Content Sharing for Online Marketers

Today I want to talk about content sharing and content marketing strategies and platforms.

A lot of times when people hear content sharing, they think of blogging and YouTube. Those are two of the primary places where you want to share your content because a lot of people think of content as written content and video content.

But I was on a webinar where audio content was brought up. This could be podcasts, iTunes, etc. And one content marketing platform that you may not know about is called Sound Cloud, soundcloud.com.

This is one that I'm going to be starting this week. It's a very easy way to repurpose your video.

Now when you initially do a video, you should transcribe it or have it transcribed into text for a blog post. So now you've got your written content and your video content.

But you can also strip the audio out of the video using Any Video Converter, a free software tool that converts a variety of video formats into other formats, and it also converts it into an audio format, like.mp3.

Now you have audio content that you can share on Sound Cloud or iTunes or whatever audio content platform you want, although Sound Cloud seems to be the most popular from the webinar I was on.

Your audio content is now a "radio spot."

What I suggest you do, which is what I'll be doing, is branding my 'Sounds,' my audio clips with an intro, and then in the middle, I'll break it up and add a little "commercial ad" to promote the opportunities I'm involved with.

When you're doing content marketing or content sharing, you don't want to concentrate just on your blog or just on article marketing. Article marketing isn't like it used to be.

You can't take an article and just blast it out to hundreds of article directories because a lot of them got slapped by Google over the last couple of years, so they're pretty much a waste of time today.

A lot of people today - in 2014 - are concentrating on their WordPress blogs because Google, Bing, and Yahoo really like WordPress. But you want to embed a video into every blog post and then, you can take that blog post and the embedded video and use it as audio content.

So here are the steps:

Create a video
Transcribe it into text
Upload to YouTube and use the text to optimize the description
Create your blog post with the video transcript
Embed the video into the blog post
Strip the audio from the video; i.e., convert the video into an audio format
Upload to Sound Cloud (or iTunes or any podcast platform)
Use the transcript/blog post to optimize the audio description

Now you've got three solid content sharing platforms ready to share across the social media sites. My favorites and where I get the most traffic are:

• Medium
• Brijj
• Angel
• Startupmatcher
• Enrollbusiness

Looking for a new or extra online opportunity? Look no further!

Microblogging For Business

Microblogging is quickly becoming one of the most popular technologies on the Internet with the adoption of tools like Twitter growing at an exponential rate.

As the number of people using these technologies grows, the way people take advantage of them is becoming more sophisticated: they are being used more and more as a business tool. This article explains what microblogging is and introduces the most popular microblog sites. It discusses how these are being used from a business and marketing perspective and provides tips on the safe and effective use of these forums.

What is Microblog?
Microblogs are very simple internet technologies that allow users to post short statements or sentences, usually limited to 140 characters on a central site. The post can be made available to anyone or only to a chosen audience. Much like the Facebook status box these services were used initially as a forum to share triviality (like what was for breakfast) with a wide audience but people quickly tired of the banality and now the way microblogs are used is becoming more sophisticated.

Sometimes seen as a factor in the evolution of blogging, microblogs are, as the name suggests, like mini blogs in that they allow you to post information and streams of consciousness and make these available to the world over the Internet. Unlike a blog, however, a microblog doesn't have unlimited room for creativity - you are forced to get to the point.

Which Microblog?
By far the largest microblog is Twitter (according to Hitwise in Australia alone the popular microblog grew by over 500% new users in one calendar month this summer). Twitter was founded in 2006 and quickly gained attention by winning a prestigious South by South West Blog award in the spring of 2007. Although the site is growing at a tremendous rate, the user volume is still very small in comparison to social networking behemoths like MySpace. Using a simple clean interface, users can get set up and start Twittering really easily.

Another microblog technology that is growing in popularity is Plurk. Plurk differs from Twitter in that it provides a more visual "timeline" interface showing your "Plurks" and those you are following on a time sheet-style screen. Just launched in May this year, Plurk is a little more complex than Twitter to use but once you get the hang of it, it definitely appeals to those left brained people among us.
The omnipresent Google of course has its own version of a microblog which they obtained in late 2007. Jaiku has since been closed to new users as they beta test the latest version (which seems very visually appealing with a nice map interface). Request a beta invite to try it out.

The other major player in the microblog scene is Pownce. This one is very similar to Twitter in its look and feel but it has more capabilities in terms of being able to share files and events. Also Pownce doesn't limit you to 140 characters so you can add more detail to your posts.

Newcomers in the field Spoink promote microblogging by phone from wherever you happen to be. Nothing new in that since most of the other offerings allow you to post from your mobile but what is different about Spoink is that it features the ability to podcast from anywhere. This is one to watch.

Microblogging for Business
Now that we know more about microblogs and the tools in this arena, let's take a look at how companies and individuals are using microblogs to benefit their businesses.

The first thing any company or professional should do is to ask themselves: is a microblog pertinent to my business? are my peers using this service? and, more importantly, are my customers either using or listening (monitoring these forums) to microblogs? The early microblog adopters tended to be the youth market and the tech community but more and more mainstream professionals and companies are becoming active as time goes on. If you decide that your audience is applicable then the benefits of microblogging actively are numerous:

A microblog presence is a stellar way to establish expertise and build awareness of what you or your company does. Build your brand by regularly posting on your subject area. Remember to add your logo and branding to the design of your microblog page and link to back to your blog if you have one so that your microblog contacts are aware of it and can click to read more. Threadless, the T shirt company that has made social media marketing an art form uses Twitter (@threadless) to update their audience regularly in this way.

Microblogs are a great way to expand your network and build your contacts. To do so share neat links and always add value for your followers, if you do this effectively you can sit back and watch your contacts expand.

Microblogs provide a good source for the latest information in your industry - if you're following the right people, that is. Be cognizant of this as you add friends. Check out posts and look for those that add value, are industry luminaries, or are using the forum in innovative ways. Network with peers in your industry to develop your knowledge and to build better partnerships.

Microblogs are shorter than blogs and more concise so if you only have a few moments you can hone in on the juices more readily. If you don't have time to blog but still have something pressing you to want to share, microblogs are a great way to do this quickly and effectively.

Microblog technology can be used to expand the reach of your service and spread the word quickly. An example is the police and fire services using Twitter to get the word out in emergency cases. The Los Angeles Fire Department (@LAFD) uses Twitter to spread fire related Tweets to interested parties.

By linking or announcing new articles or changes to your site from a microblog you can drive more traffic to your site. Twitter is now the 4th largest driver of traffic to the Out-Smarts blog.

Use microblogs for research by monitoring what's being said about your product or industry so you can keep ahead of the pack. It's also an excellent medium to elicit feedback on an issue you need more information on or are in the dark about. Tweets can is a very simple tool that facilitates listening.

Some companies are using microblog technology too collaborate on projects with decentralized participants or colleagues in short blasts. The CBC recently did this to great effect on Twitter during the Canadian federal election and was able to incorporate feedback from Twitterers on the ground in many constituencies.

While direct selling on microblogs is discouraged, many companies use it to bring awareness of the existence/benefits of their products and services to new markets or to provide customer service updates. Whole Foods (@wholefoods), an organic food chain headquartered in Texas does exactly that whilst adding value by Twittering on community events and organic topics too.

Effective Twittering Tips
I have it on good authority that the Twitter microblog site is this year's web 2.0 tool of choice for net-savvy professionals to communicate with and grow their networks. Here are some tips for you to use to tweak your "tweets" and get more out of your Twitter presence:

Add value - don't just spout off about boring stuff. Nobody is interested in what color shoes you are wearing (maybe your underwear but definitely not your shoes!).

• Ted
• Quora
• Goodreads
• 500px
• Angel
• 23hq
• Dailygram
• Trover
• Justpaste
• Soundcloud
• Podomatic
• Crowdcaster

Use TinyURL or a similar URL abbreviation tool to shorten the length of URL links in your Twitter posts so they fit in the 140 character limit.

Don't spam or sell.

Friends and Followers - be selective about who you follow. Before you follow someone, check out their recent Tweets to see if they are of interest to you before you add them (they may not be of interest at all). If someone starts following you, don't automatically add them and follow - take a look at the number of followers they have compared to their following If someone is following way more people than they have followers then it may be best to avoid them. They could be "Follow Spammers" more interested in gaining exposure than in finding interesting Tweets.

Don't let Twitter suck up too much of your time - it can be very distracting. Instead schedule it into your week and spend a few minutes each day updating and enjoying.

Limit the number of people you follow to avoid Twitter information overload. If you're following too many people, you might miss that gem of information.

Use Twitterfeed to feed your blog to Twitter.

• Anchor
• Usnetads
• Adsfeast
• Basilbadwanclassifieds
• Adsyellowpages
• Refind
• Dashburst
• Yarabook
• Plurk
• Medium

Monitor the Tweetosphere and make sure you are aware of anyone who mentions you so that it comes to your attention and you can be ready to counter any adverse Twittering. Use Tweetscan to monitor what is being said about you or your company on Twitter.

Don't click on a link from anyone you don't know or trust. Many Twitterers use TinyURL or similar to shorten URLs (I do) but this camouflages the true source so you don't know what you're clicking on. These could be disguised links to potentially dangerous sites or viral downloads so be careful.

Read the Twitter blog for updates and information on malware and spam issues.

Secure your Twitter name. Get a Twitter profile in your business name before someone else does.

Use common sense when Twittering and remember that most of these announcements can be seen by anyone and everyone. You don't really have to announce that you're away from home.

If someone you're following overloads you with spam then uses the Twitter block at the right of the side panel to block them and let Twitter know too.

Call on the community. If something adverse does happen then make your community aware of it. You will be amazed at the support, advice, and action of the collective.

Conclusion
If you decide that your business can benefit from microblogging, participation in these sites can really impact your online marketing efforts, drive more traffic to your site and increase brand awareness. Before you start microblogging, take some time to check out the different offerings to find out which is best for you. Once you choose, schedule time to microblog and grow your contacts and always look to add value and tell your community something they don't know. If you decide to hold off on microblogging for now, keep this on your radar: with its speedy user adoption rate. It's only a matter of time before, like social networks, these become mainstream.

The Importance of Link Indexing

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?

That old Zen koan is extremely well known and people often reference it when discussing if something has any value when no one really knows about it.

It has some application to the world of search engine optimization, in that sense.

Websites:

• F6s
• Soundcloud
• Anchor
• 500px
• Visual.ly
• Trover

We all know that links are the lifeblood of SEO. Nothing pleases us more than acquiring (or creating) new backlinks to our sites. However, we need to remember that those links cannot do us a bit of good unless someone is wandering around the virtual forest to find them--and that someone is Google.

Until Google actually discovers and indexes those links, your site cannot receive any real credit or benefit from them. They'll just sit quietly in place, doing absolutely nothing.

That creates an impetus on the part of SEO professionals to find ways to encourage Google to index our backlinks. If we want to reap the rewards of our inbound links, we may need to occasionally lead Google to them.

• 4shared
• 40billion
• About
• Angel
• Dribbble
• Gust
• 40billion
• Startus

That can be accomplished in a number of different ways. One can create web content in the form of articles and distribute it to directory sites Google regularly visits with links to the pages bearing the un-indexed links in place. This, in theory, will direct Google to explore the page with your link on it after it makes its regular rounds on the article site.

Social media tools provide another possible tool for indexing. The use of Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon and other resources to point people and the search engines toward pages bearing un-indexed links may facilitate their discovery, as well.

Additionally, one can maintain free web 2.0 properties designed, at least in part, to encourage the discovery and indexing of backlinks.

Those are just three potential means of encouraging link indexing. Creative SEOs will undoubtedly have a number of other potential tools for the job in mind.

Obviously, these techniques only make sense if one can implement them quickly and efficiently. The value of any one individual link in need of indexing usually will not be high enough to justify a great deal of time and effort. That is why it is important for anyone who plans to make link indexing a regular part of their overall SEO strategy to develop systems and, when possible, methods of automation to perform the tasks. We do not want to find ourselves disappearing into an infinite loop of building links to links to links, as each step is more and more divorced from the site we are trying to rank.

We may never know if a tree falling in an uninhabited forest makes a sound, but we do know that a link Google never discovers will not have an impact on rankings. That is reason enough to look for ways to encourage link indexing. Giving Google a gentle nudge in the right direction may be an occasionally necessary way to secure credit for the backlinks that are pointing to our sites.

Audio Article Submission Sites

As the top online article author on the Internet with over 7600 articles it has occurred to me that some people may not be able to read what I write. Why is this? Well in the United States of America 30% of our population over the age of 15 cannot read. These numbers are increasing due to the number of illegal immigrants entering our country. That is to say the percentage is not going down it is going up.

New Website:

Wtguru
4mark
Instapaper
Akonter
Reddit
Tuffclicks
Akonter

Luckily, like you I can read and I am learning how to write better. And like you indeed, I am well-read and well-observed and could easily dictate my articles off the top of my head with tons of examples, if the voice-activated and speech the patient's software was a little better. In the very near future it will be. But consider this if an author can talk into a computer and dictate an article online, then why not save the audio file and upload that onto the Internet at a specially designed audio article submission web site.

Slashdot
Twitter
Evernote
Plerb
Unitymix
Justpaste
Yarabook
Telegra

The audio article submission web site would be similar to the current online article submission sites for written articles, which can be captured by copying and pasting Microsoft Word files into the submission box. It is very easy to upload audio files and if a web site allowed for this thin there would be audio articles online for all users to learn.

In other words we would be crossing the digital divide and not leaving any child behind. And with modified software, which is now being available it could be converted into other languages and if that means the whole world could learn what I had to learn the hard way. Wouldn't that be great? Consider this in 2006.