linkedin.com/in/rebeccahesilrige

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