by Richard Rowell; Co-owner of Brand Shamans & Write W.A.V.E. Media

Believe me, I’ve been guilty of spending hours upon hours on Twitter and Facebook connecting with people. I have actually spent entire work days just scheduling posts on Hootsuite. But are these effective strategies? In my experience, that is not the case. So, recently I asked myself, how long should I spend each day promoting my own content, then connecting with others?

How Much Time Should You Spend Sharing and Promoting Content?

I’ve come down to spending about an hour to ninety minutes a day sharing and scheduling my own content. This includes rewriting and editing old posts that can still be relevant, as well. While sharing your most popular posts on a regular basis is a good idea, you also want to revitalize any piece of content that you have that you can do so with. Setting aside at least an hour to an hour and a half a day for this is more than enough, as I’ve been finding.

It’s also a great time in which to schedule posts. Some people like to use a popular social media program such as Buffer or Hootsuite to auto-schedule posts. This is fine. But I prefer to schedule my own. You can also use this opportunity to share others content, as well, but I think that at least 60-90 minutes a day can be devoted to working on your own existing content assets.

How Much Time Should You Spend Connecting With Others & Sharing Their Content?

Just like with sharing your own content, you should spend about 60-90 minutes a day connecting on social media and re-sharing other people’s relevant content. Now, you’re probably familiar with concepts such as the 80-20 rule, which means that 80% of what you share on social media should be others’ content, and only 20% your own. In my own experience, I don’t really know that there’s an exact ratio to follow. However, if you curate content effectively enough, you can share other people’s content a lot more quickly than your own.

Features such as Twitter lists and hashtag streams in something like Hootsuite go a long way towards focusing on what relevant content you should be sharing. You want to have go-to sources for curated content, and there are plenty of tools out there to help you do it. Once you’ve set your curation tools up, you can pretty much blow through what you want to share from others in 10-20 minutes a day.

Then, the rest of the time, feel free to go on your favorite social networks and connect with people. How you should go about this time is really all up to what works for you. Also, be sure to only focus on the networks that actually give you interactions and actual traffic back to your content. While having a profile on as many social networks as you can seems like a brilliant idea, you need to ensure that you’re actually getting value from each of them.

For example. Google Plus is a huge traffic stream for some people. For others, it’s Facebook. For others, like myself, it’s Twitter. Heck, even Wordpress.com is a social network in itself! Basically, wherever you can follow others, reshare their content, and comment on their content or updates, that actually gets you a fair amount of response, spend your time there.

For the networks that don’t do much for you? Just let them go. Don’t waste time that you can spend doing other things. You could be writing or otherwise creating fresh content. Or, you could be actually getting out into the world and having fun.

Honestly, two to three hours a day promoting both yourself and others is really enough. By focusing your time, you’ll find that you’ll get better at managing your time. You’ll see more clearly what works and what doesn’t. You can go about it incredibly organized or just feel things out and do whatever seems to be working. As long as your networks grow and your engagements increase with time, you’re doing something right.

So don’t spend 8-10 hours a day on social media anymore, at least, not when it comes to work. You’ll be able to focus a lot more and you’ll be a lot happier.


What if I have too much to share or have too much to respond to in that time?

Obviously, these are just guidelines that I find work for myself. Depending on your situation, you may need twice as much time each day, especially if content marketing is your primary task. But, you may also find that half of that time is the right fit for you. If you’re getting the results you need in less time, or need more time to get the results you need, that’s OK.

And, when all else fails, always spend more time on responding and interacting with others that interact with you if you need it. After all, isn’t that the point of social media - to be social? Just don’t let it become the time-suck it too often becomes.


What do you find works for you when it comes to promoting your own content and connecting with others? We’d love to hear about your own experiences.

Nowadays, people are spitting out content left and right. A lot of it is written hastily and being pushed out all over social media. It seems to becoming the trend towards posting something to your website every single day just to stay relevant and in front of people. While being prolific can be a good thing, it becomes rather tiresome to see the same old topics being written about over and over again.

While repetition of subject matter restated somewhat differently can be used strategically in marketing, it's important that you are posting quality content on a regular basis. If that can't be every day, then you will need to adjust your content plan somewhat. It's still possible. You just need to be careful.

The last thing you want to happen is having to go buy an article cheaply to fill a hole on your content marketing calendar. You shouldn't let these holes happen, although they can. This is why it's so important to work ahead. Having a content calendar is something some people do in order to know what topics are most relevant at certain times of the year. This is a great idea, because if you realize you're stuck for something, you can redress older content and update it to make new posts based off of them.

I probably don't need to talk about finding your keywords and writing content around them. That's a tired and old strategy that rarely works anymore except in the most niche areas. Really, it's all about just writing content, seeing what works, and writing more around those topics. That's what writing has always been about in the first place: understanding your audience and writing for them.

There is one way to keep your content fresh that is fairly easy, as well: curation posts. This is when you find great content around the web and write some commentary about it in a post. Of course, these posts can get outdated if that material is no longer around. However, when you're stuck for a post, these can be quite helpful. Just be sure that you link to major reputable websites that figure to be around for a long time. Also, don't focus on doing these compilation posts too often. You want to have plenty of fresh, original content in the pipeline. But having posts like these to fill in gaps can be very useful.

So the real trick here is to not overdo anything. Really, you only need 300-500 word articles most of the time. Sure, if a topic is deserving of 1000 words or more, go for it. But more often than not, if an idea is worth that many words, it's very likely you could split that topic into two or even three articles. Then you just come at the topic from different angles, focusing on different elements of that topic.

If you find that certain articles inter-relate to each other, you should always include links in them to one another. Linking to another one of your own articles within the text of another of your articles is known as deep-linking. Not only does this help your site architecture, but it also makes your information that much more valuable to your readers. And, of course, who doesn't want to keep visitors on their sites longer?

What I'm saying is that you don't have to publish a white paper every week. There are plenty of questions out there that need to be answer in every field. As I've written time and time again, your audience will always have questions. So, it's your job to provide content that offers up answers. If you don't have the answers, then offer suggestions on how best to proceed.

People like to see that other people are thinking the same things they are. Making those sorts of connections is the way to truly create great content, not just maintaining well-oiled content machines. Focus on the human need, not scientifically or methodically, but organically. Your audience and future fans will thank you for it.

Photo credit: Flickr User Sean MacEntee, via Creative Commons License v2.0

In content marketing, a constant and steady stream of content for incoming visitors is the number one thing to have. Good content interests the search engines, who are constantly crawling for good and solid new content. But, it also works for bringing repeat human visitors to your site.

If you get visitors from organic search, social media, or direct traffic, and you provide good content, it's possible that they will return looking for more. One possible way to continuously have new content is to draw from a reservoir of off-line content or older online content. It can then be redressed and updated to serve a new purpose.

Reusing content, though, can be a tricky business.  If you have offline content that you yourself own, it’s fine to repurpose. However, not all old content is fantastic, as some of it is likely not “evergreen” or is time-sensitive. If it's concerning a topic people would still be interested in, then it’s a matter of seeing if it’s something people even still search. Using free keyword tools is especially helpful for this. Be sure to avoid filling up your site with too much stuff that doesn’t interest today's searchers.

Still, whether you run a business or are just running your own website, reusing old content is definitely worth investigating. Perhaps, you had something published in hard-copy years ago. Or, you have something that was once online somewhere, but it hasn’t been posted anywhere for a long time. These are great candidates for content that can be repurposed. As long as you still have rights to it, and give proper credit to others who may still have rights to it, you’re most likely safe.

Just be careful. Some online content publishers, even if your work no longer appears on their site, still will legally retain exclusive rights for online publishing of your work. If it’s in print, ask the editor or publisher know that you plan to repurpose it. Often, as long as you attribute where and when it was, you should probably be fine. They'll likely only ask for a link back to the publication's or publishers website, if they still exist.

It’s amazing how many works I've found in my own collection of digital documents that had the potential to be repurposed. Some were old journal entries that I’ve polished and posted because the topic was interesting and thought-provoking. I've had old grade school and college papers that discuss topics and review certain things that still garner interest today. They were never seen by anyone but my teachers, so why not give them a new audience? Surprisingly, a lot of my old school essays are well-written enough to need little polishing.

Content to reuse can be found in the oddest places! Even if it’s not a topic that will get much search engine traffic, as long as it’s relevant to your blog or website, it's likely worth posting. If it's interesting and something that over time will get traffic to trickle in. Worst case scenario, as long as you make sure your rights issues are resolved, it will get no views. It was going to gather digital dust sitting in a folder on some storage media anyway.

If you dig around a bit, you’d be surprised what might be worth putting online. You never know who might be interested in that topic, find your post, then become a life-long fan of your work! Content you never knew could get you found may be lurking in your files somewhere!

Why do content marketers and web design experts constantly have to fix the mistakes of supposedly professional marketing firms? Not that we mind. It’s more business for us! Still, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen businesses pay marketing firms that clearly didn’t know what they were doing.

This is definitely not to disparage those that are trying to earn an honest living doing good SEO and content work for businesses. Anyone can make honest mistakes. Who gives us all a bad name are those that call themselves "experts" and do such a deplorable job - even under contract. Then, others have to come in just to fix those mistakes. Sometimes, it's at a fraction of the original cost, since the marketing budget was blown on low-quality work. Learn how to spot poor marketing firms, so you can save your hard earned money for quality work instead!



Beware of Marketing Firms Who Promise Too Much!

Before I was self-employed, one of my employer’s affiliate companies brought in a marketing firm to overhaul their website. The website, as it was, actually was not ranking too badly in the search engines. The SEO was good enough that it was bringing a fair amount of local organic traffic. But the director of the affiliate wanted more leads from online traffic.

So, a company came in and overhauled the website design to the point that it looked nice, at first. But then, most of the important text was stuck in images or in weird I-frames that the search engines had difficulty reading. The search engines were puzzled and started looking away. There was nothing to keep the creepy-crawly search spiders interested. Then, the site's existing SEO was ruined and content that might have been OK if properly optimized simply wasn't doing its job.

Previously, I had done considerable SEO work on this website. The original design had been clean and simple. The logo was crisp and well-designed – also made in-house. This company threw everything out, and even changed all the page names from .htm to .html. Changing page name extensions in this way without proper redirects is a major no-no in SEO. As you might expect, traffic plummeted. The website dropped off the front page of search results across the board. My boss was furious.


The Website Had to Be Fixed In-House!

So guess what? We tore down the site in-house and rebuilt it from the old version we had. Within a few months, the rankings were back to where they had been before. Of course, the traffic still wasn’t enough for our affiliate. So, they brought in a pair of online marketing “experts.” I was there for the interview with them and found that I knew more than they did. I made the suggestion to not hire them. I could do everything they could already. But, my suggestion went unheard.

I had been absolutely correct. We had no intention of giving them direct access to the site, and it’s a good thing they didn’t get it. They sent me “fixed” HTML pages in emails. Sadly, they were a mess. I would continuously fix the stupid mistakes they had made in both the HTML and the title tags. It seemed as if we were paying them just to annoy me.

The final straw came when they asked me to go out and research inbound links. As the “webmaster,” it was apparently my duty to go and ask for links. Wasn’t that supposed to be part of their job? They didn’t make any good suggestions, either, except for spammy directories which would have actually hurt the rankings rather than helped them. They just told me to go and do it as if I were working for them. I told my boss about this, and fortunately, I was heard this time. They were subsequently fired. Unfortunately, it was only after they were already paid too much to begin with.


The Poor Quality SEO Marketing Firm Still Got Paid Upfront!

In the end, they were paid rather well for such lousy “work.” I ended up undoing everything they did, anyway, besides a couple of useful keyword phrases I was able to use. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses get duped all the time by people acting like they know what they’re doing. Then they simply turn to in-house staff, who are often making a fraction of what they had just paid out, to fix the mistakes.

Businesses need to stop doing this and actually make those doing outside work for them prove their mettle before paying them the big bucks. Otherwise, pay your in-house staff better. You’ll attract much better content writers and web designers into your fold. Then you'll better motivate those that you already have.

Just some friendly advice from someone who's been there and done that as an SEO Consultant!

If you're looking for quality copywriting and SEO services, see what the Brand Shamans can do for you!