Content, Content Marketing

Content marketing: add generosity for success

August 29, 2013

Does your current content marketing strategy mention generosity? It probably should. Here’s why.

Social media forever changed the online marketing landscape, and while B2B content marketers are often prolific in posting to platforms like LinkedIn and Google+, relatively few seem to gain a great deal from that environment. What stands out about those who do, is that they’re generous.

Take LinkedIn groups for example. What you’ll notice in many business related groups is that there are plenty of posts, but little or no interaction. The posters often don’t seem to do anything but post. Some do jump in to “contribute” when someone else posts, but instead of making a meaningful contribution, they shamelessly try to re-direct the conversation towards their own services. Those who do endeavour to start conversations about interesting topics are often left hanging – because nobody bothers to contribute. I’ve come to the conclusion that successful content marketing comes down to being generous.

There are at least 4 ways to do this with your content marketing and social media interactions.

Create content that gives

Gives what you ask? Most often it will be information. With a huge amount of information so readily accessible online, we often open an article only to find that we’ve heard or read all of the content before. Or that the article that promised to tell us something valuable is too general and vague to add to our knowledge at all. Give away information that is specific and useful. Or as Ruchi Pardal put it recently in a post of the Search Engine Journal blog, stop producing BS!

Many fear that doing this will cost them business – the truth is that being genuinely helpful is one of the best ways to showcase your expertise, and it can help others to develop trust in your services.

If you don’t know much about content marketing and content creation, you’ll find a very useful eBook series available for free at Copyblogger. The series covers everything from research and content creation through to promotion.

Share good content written by others

This can be one of the best ways to increase likes and followers, but people often see only that it directs the readers’ attention to someone else’s content. If you consistently provide people with high quality information, regardless of the source, chances are they’ll appreciate it or even begin to see you as an excellent source of useful information. There’s no need to send people to your direct competitors – there is likely to be an abundance of information on non-competing sites that your readers would find useful.

Give credit where credit is due

There are three aspects to this. The first is simply acknowledging the source of great ideas or good information when you create content. The second is letting people know when they post something you find useful. Reward their efforts – like it, make a comment, or contribute to the discussion. And when someone shares your content, say thanks or give them a like.

Hold a conversation not a monologue

Social media is a personal communication environment. The appropriate means of communication is conversation. Imagine if you will, going to a party where instead of talking, guests simply handed out articles in an attempt to get others to like them, and reading the articles of others was optional. It would hardly be effective networking. Of course, a few generous individuals might do a little reading, begin to ask questions or express their own thoughts – and the few that opted for meaningful two-way conversation might actually form relationships. And those relationships might lead to sales or referrals.

When it comes to content marketing, success may be as simple as developing a generous attitude. Publish excellent content, engage generously with others, share or like the good content others have published, and make a contribution when you come across an interesting discussion.

Discover how we can help with Content Marketing

Enquire Now
By Bill Vasiliadis

By Bill Vasiliadis

Bill Vasiliadis is one of Australia’s leading digital marketers, having over 24 years of experience in the industry. With a Master of Digital Marketing degree and a Bachelor of Computer Science degree, he has tremendous knowledge and experience.

Related Articles

View All Articles

“It has been a pleasure working with Bill and his team from SEO for Small Business Australia. The results from all his work have been truly amazing and in no time our business was on the first page of Google. I will continue to work with Bill and his team in the future and highly recommend him.”

Sherleen Chand, Criminal Lawyers Sydney

“We started using Bill last year and have been very happy with his service since. He is incredibly responsive and is generally available to answer the phone or an email when we need it. We have noticed improvements in several areas of our SEO and are keen to see what the next steps in our SEO strategy bring. We would definitely recommend engaging SEO for Small Business Australia Pty Ltd.”

Katie McGovern, Patricia Holdings

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Bill from SEO for Small Business Australia. The results have been amazing. We are kept up to date regularly with what’s going on and the customer service has been great. As a small business, it’s always a pleasure to work with another competent small business.”

Murray Roach, Billabong Spas

“Bill has been a great in getting our SEO set up and running for our meditation business.”

Mairead Ball, Bondi Meditation Centre

“If you are looking for SEO services for small business, this is definitely the one - knowledgeable, easy to work with and great value.”

Nancy Wang, RivetLab Pty Ltd

“I highly recommend Bill Vasiliadis and SEO for Small Business Australia – as a new business, the best decision we made was to engage Bill Vasiliadis.”

Ted Neaves, Shoalhaven Lawyers

“A very professional no-nonsense approach which we appreciated. Makes everything easy to understand and is very clear on the improvements he can deliver. ”

Andrw Harvey, The Optical Co

“After trusting in two other SEO companies over the last 5 years and getting horrible results, 5 months ago I started with Bill and the results have been great and we have only been doing business with him for a short time so I'm super confident that my business's future is going to be amazing. I highly recommend trusting Bill and his team.”

Robin Wickens, Sheepskin Tailors

“Great service with great results, highly recommend.”

Marnie Fawns, Tri to Swim

“Bill has been great to work with and has provided good results.”

Brian Scales, Glen Erin at Lancefield

“Bill has detailed knowledge of SEO, we are a demanding client that has some robust measurements on our ROI and Bill manages to find solutions and report back in line with our KPI's on a weekly basis.”

Graham Budinger, Signal Advantage

“Bill from SEO for Small Business Australia has been great. Easy to deal with, flexible with small business budgets, and already achieving great results.”

Lyn Fisher, Moss Furniture

“Extremely impressed with Bill and his team. The work they did was really in-depth & thorough. Within just a few days I was at the top of the second page of Google, and Bill has given me advice to further increase my rankings. I highly recommend them to anyone who needs SEO help.”

Jordy Fabian, Organised Simplicity

Check Out Our SEO Services

Read More >
Reviewing SEO Analysis

Get Your Free SEO Analysis

Read More >