Social listening is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal.  That means tracking what your audience are saying, the thing that make them tick, and the topics that get them talking.  Trends can come and go and some are more enduring, the old favourites that pop up in memes and gifs and recycled in many glorious forms.

Why our post reached more then 200,000 people

Line of Duty is the one setting the Twittersphere on fire at the moment. Now in its sixth season the hit show has a huge mainstream following and unites the nation in collective suspense. Live TV still has incredible power and any content around Line of Duty has the potential to reach big audiences.

Unsurprisingly paid advertising to coincide with hit shows can be very expensive but you don’t have to pay to get noticed.  You can reach huge audiences, just by being smart on social and being part of the conversation.

This tweet from our Director, did exactly that. It tapped into the return of a character that was fast becoming a pantomime villain.  With a mixture of good timing and capturing the mood of the nation, it reached more than 200,000 people in one go and prompted lots of comment and conversation.

If you want to jump on the trends, it works best not to schedule content in advance and instead be spontaneous and responsive. There is nothing worse than looking out of touch.  There are events that will also create lots of traffic – from Love Island to Marr – and these will give you a timeline and framework to work to.  For the vast majority of trends however these can change day to day, week to week, think beans on Weetabix and Bernie.

Stay relevant over time

As well as fleeting content, publishing relevant blogs and content on your website can be extremely powerful, and importantly lead to sales. You can carry out research into popular subjects and keywords and there are topics that will always have longevity.

A good example of this is a blog we wrote for HR Overload on a Tribute to your best boss.   The blog was a call to arms to celebrate the best boss you’ve worked for, what made them good and how they made a difference to your life.

The blog proved to be extremely popular and is still the most popular page on the site accounting for 45% of traffic. This in itself will have a significant impact on SEO (search engine optimisation).

Build the right strategy

To get the best results with content marketing, whether it’s a white paper, social media or a blog, you will always need a strong strategy.  This must be shaped around your target audience and have clear aims and objectives.  It is also critical that you measure its success and change and refine this as necessary.

It can be hard to get it right when you are busy running a business, but we work with many business to put them on the right track.  Whether that is helping them put a strategy in place, providing templates and managing social media accounts day to day.  Our team can bring creativity and give your content a fresh and new lease of life.

To discuss how we can help, drop us a line