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Sharing Great Content On Social Media: 3 Brand-Building Strategies That Work

This article is more than 8 years old.

By Shawn Porat

When you have a startup (or any type of small to mid-sized business), you want to find as many creative and preferably low-cost methods to promote it as you can. This is now easier than ever thanks to social media, but in my experience, you have to look beyond the surface to be successful on social; these platforms change quickly, and what worked last year may already be saturated or too costly by now.

I also find that social media works best for brand-building vs. directly acquiring new clients or customers. However, done right, building relationships on social media can lead to people hiring you for your services down the road. Here are a few ideas that have worked well for me and some strategies for optimizing each.

Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn

LinkedIn recently introduced sponsored updates. This is a very effective way to drive the right kind of traffic to your content; LinkedIn is, in general, one of the best sites for reaching business owners. One reason that sponsored updates are so powerful is that they read more like content than typical ads. In fact, the trick to getting the most out of them is to provide readers with quality content.

I've gotten the best results not by trying to sell anything directly, but by establishing myself as an expert and making people want to find out how I can help them with their own businesses. I include just enough information that they'll be hungry for more. For example, I might promote a post that talks about how I helped a small business increase its sales by 40% by using an innovative marketing approach. People who want to achieve similar results will then be motivated to contact me.

Promoted Tweets

I've also used promoted tweets with some success. This is similar to the LinkedIn approach, only with Twitter you naturally have to condense everything into tweets. I might, for example, use a sponsored tweet that promotes an article I wrote. The article will hopefully get people curious to find out more about me.

With promoted tweets, targeting your audience is key. I use several tools to target my audience. One method that I like is to target people based on who they are following. For example, I might target followers of Neil Patel, who is a thought leader who tweets on subjects like building businesses (content my target audience would also be interested in).

Forum Marketing

Another promotional tactic I like (that might even be considered retro now!) is forum marketing. Since forums predate today's popular social sites, people sometimes overlook the opportunities they represent. While some forums accept paid advertising, I like to use them for networking and generating leads instead. This approach does take some consistent effort, but it can definitely be worth it.

Contributing to threads, or starting some of your own, is a good way to get people interested in you and your business. Forums generally allow you to have a signature with a link to your website, which appears with all of your posts. Your forum profile is another place where you can also usually include a short bio and link. Two forums that I like for networking include StartUp Nation and GrowthHackers.

The Common Denominator? Generate Outstanding Content

Great content is the common denominator with any socially driven promotion. Everyone nowadays tells you to create quality content and to deliver information your audience wants. There are many strategies for creating content, but two of my favorites involve tracking industry news and interviewing leaders in your space.

First, stay current with the latest news. I use Google Alerts to let me know what's going on in my industry. This gives me the ability to create content, whether in the form of a blog post, tweet or forum post, the same day as the news has been announced. I don't just share links, though; I also add my own insights and try to explain some of the implications of the news for my readers.

Another way for entrepreneurs to get compelling content is to interview business owners, authors, speakers, app developers or other thought leaders. You can do this via print, video or audio using a variety of platforms. Although there are more complex technologies, I prefer to use simple tools, like interviewing people on Skype or Google Hangouts. I then share these interviews on my blog and Facebook page, and post a link on Twitter and other social sites. This generates traffic and helps me build my brand and solidify my reputation as an authority.

These are just a few creative and affordable ways that I've used social media to get more attention to my business, but they are especially suitable for startups and newer businesses that need publicity and may not have large advertising budgets yet. With great content and a few workable promotional strategies, you can start connecting with customers, clients and investors -- or simply tell the world who you are and what you are all about.

Shawn Porat is the CEO of Fortune Cookie Advertising, a non-traditional and out of home media placement company selling advertising space within fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants throughout the United States.