It’s no secret that success is becoming more and more about the connections that you make. Whether you’re looking for a job, trying to make a sale, or attempting to further your career, there is nothing more annoying that hearing the words “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
However, those words don’t seem to phase those who actually have the connections, and that’s where this article comes into play. You want to get yourself to a point where you know enough people in an industry to get you to where you want to go, and sharing other company’s or other individual’s content on your social networks is one easy way to make it happen.
Sharing Content: Myth vs. Fact
Now there is lots of evidence out there that proves that promoting content other than just your own content can help you succeed. For those who are unfamiliar, a few of these benefits include:
- Providing quality content for readers (which helps credibility)
- Making connections with other industry professionals
- An easy way to get the favor returned by those in your field
In theory, these are all fact. It might not work every time, but logic and experience tell us these benefits are good expectations to have, and there have been several articles written on this very topic.
While this fact might seem obvious to many, I have found that there are actually quite a few myths when it comes to the idea of sharing the content of others. A few of the most common myths associated with sharing other’s content include:
- Myth #1: Sharing the content of your competition will hurt your business.
After all, why would you want your readers to see a great article that you promoted, click on it, find your competitor’s website, and like it better than yours? This wouldn’t be ideal, but if you’re smart this doesn’t have to happen.
Try not to promote content that your competitor publishes if it is direct competition with you—discussing a service that you also offer, discussing a subject that you also covered, etc.
What you want to do is make sure that the competitor content that you share discusses something that your company does not offer or discusses some sort of unique study that doesn’t apply to your business. This way you can work with your competition and hopefully get a few similar shares (a “pay it forward” attitude) and your readers see that you are well connected in the industry as well as giving them a solid piece to read.
- Myth #2: It’s more about making sure the company who published the content sees your share than about making sure your customers see it.
Most people won’t admit it, but this is a mentality that many companies have. They want to share content in order to create that almighty connection and increase their number of followers or friends, and readers seeing it is just an afterthought (and if it’s a competitor’s piece, the readers not seeing it would be better—see myth #1).
The truth is that readers actually seeing the content you’re posting is just as important as the company seeing that you promoted the piece. It’s your social account that is leading a reader to click, so even if it doesn’t send him/her to your website, you’re still getting visibility that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise (for example, if you just posted this content one after another at 11pm each night).
- Myth #3: It’s unnecessary to share content on all social accounts; Twitter will do the job.
Twitter is where most of this all occurs. However, you can’t forget about your other social networks. They providee just as many benefits in all the same ways regardless if this practice is less common.
The theme here is this: A lot of companies don’t really want to share the content of others because the benefits don’t always seem clear cut. In other words, the myths are starting to move more and more to the forefront of company minds. This is slowly causing less people to take the benefits seriously and push social sharing into the “annoying” category.
How Viral Content Buzz Can Help
Viral content buzz is a new tool that capitalizes on sharing other’s content and getting rid of these myths and this annoyance. I have utilized Viral Content Buzz for quite some time before I began writing articles on behalf of the tool. (Check out my article on Search Engine Journal from back in November) I quickly realized the value. After all, social media gurus Gerald Weber @the_gman and Ann Smarty @SeoSmarty developed the tool. The way it works is this:
First, determine which content you want to see on your dashboard so that you get a feel for what is out there. Share any of the content and earn credits. All of the content submitted is moderated for quality, so you won’t see much (if any) spam or poor quality pieces.
Second, publish your own content on the interface so that others can share yours. When it comes to sharing (and therefore promoting) your content, you have to have a certain number of credits that you earn by sharing the content of others.
If someone with 500 Twitter followers shares your story, you will earn 5 credit. If someone with 5000 Twitter followers shares your story, you will be charged 5 credits.
The idea is that you share others content to earn these credits so that top influencers will then share your content. You can learn more about ViralContentBuzz.com.
What Do YOU Think?
What is your opinion about sharing other’s content across the web? How often does your company make this a priority? Are there any other tools that have helped get you motivated? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.