In past ‘Don’t dry up’ posts I’ve focussed on how you, and your content team, can avoid content ‘famine’ – from swapping ideas with business contacts to making the most of your leftovers.
Co-publish your content.
This post is about how to get maximum exposure for the content you produce.
Sharing it through social channels is a good start. It’s also worth thinking about longer term collaborations, with like-minded businesses or umbrella organisations. They could offer your company new routes to your target audience, including traditional print and broadcast media.
Get in touch with business groups.
For the last three years, I’ve teamed up with the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce on a variety of projects.
I’ve interviewed business leaders, like Tim Cobb, in front of a live audience. Tim briefly usurped Enid Blyton and AA Milne as the purveyor of bedtime stories to my then six year old. Apart from being a contender for the ‘The Most Exciting Bedtime Story of all Time’ accolade, he’s also MD at Cobb PR, an award-winning public relations agency.
Richard Skerritt, founder of Skerritts Wealth Management, is my next interviewee on February 10th – an inspirational businessman who spent the first six years of his entrepreneurial life telling himself he must find a job, it was all so awful. Twenty years later, his firm boasts more than 25,000 clients and is going from strength to strength. (If you want to hear his full story, come along and have a delicious lunch while you listen.
Get the most out of collaborations.
Working with the Chamber in this way is great because:
- they’re a very friendly bunch, who have a wealth of contacts and business knowledge;
- their events are a great way to gather new ideas for future blog posts; several networking brains are always better than one;
- they’re generous about giving members editorial space on their website.
This third point is crucial.
Get an extra news-stand.
If you, or your team, have written a post about a current issue – of interest to your sector or the business community in general – why not offer a tweaked version of your article to an organisation that shares your interest?
Health warning: you need to re-work it, because search engines don’t take kindly to identical bits of copy popping up in different parts of cyber space. But it’s worth the effort, because your company’s article will be showcased on a different site, aimed at an audience that’s useful to your business.
Get your content into the glossies.
Here’s an example. When I chaired a discussion about the city’s growing pains – ‘Is Greater Brighton Better for your Business?’
I wrote a blog post about it for the Chamber:
And thanks to the Chamber, a version of the original post was also published in Portfolio magazine, which has a healthy business audience, particularly in the property sector. That’s good news for raising the profile of the Chamber, the companies involved in the event and the construction industry in general. It also gave me a bigger return on my word-processing investment.
The media moral of this tale.
If your company produces an article that’s likely to interest a wider audience – local, national or international – do your best to put it in front of that audience, by teaming up with like-minded organisations who can extend your reach.
If you’re a member of a trade or business group, do they have a blog or newsletter that could include your work? In my experience, organisations are always hungry for high quality, relevant content, to keep their own websites fresh. Your article could be just what they need, in a moment of need.
As an aside, if you live in Greater Brighton and are not yet a member of the Chamber, I heartily recommend that you join today. (Just for the record, I’m not on any form of Chamber commission. It’s a case of credit where credit is due.)
It’s a forward question. How fresh is your content?
If you’re strapped for article ideas and your content production line has ground to a halt, are you wondering how to get it going again?
Give me a call today on 07456 416 475 or email me.
I’d love to help.
If you enjoyed reading this post, you may also like these:
Don’t Dry Up #2
Go Sober For October
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