Networking: Building Your Network with Content Marketing Best Practices

NETWORKING: BUILDING YOUR NETWORK WITH CONTENT MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

Okay, first of all, let’s establish a few things.

• Creators are artists. (Yes? We all agree? Okay, great.)
• Therefore, content creators are artists. (Stick with me, here.)
• And artists always create for themselves, not for an audience. (Right?)

(Uh, no. Not right.) (Well, okay, some do.)

Look, as much as we might like to dress in all black and moodily declare that we make content for ourselves, we always have a shimmery idea of how public audiences might respond in the back of our minds.

But the key to getting that response is actually having an audience and network for your content. And although it might feel like an intimidating task, it really is an achievable goal. The trick is leveraging your content itself to help you build up your content’s audience and network.

Ready to get started?

Tell your interviewees when your piece is published.

At the outset, we want to stress that alerting interviewees to your piece’s publication is just good professional practice. That being said, it also yields considerable benefits, like solidifying your network connection.

Think about it: If you were interviewed for an article, wouldn’t you want to know when it was published? And once you knew it was published, wouldn’t you go read it? Maybe even share it with your friends?

You get the idea. This is an easy tactic that will help drive traffic to your content and increase your number of readers and views.

Communication Tips

Here are some basic guidelines on how to communicate with people you’ve interviewed and encourage them to share your published content:

Notify people you mention in your blog and encourage them to share It.

For all you skimmers out there, this is indeed a different suggestion than the one above.

Say, you write a piece that mentions someone—someone that you didn’t interview or quote. When your piece is published, we encourage you to alert them just as you would someone you had interviewed. Not only is this a gesture of professional courtesy, it also opens the door to building new relationships and expanding your network.

Communication Tips

Here are some basic guidelines for communicating with entities mentioned in your content and encouraging them to share your published piece:

Encourage people on social media to like and subscribe.

We have a joke for you:

Okay, that joke wasn’t great. But if you want to hear a better one, be sure to like and subscribe! (Wink.)

Jokes aside, asking social media users to like and subscribe (or follow) your content is a simple but effective tactic for building up your network and audience. It might seem cheesy or overused, but there’s a reason why it’s used so often: It yields results!

Communication Tips

The following are some tips for engaging with users on social media and encouraging them to follow and share your content:

Uncover “links to me.”

Just like you might link to someone in your content, someone might link to you in theirs. Uncovering backlinks to your content, or your “links to me,” is a strong content marketing strategy, as it’s a great way to find out more about your audience as well as identify opportunities for networking.

Although you could pay for a tool to find all your backlinks for you, you can find most of them yourself with a little time and effort. Check out the tips below:

Communication Tips

Here are some tips for interacting with and fostering relationships with those who mention or link to your content:

Monitoring and Setting Up Google Alerts

Building off the last section, we suggest setting up Google Alerts for mentions of you and your content. Not only will this help save you time uncovering your backlinks, it will also help you stay on top of potential networking opportunities and provide insight into your audience.

You can start setting up Google Alerts here:  

1. In the box, enter the text you want notifications for, such as:
   1. Your name or pen name
   1. Your blog’s name
   1. Your website’s name
2. Select Show Options to optimize your alert settings, such as:
   1. Notification frequency
   1. The geographical area you want alerts from
3. Select Create Alert to get alerts for matching search results

If you need to edit your alerts, you can learn how to do so here.

Build your network with our network.

We know that handling all of the aspects of content creation is a lot like juggling—there are a lot of different moving parts to keep track of! There’s research, interviews, planning, writing, editing, uploading, formatting, publishing—it goes on and on.

The point is, content creation often involves a whole team of professionals. That’s why our team is here to help you apply the best practices in content marketing and make your vision a reality. Whether you need help crafting compelling content that will attract readers or help building up your content’s audience, The Writers For Hire is ready to get to (net)work. (Wink.)