As you’re working to create content that your audience is sure to love, you need to have one eye on content distribution platforms. And that means you need to put the technical pieces in place now before you finish your content.
So, with that in mind, here are the steps you need to take…
Prepare Your Blog
The first thing is you need your own platform on which to post your content. Ideally, you’d set up a blog on your site, as this makes it easy to upload, schedule and distribute content
Our recommendation is to use WordPress.org. This platform is robust, secure, and very flexible. It’s also very user-friendly, so you can change and customize your blog’s theme (design), upload content, optimize your blog for the search engines and more with minimal tech knowledge. If you need added functionality, chances are a plugin already exists to give you what you want without any coding required.
To make it easy on yourself, use DFY Hero, which lets you create an unlimited number of hosted WordPress blogs.
Get on Social Media
Your next step is to be sure you have your social media accounts ready to go.
Here’s the key: focus on about two or three platforms where your audience is already known to hang out. If you try to juggle a half a dozen or more platforms, you’ll stretch yourself too thin.
Take these two steps:
- Do your research to determine where your audience is. The top platforms to research include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
- Think about what sort of content you want to post. Your preferred content format is going to influence which platforms you focus on. For example, if you plan on posting articles, then Instagram isn’t going to work for you. On the other hand, if you tend to post multimedia (such as videos and infographics), then you can consider Instagram as a possibility, depending on whether your audience is gathered in large numbers on the platform.
Once you figure out which platforms to focus on, then be sure to completely fill out your profile. This includes:
- Filling out your “bio” or “about” section, which should focus on what you and your business can do for prospects.
- Including a link to your website with a call to action. (Such as a link to your lead page.)
- Posting an appropriate photo. Depending on how you’re branding your business, this photo may be of you or it may be related to your business logo and branding.
Note: it’s also useful to acquire a social media tool, which will help you do things like track your content, schedule it, and manage your account. One such tool is HootSuite.com.
Next…
Create a Facebook Ads Manager Account
If you plan on doing some paid advertising – especially retargeting – then be sure to get a Facebook Ads Manager account. You can learn more about how to do this by checking out Facebook’s instructions.
Install a Facebook Pixel
If you plan on doing a retargeting ad campaign, then one step you’ll want to take now is install a Facebook pixel. This pixel works as a tracker to know who’s been on a specific page of your website. For example, if someone read a piece of your content but didn’t take the desired action, you can put an ad in front of them giving them new reasons and benefits to act now.
To learn more about setting up this pixel, go to Facebook’s Business Help Center.
Which brings us to a related point…
Install Lucky Orange as Part of the Content Distribution Platforms
Lucky Orange is a heatmap tool that lets you know how visitors arrived on your website, and what your visitors did before they left your page. The tool even includes visitor recordings, which lets you view exactly what your visitors are seeing and doing, which will give you insight into why they’re not converting.
Installing this tool is optional, but we find it really useful to study visitor behavior, which helps us optimize our site and boost conversions. You can learn more by checking out the Lucky Orange website.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s important to get your platforms and tools ready to go so that you can get your content in front of as many people as possible. The good news is that many of these steps are one-time steps – once you get them up and running, you’re done with the technical set up. Then you can use focus on using these platforms and tools to grow your business.
For more information, be sure to check out this free Article Traffic Checklist, which lays out the steps you need to take to plan, create, polish and distribute highly effective content.
