2012 is Expected to Be the
Year of Quality Content Creation
The idea of quality control in online content shouldn’t be intimidating. Think of it as a challenge to write better, make better graphics and better weave your keywords into each of your blog posts, social media posts and image tags. Think of it as a way to test your skills and, hey, you may even learn something new. Hard work and organization will pay off, especially if you’re a small business competing against the marketing and advertising budgets of the big guys. Content creation is a great way to build a place for yourself on the web as you create a unique voice for your small business.
Countless sources (including Hubspot, Mashable and last week’s episode of The Marketing Update) are all stressing the importance of quality online content in their prediction that 2012 will be an even bigger year than 2011 for defining your online presence through inbound marketing. With the expected number of small businesses jumping on the inbound marketing bandwagon, creating quality content is absolutely crucial to set yourself outside of the online chatter expected to multiply within the next year. Starting now will help you gain clout that much faster.
Google Will Make Things Even Better.
Google is expected to drastically change online marketing within the next year as well. This year, not only are they granting journalists and reputable writers a meta tag to include within their articles in order to have them rank higher as news sources, but they also are going to reorganize the search process to optimize answers of direct questions. This means that creating quality content that is organized and gives readers direct answers will bring more users directly to your site. You could even qualify as a quality site within Google’s Panda algorithm. Remember, Google cracks down on spamming, so relying solely on SEO and keywords will get you nowhere. Besides, writing with purpose is so much more fulfilling.
It all may seem to take more effort than you’re currently investing into your blog posts, however, writing with organization and consciously linking images and inbound links will definitely pay off in your search rankings. What is it that your teachers used to say? What you put in is what you’ll get out of it. Simple as that.
Is Social Media Considered to be Content?
Absolutely. It may be short like a Tweet, consist of visuals like Pinterest or Instagram, be an informational graphic or even a re-Tweeted link to another source; regardless, it’s important to post to social platforms with purpose towards your business, as this is how your business is communicating with the rest of the world. If you’re only sharing for curation purposes, or want to show your fans something cool, make sure to be consistent. Steady and regular posts about what you like, mixed with those regarding your business, will keep your fans subscribing. If you create a blog post, don’t publicize, say, on Twitter, the same repeated message; mix it up and take a different angle with each tweet and eventually you’ll find out what’s working and what isn’t. Once you find your target audience, you’ll reach more readers and essentially extend the shelf life of your content.
Social media platforms are becoming so populated that unless you are online at the very moment a message is posted, you’re likely to miss it in a newsfeed. Unless your post goes viral and is widely shared at a fairly rapid rate, you have to post quality social media posts more frequently to have your content read for longer than a minute. StumbleUpon created this great infographic regarding the length that users stay on webpages. When thinking about content creation, original and creatively compelling content will keep users reading longer and ultimately will encourage them to check out what else your site has to offer and, eventually, pass it on to others.
