No one ever said that content marketing would be easy. After brainstorming several ideas for a piece, drafting the initial concepts, writing and editing it, creating the visuals, and finally publishing it, you’re still not done. Now you must decide how to promote your content as well as how to measure how successful you are in your promotional efforts. It’s a big job, which is why marketing agencies typically divvy up the tasks among several people. If your piece of the equation involves promotion, you might not even know where to start.

Have We Really Reached Facebook Apocalypse?

On January 11, 2018, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site would begin shifting towards promoting more content by family and friends and less by companies and brands. This has left many marketers in a panic, fearing the end of organic reach on Facebook forever. However, there’s no need to take a “sky is falling” approach just yet. Since Facebook is all about meaningful interaction and engagement, the latest announcement means that you need to step up your game to ensure that people do this with the content you publish.

How can you do that? By carefully choosing links, images, and posts that people will respond to rather than just passively read. When choosing an image to accompany your content, it should accomplish as least one of the following:

  • Sends a compelling message
  • Catches the eye
  • Sparks emotion
  • Inspires curiosity
  • Entertains the viewer

While the visual is the first thing to attract the attention of your potential reader, the headline is equally important. You may even want to check out How to Write Magnetic Headlines on Copyblogger. It should inspire one of the same five reactions in the reader that the picture does. This is the only way that he or she will be willing to invest more time into reading what you have to say.

Your Facebook post should also have a teaser sentence that lets the reader know what he or she can expect to find in the blog post or article. What questions will it answer? How will it entertain? Will it cause the reader to take a specific action? These are all things he or she wants to know at the start.

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback to help get the conversation, and ultimately more reader engagement, going. After all, that is what Facebook wants. Some ideas are to ask readers if they think you missed anything, if they agree or disagree, or to share their own experience with the topic.

Promoting Your Content on Twitter

Twitter is a different animal than Facebook. You have just 280 characters, up from a mere 140 characters not long ago, to grab someone’s attention and direct it elsewhere. Before you can get anyone to do anything on Twitter, you need to develop a unique platform personality. You can start by following others in your profession or those who represent the target audience you wish to reach. Take the time to build rapport with your followers before you expect anything from them in return. Commenting, liking, and sharing their Tweets is the best way to go about this.

If you find the initial engagement with your Tweets disappointing, you might want to consider paying to promote some of your Tweets at first. This gives you a much wider audience of people who can then share, like, and comment as well. The goal is to pick up more regular followers so you won’t have to pay to promote a Tweet in the future.

Other Social Media Sharing Options

Of course, Facebook and Twitter are just two possible social media channels where you can promote your content. Others to consider are publishing professional articles on LinkedIn, or blog posts, photos, or other social content on Google Plus, Instagram, and even Pinterest. The good news is that the potential for social medial sharing is nearly endless. Since that can be frustrating, the key is finding which ones give you the greatest return on your investment of time and money and focus on promoting there.

Regardless of where you decide to promote your content on social media, don’t delay in doing so. Plan to start promoting it the same day you publish it, the next day, and the next week. Choose different times of the day to reach the widest audience, and don’t feel shy about asking them to share as well. That’s how viral content gets started, after all.