Growing With Content: How to Start a Respectable Platform Others Will Love

Do you want to build a respectable platform?

Are you wondering how to use content to grow your business?

To learn more about how to start a platform that others will love, this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast gives you insight into the subject.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, you'll learn 5 tips to help you grow your business with content and the story behind Social Media Examiner's success.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Growing With Content
#1: Experiment on someone else's platform
Back in 2008, I sent a LinkedIn request to Ann Handley, who was, and still is, the chief content officer at MarketingProfs. At the time, I had spoken at Ann's conferences and written for MarketingProfs on white papers and white paper marketing. The response I received back from Ann in hindsight was very important to me. You'll hear the question Ann asked me and how I responded.

I also noticed that Brian Clark at Copyblogger had started to get excited about Twitter. I'd also written for Copyblogger since they were my target audience.

So I decided to take Twitter on and approached Brian to see if I could write an article about it. The article was titled "How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business."

A few months later I reached out to Ann Handley and she agreed for me to write an article called "The Dark Side of Twitter: What Businesses Need to Know."

Although I knew nothing about either subject, you'll hear how I developed these articles and hopefully you'll see that you can do it too.

These articles were published when the market was ready for them and part of the success was because of the people who shared it.

Take-home lessons:

Experimenting on someone else's platform allows you to make sure that your content will be popular before you decide to either build a new platform with this type of content or start to introduce that content into your existing platform.
Almost anyone is approachable for a journalistic opportunity. When you write for a known platform that is large in your industry, you can leverage your visibility to connect with people. It's an incredible opportunity for you to get some great content.
You can set the stage for something big.

The success of these articles is what justified starting Social Media Examiner.

Listen to the show to find out the other great benefits of when you publish content on someone else's platform.
#2: Do a reverse Trojan horse
In the tale of the Trojan horse where the warriors are released, I want you to reverse it and instead think about gathering data while other people march you around.

In January 2009, I conducted the Social Media Marketing Industry Survey, where hundreds of marketers were asked to complete a very simple survey. In exchange for that information, they received the completed report.

This data converted into a rich 26-page PDF file, known as the Social Media Marketing Industry Report.

You'll find out the type of questions I asked and what the real goal was behind the survey.

Within weeks of this report's publication, over 40,000 people downloaded it and made more than 400 comments. One of the unintended benefits for me was to become the first person to "claim an industry" in this space.

Take-home lessons:

Make sure there is value or a benefit to everyone who participates.
Let your reverse Trojan horse work for you.
Start to develop some content you know people want as a result of the data you put together.