Does Your Social Strategy Rely On Luck?

by Lily Bradic

If you’re creating interesting, targeted content but it’s not getting the traction it deserves, who should you blame? Your audience, for “only being interested in free stuff”? Your competitors, for having a bigger marketing budget than you? Or yourself, for not being proactive enough? Hint: It's the one you have control over.

If you go to a networking event and spend the whole time sitting in the corner browsing Mashable on your phone, you can’t then go home and complain that nobody spoke to you. The online world is one big networking event. Create your own luck by engaging with people in preparation for opportunity. Here’s how:

Reach out

Find people who share content that’s similar in tone and topic to yours, and start a conversation with them that isn’t all about work. You know they like sharing content, you know they’ll like yours, and (hopefully) now they’ll like you, too. Build up a network of people like this — industry friends who you can count on to share your content without you needing to ask.

 While sending a tweet is a good start, sending an email is much better. Not only will you stand out, but it will also prevent your communication from being confined to one platform. There’s a weird unspoken etiquette when it comes to this — adding an online acquaintance on a different social network can make you seem too desperate to be connected.

Share it yourself

Storify, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Tumblr — seed your content across all these platforms and you’ll greatly increase your chance of it getting picked up. You can’t expect everyone else to do all the work. Nobody is as invested in your content as you are, and if you can't trust yourself to get the job done, who CAN you trust?

Call in favors

You’re sharing other people’s content, right? When you publish your best content, reach out and ask them if they’d return the favor. Send each message personally, rather than mailing out a press release. Most people are happy to share — it just might not occur to them naturally. The worst thing that can happen is that you don’t get a reply, and if that happens, you're under no obligation to continue sharing their posts. 

Readers: How do you ensure your content gets seen? Share your tips in the comments!

photo credit: Silence via photopin (license)