You’re putting time, effort and your valuable skills into creating actionable content, now make sure it gets seen.

No, not just by your mom and your blog’s 3 followers (although they should definitely see it too), but by anyone and everyone who’s interested in your industry. Even those who don’t know it yet.

Increasing the viewership on your awesome posts not only increases your brand authority and organically improves your search rankings, it also drives more traffic to your site and gets your Brand name ‘out there’ as an industry expert.

We know that sharing, promoting and endorsing can sound scary (and expensive), but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 7 simple and cost effective ways to ensure your content gets around as much as you’d like it to.

Step 1: Optimize your Content

Nope, you’re not even getting past the first step without us throwing some SEO at you. But that’s because (we love it and) it’s the simplest way for you to increase your viewership.

Don’t worry, we won’t go into any detail: even a very, very simple two-step optimization process will do.

Step 1: Decide on a keyword phrase or that best represents your content’s theme.

To help with this you can use Google AdWord’s (free) keyword planner. Here you can put in a phrase that you think best describes your content and the keyword planner will provide traffic estimates, keyword ideas and long-tail keywords. This will help you build your content closely around the search demand for a particular theme.

Step 2: Once you’ve found your ideal keywords and phrases find a way to include the primary ones in your title, first paragraph, last paragraph, images and lists.

If you can see areas in your copy where you can sneak in an extra keyword or two go ahead and do it, just don’t overdo it.

Given that your content (presumably) has a subject, you probably will have already mentioned your topic and related terms a bunch of times. Just neaten these ‘mentions’ up to make sure they correlate with your chosen keywords. For example: ‘our products’ could be changed to ‘our second-hand laptops’ and so on.

That’ll be enough to ensure that Search Engines and readers are able to find and make sense of your content.

Step 2: Optimize your content for social media

Once your blog is published you’ll want to encourage as much social media action as possible. Likes, shares, retweets, reblogs, mentions… you want them all!

Step 1: We’re visual creatures, so find an awesome image to accompany your content.

Most social networks include a thumbnail image from your content with your link and numerous studies have shown that posts with pretty pictures get the most attention. Be sure to put a bit of effort into finding the right one.

Step 2: Include a ‘share’ button on each page of content you create.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest all have official code which you can use to add a share button to your page’s template.

If you’re using WordPress you can install plugins (Flare is a goodie) which will add the buttons for you.

Step 3: Share your own content!

Use all your social media platforms to share what you’ve created. Also, remember that you’re allowed to share it more than once, but only if you do so creatively. You can do this by:

•       Sharing interesting snippets from the content
•       Posting stats or information tidbits
•       Sharing quotes from the content
•       Repurposing content for another medium (more on that later)

Step 4: Ensure you leave enough space for retweets on Twitter.

You want people who retweet your stuff to include your brand name. That means you need to leave space for the length of your username + 5 characters for the retweet. You can work it out  thus: (@lengthofusername + 5 characters) = your ‘retweetable’ number.

Step 5: Include a link to your latest post in your profile or bio.

Having a link there means that people can easily access your latest stuff without having to search for it in your busy news feed.

Some brands also choose to update their cover photo on Facebook to promote a new post. You may not want to do this every time, but if you have something extra special to share it’s a good way to extend your reach.

Step 3: Share your content with your email list

Option 1: Share your post with your email list. Make sure you write a nice, warm and personal-sounding email explaining your new post, offering an excerpt and inviting people to keep reading. People who have subscribed to your list will appreciate an update on the latest content – provided you don’t spam them with too many.

An added benefit of sharing content with your email list is that it allows you to get an idea of your readers’ interests with analytics. If you’re a hairdresser currently having a special on colour treatments you can see all the customers who clicked the link to your ‘Dye DIY’ post and target them specifically.

Option 2: Include a link in your email signature. If you have something great to share, include it in your email signature. That way everyone you’re connecting with will have the option of seeing your shiny new stuff.

The link should include a thumbnail picture and a call to action to make it clear and attractive. Even videos can be embedded in email signatures and it’s a great way of calling attention to the new things you’re doing.

Option 3: Include it in your newsletter. If you send out a regular newsletter be sure to include links your latest posts. People will want to see what you’ve been up to and this will give them the opportunity to view any posts they’ve missed.

Step 4: Reach out to fellow bloggers

The blogging community is big on outreach: many blogs love sharing content that they think their audience will enjoy.

Step1: Subscribe to and read other blogs in your field. As an added benefit this will help you stay abreast of what the rest of your industry is up to in the content department.

Step 2: Interact, comment, share and start a conversation. It’s all about joining the community. If you like someone else’s content give it a ‘share’ and make sure they know you’ve done so. Bloggers are usually only too happy to return the favour.

Once you’ve made a name for yourself in the blogging community people are also more likely recommend your content, quote you or to ask you to contribute as a guest writer.

Step 3: Now that you’re linking away merrily, you might want to consider a tool like Sniply: Sniply helps you share others’ content but still drive traffic back to your own site while doing it. It does this by attaching a call-to-action and a link back to your site on the page of every link that you share.

All you do is find something that you want to share and share it using Sniply.

When someone clicks though, they’ll be taken to the content you suggested, but on that same page they’ll be presented with a call to action (of your choice) and a link back to your own content.

Step 5: Repurpose your content

Unleash your inner-hippie and re-use, recycle and repurpose your content – tweaking it for a new website or platform. This is beneficial because it gets more eyeballs on your hard work, it increases the number of posts you’re able to put out and it exposes your content to a whole new audience.

Step 1: Find a topic that you’d like to repurpose (make sure it’s a topic that worked the first time: if it failed as a blog post, chances are it’ll fail as a video too).

Step 2: Choose a medium you’d like to repurpose it for.

Below are a few conversions that work well:

Blog post > Infographic

Webinars > Video tutorials

Internal data > Case studies

Statistics > Twitter Posts

Collections of old blog posts > Guides

Step 3: Tweak it to suit the new medium and publish. It’s as easy as that. Now your old research, hard work and labour have a new lease on life. And you’ve expanded your reach across platforms. Bonus.

Step 6: Use tools

As always, good folk across the www have created a bunch of useful tools which make your life just that much easier. If you’re short on time or could just use a little help, here are a few to try:

HARO: Haro lets you connect with people (mostly journalists) looking for a source. If you’ve got skills or expertise it’s a great way to get your name out there and get featured as an expert or guest.

Buzzstream: Buzzstream helps you find people in your niche who may want to share your relevant content. And vice versa if you’re looking to beef up your content with others’ information or expertise.

Scoop.it: Scoop.it allows you to ‘suggest’ your content to people who are writing about relevant things and lets them ‘scoop’ up and share the parts of your work they find useful.

Outbrain: This all-rounder helps to share and amplify your content across the web with particular focus on helping your content find the right readers.

Wisestamp: Don’t have time to update your email signature every time you post? Wisestamp will help you share your RSS and other content in your email signature.

MeetEdgar: This tool helps with reposting content from your archives by linking to your social media channels and sharing old content at a regular drip.

MailChimp: Need help with those email newsletters? Mailchimp is a service which helps you set up automated campaigns that deliver posts to your email list hassle-free.

Summary:

And there you have it – 6 ways of ensuring your content gets around more than Paris Hilton.

Just to summarize:

Step 1: Optimise your content for search

Step 2: Optimise your content for social media

Step 3: Share your content with your email list

Step 4: Reach out to fellow bloggers

Step 5: Repurpose your content

Step 6: If in doubt, use tools

What works for you? If you have any suggestions of your own that you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section below.