When most people think about what public relations agencies do, they picture media relations, industry exposure and … well… lots of press releases. The reality is that the public relations industry has been transforming itself as new technologies and strategies become available that help us gain optimum exposure and get our clients and their products in front of target audiences.

Activities that have typically belonged in the marketing department – such as social media, blogging and other content creation -- are slowly being taken over by outside agencies -- including public relations firms. It’s not too surprising when you consider that public relations agencies are supposed to not only get media attention, but also ensure that a company’s brand image – as displayed to any audience – is consistent in its message and correctly represents the brand.

So, what is the recipe for success when it comes to content and social media marketing?

Well, the key thing is coordination among all parties. The most successful PR, social media and content marketing strategies are well coordinated, integrated, discussed and designed in cooperation with all departments.

Far too often I see a message posted on social media by the marketing department about some great sales offer that sales has no idea about, and so it is rather wasted. Or, I see an outside agency post something on social media at 9:00 am and then the marketing department posts a different message at 2pm that totally wastes and negates the earlier message.

It’s important to be coordinated. Let every department have their input but, if these messages are not coordinated, it can come across as a confusing jumble of “stuff” with no purpose or destination in mind.

A well-coordinated social media marketing effort should be a mixture of industry-related content that supports the brand’s core message, along with personalized company content – such as birthdays, pictures and videos of the office or staff, recognitions, etc. Any outside agency will need to coordinate with someone internally at the company to get this personal content. This is vital as this type of content is what generally gets the most likes, comments and audience interaction.

This in combination with an excellent content marketing strategy which includes press releases, blogs, articles for trade magazines, speaking engagements, case studies and paid social advertising, can maximize visibility, tell a brand’s story and position its executives as industry thought leaders. It will also help to personalize the company and make its true personality shine in a way that prospects identify with and wish to do business with.

In the end, whether you subscribe to the idea that a public relations agency can be a good social media and content marketing partner or not, there’s a lot more to the whole content marketing and social media game than simply slapping content on a Facebook page, or throwing up a blog article and simply hoping people find it.

If you don’t know how to optimize that content for maximum reach, then you may find that you’re simply spinning your wheels in the mud and never actually getting anywhere. 

It’s inevitable. Businesses grow and, as they do, many look for ways to automate processes. Dealerships do it with auto-responders. Many companies have automated phone trees which circle you around pressing 1s, 2s and 3s, driving you mad as you can never reach a live person for help. Customer service inquiries are responded to by e-mails you cannot reply to. Is it just me or does it seem like sometimes technology actually hurts these businesses? Specifically, as far as customer experience is concerned.

I fully realize that in today’s digital world, in many cases it is much quicker to have no human interaction, and many consumers now prefer that experience– such as shopping online – which I LOVE! In these cases it improves the customer experience -- and I am all for that. I love buying on Amazon and Zappos, and escaping long car rental lines with cool aps that allow me to book online, jump in my car and drive off.

However, when it comes to having a problem with a company and needing help via customer service, I think most people prefer human interaction.

One of the most obvious functions of a public relations firm is to submit press releases. To do this, every PR firm utilizes one of many different companies that specialize in distributing them to appropriate audiences. In most cases, these releases are set to be distributed on certain times and dates as, in some instances, the timing of the release is very important. I’ve been using a service through PR Newswire, one of the largest press release distribution companies in existence. I scheduled a press release on a Thursday for delivery on the following Monday at 8:30am. Due to human error on their part, the release was published later the same day, instead of 4 days later as planned – a really bad time slot. This particular service does not have a customer service number you can call to get immediate help. That’s when technology failed and I went on to have one of the most horrible customer service experiences ever.

The only way to contact customer service is through a chat feature on their website. It took a good three minutes for an agent to come on and every time I asked a question, at least two minutes went by before I received a reply, as if they were handling multiple customers at once, while also going to and fro consulting with a manager before responding. The main problem was that they would simply not accept responsibility for the error and make it right. All I needed was for the release to be issued at the correct date and time.

At first, I was told that the only thing they could do was offer me a coupon for a future press release distribution. They stated that it was simple human error and that there was nothing that they could do for me. It took me 20 minutes of going back and forth via chat to explain that it was their error, that a coupon was of no use to me and that they simply needed to take down the press release and re-release it on the correct date and time. The customer service chat agent kept leaving me hanging, on whatever you call chat hold, to check with her manager -- who repeatedly refused to correct the error. This might sound frivolous, but any PR agency will understand that this error is quite a major one for a newswire service. Issuing a release at a wrong date and time is not a way to win friends and influence people.

Finally, they agreed to re-release it and I was promised that a customer service agent would call me. Rather than get a phone call, I received an e-mail apologizing. I went to reply to the e-mail, as there were some other issues I would have liked handled, but happened to notice at the bottom of the e-mail that it stated that the e-mail address from which I was sent this apology was from an unmonitored account and could not be replied to. It then directed me, of course, back to their chat support.

The funny thing is that customer service can actually be one of the best places to win the customer’s loyalty. Ever have a company handle a mistake so well that you then became more than happy with that company? Well, about the same time this PR Newswire mess happened, I placed a rush order via Amazon for a vitamin supplement I was running out of. The Amazon company that was fulfilling the order emailed me that they were out of the product so could not fulfill my order. I was a bit miffed as they emailed me after it was supposed to have already shipped. I emailed back that it was a bit frustrating that they took their time letting me know as I could have purchased elsewhere. As a result I got an immediate call back from a truly delightful company owner, no less, who explained an unusual problem they had with inventory control and that I was a valuable customer to them and that they were sorry for the error and would keep me informed about the status of my order. While I could have gone elsewhere and got the product immediately, the company’s great customer service and interaction made me stay with them. They impressed me. I in turn wanted to support their business. They did a great job of updating me via email and made sure I did get the product just as soon as they could.

In reflection, while PR Newswire’s technology may have been put in place for efficiency to minimize their employee expenses, it ended up costing them a customer. But more than that; the first thing I did was vent my frustration on Facebook. Something that is very common in this age of social media. My network of PR professionals may find that Facebook advice valuable when making a decision on whether to utilize their services – or not. There’s no telling if they will lose any business because of my posting.  But, they certainly lost mine.                                       

I told everyone I know through Facebook and now….

You’re reading this blog article.

Need I say more?

In business, just as is the case for any living being, all parts need to be functioning to operate at optimal efficiency. If your right leg wanted to go forward and your left leg wanted to go backwards, you probably wouldn’t make much progress walking. The same principle applies to the health, well-being and efficiency of any business. Have you ever tried to use a coupon or take advantage of a special offer at a store, only to be told by the cashier that they were unaware of the special offer? That’s a huge disconnect. But I see it happen quite frequently – the marketing department or executive management creates an offer, but neglects to tell the employees that it exists.

Communication is essential to the success of any business. However, too often, communication gets segregated by department. A marketing department could do an absolutely fabulous job collaborating and designing creative marketing and sales slicks. However, if the sales department doesn’t know anything about them, they’re pretty ineffective.

Most business utilize outside resources in some way. That could be an external ad agency, a PR company, or perhaps a technology vendor for some key function. These vendors can be important to the success of your company – or why would you have hired them in the first place? To neglect these vendors and/or fail to include them in the loop and provide them with needed communication and information, simply serves to diminish the value they could provide the company.

I’m not implying that every internal company e-mail needs to be seen by everyone. Just make sure that someone is responsible for getting these external resources the correct pieces of information and communication that they need.

I also find for external PR and marketing teams it can be really helpful to have meetings with key executives and other departments within the business when developing new ideas and campaigns. These do not have to be long or frequent -- believe me, I know how busy these departments get! But I promise you, this is time well spent. You’d be surprised at the marketing ideas you might get from your sales department, or vice versa. Include the guys on the front lines that are actually selling the product and/or servicing customers each day. Sometimes, fresh eyes and opinions can open up ideas that otherwise wouldn’t have seen the light of day.

There are so many moving parts involved in any business that it’s certainly difficult for everyone to know what’s going on at any given time. And that’s not necessary. What is necessary is for each department affected by an initiative to have a voice about it and knowledge of it. Otherwise, you can end up with salespeople with no knowledge of new marketing initiatives. Or, content waiting to be read and/or approved by multiple people. Or, announcements that could spur sales falling by the wayside, simply because the right arm doesn’t know what the left one is doing.

Take the time to connect (or reconnect) your management team as well as your outside resources and this could well help to make your initiatives more successful and help them perform better. And, your vendors can serve you in their best capacity.

Social media provides us with a wonderful set of tools to connect and stay connected with people. In its early years, some businesses were a little slow to jump onto the social media bandwagon. However, as they recognized the potential it had to reach large audiences for little to no money, businesses embraced it.

The thing is that as use has grown, some business professionals could use a primer on social media for business. There is a pretty big difference in how you should use these platforms on a personal level, versus how you should manage any business presence. I’m finding that, on a business level, messages are getting a little too “spammy” for my liking, especially on Facebook. It’s all well and good to use Facebook as a sort of LinkedIn network that is a tad more social, to connect with peers, colleagues and others within your industry. However, be careful and mindful of a few faux pas that seem to be trendy but, at the same time, are actually pretty irritating.

What am I talking about? The misuse of tags.

Facebook allows individuals to tag others in posts. The primary use of this feature is designed to include and share content that is relevant to that individual. Let’s say you take a picture of someone and post it to social media. As long as the picture is flattering and isn’t inappropriate, there is probably nothing wrong with tagging that person. Now, if you don’t understand the consequences of tagging people on Facebook, let me explain.

Depending on an individual’s personal settings, tagging someone will typically automatically show that picture on the tagged individual’s Facebook wall. This action also inserts this image into the network of the tagged person’s News Feed.

It seems as if all too often people are using this tag feature to self-promote and/or share memes, quotes or other messages that really have no direct connection to a tagged individual, but are to shamelessly promote some business venture. You’ve seen it. A post that has 99 people tagged in it. While your intent may (or may not) be innocent. And, while you may simply wish to ensure that these tagged individuals see the post. Chances are good that, despite your intentions, you’re actually alienating some of these people. I know that personally, when I am tagged in a post or image that I’m not included in, it makes me feel as if I am endorsing the content without my consent.

Of course, relationships – especially business ones – can be tricky to manage. On the one hand, I may like and even be friends with the person. But, on the other hand, I may not be too thrilled that they would tag me in a post without my consent, especially when it’s not something I 100% support.

I realize that I can set my personal profile up so as to moderate what shows on my Facebook profile. I also understand that I can remove the tag from the photo. However, I am a sensitive soul and care about how the person who tagged me might feel once they see that I removed the tag.

There’s nothing wrong with leveraging the networks of your friends. And it may very well be that they support everything you do and don’t mind you tagging them in photos. All I’m saying is that if this is a practice that you regularly use, you might want to ensure that you have these individual’s permission to do that on a regular basis. And being “spammy” is not such a great practice to regularly use on social media anyway.

Social media can be a wonderful place to interact, both as an individual and as a business. By misusing it, or by taking advantage of your friends, you can easily find yourself losing an audience and irritating them, rather than gaining their support.  Be conscious of how you include your friends in your posts. They will appreciate it more.And, when it comes time, may be more willing to help you spread a message. To your success!

You’ve finally realized that you need to make some noise to get attention and implemented a content marketing strategy. You’ve rallied the troops. You’ve started social media postings. You’re working with a PR company to get press releases written and posted, and to coordinate blog and article strategies. Today is the day. Your first press release is sent. And you wait for the phones to start ringing --- And wait. Fast forward a little and your first blog article is posted. You’re excited to see what comments and questions you receive. So, you watch your e-mail inbox. And wait. You’re starting to get a little frustrated now. How come nobody is calling you about your press release, responding to your blog article or interacting with you on social?

I hate to tell you, but you don’t usually go from zero to hero with your first posting. The reality is that in the majority of cases, content marketing does not provide immediate results. Sure, there are times that luck can get you a good dose of viral exposure. Or a reporter just happens to be working on a story when your press release hits their in box, making you seem like a magic genius!  But, the chances of you becoming the next “hot” viral video, article, or social media post are small.

When companies come to me for assistance to up their game through content marketing, I always explain that content marketing is a long-term commitment. For all of the cogs in the machine that represent content marketing to get in sync with each other, and, more importantly -- to succeed at attracting and nurturing your audience -- it’s important to understand that content marketing isn’t a one-and-done activity.

Regardless of how great your company is, it takes time and some tweaking and massaging of your messages for audiences to realize that your content is something they should be watching out for and paying attention to. Whether we’re talking about an editor at a trade publication, a blog site that syndicates your content, or simply a dealer taking the time to read your blog article, consistency is the key to success. If you’re at a party, you cannot expect everyone to interact with you if they don’t know who you are -- no matter how good looking you may be. To be effective, it requires that you strike up conversations with multiple people and engage them consistently. The more consistently you create and circulate good content, the better chance you have of attracting the right eyeballs, at the right time, to create the opportunities you want.

Great content marketing strategies revolve around each piece of content supporting the other. Commit to building a strong consistent image for both your company and any spokesperson or figurehead executives by publishing on a regular schedule. Then, your audience can start to build and gain momentum. Your audience will begin to anticipate your next nugget of wisdom.

The rise of social media has caused many to believe that content marketing is an immediate game. However, that’s rarely the case. Just as in business, you must establish yourself as an authority in your field. You can be the smartest person in the world. But, if nobody listens to you then your efforts are all for naught.

If your message is consistent as far as time and frequency of your content, and you maintain consistency with the relevancy of your messaging, the possibility that people will pay attention to your content grows exponentially. In addition, it’s not a broadcast approach that wields the best results.  Actively monitor activity surrounding your content, on ALL channels. If your audience responds to you, respond back to them. This creates an emotional connection between you and your reader. Then they know that you are not simply pushing an agenda. They can see you are trying to be helpful. Keep the promotion to a minimum. There are places and audiences where that is appropriate, such as your website. But, for the majority of platforms, it is not. Be authentic, consistent, relevant and interactive. You will find that your audience then soon begins to pay attention.

The 2016 conference season is upon us. Conferences are an excellent place for vendors to gain exposure and connect with dealers in a concentrated area over several days. They are also a definite (and not inexpensive) investment. So, it makes sense to do all that you can to optimize your ROI.

Dealers can get overwhelmed by all of the booths. And, unless they’re searching for a specific solution, they may not take the time to visit every vendor. This can be frustrating for exhibitors. I therefore thought I’d offer up some suggestions as to how your company can increase the odds of capturing a dealer’s attention and increasing your booth traffic.

Press Releases – Press releases serve to inform the industry of any upcoming additions, enhancements or product launches -- especially around conference times. They can also be used to promote any speaking session a company exec may have at the conference. Post these on your site, send out to your media contacts. They can also be promoted in any company newsletter. Be sure to also post them on your social media accounts.

Blogs – Blogs are a great way to generate interest in a topic. If done correctly, and in a non-promotional manner, your blog can attract attention from conference attendees. Use your blog to perhaps discuss an industry pain point. If done correctly, blogs can increase exposure for key executives and help to transform them into thought leaders. Be a resource and dealers will come to you asking for a solution. Post the blog on your website, on the auto industry social sites, and on your social media.

Social Media (In General) – Many vendors neglect to leverage their social media accounts for conference promotion. Or, if they do use them simply blast the same message of “Visit our booth,” “Conference special price!” or, “Come win this Widget!” This gets really old to attendees browsing the conference’s Twitter hashtag. It can very easily get you tuned out. While there’s nothing wrong with any of these messages by themselves, many vendors simply broadcast the same message as if on repeat. Mix up your messaging and don’t set your social media on auto-pilot. Make sure that you have someone monitoring your social media. Be sure to respond to any incoming messages. But also actively search for ways to engage attendees at conferences. Engagement does not mean responding to a tweet with a “come to our booth” message. Just be a real person and engage in conversation. I promise this will get you much further in building rapport with a customer.

Facebook/Twitter ads – Social media ads are an excellent way to target that audience most likely to be in attendance at an upcoming conference. These ads can be a mixture of ones that promote a speaking session; an ad that announces a product launch or some enhancement; or an ad to raise awareness of a booth giveaway. If you have all of the above happening, you are ahead of the game. But, unless you tell people in advance, you’ll be stuck waiting for dealers to visit your booth so you can tell them the news. That typically doesn’t work out well. Utilize the in-depth targeting abilities of these huge social media platforms. In so doing, you gain exposure with your desired audience delivered up on a silver platter.

Giveaways – Yes, this may seem like a no-brainer. The fact is that everyone loves free stuff. Whether we’re talking about swag or a nice prize, offer an incentive to attendees to come visit your booth. And don’t be boring ---- be inventive – there is a heck of a lot of competition among the booths! Cool giveaways increase the likelihood that you’ll gain additional traffic. They also provide more things to talk about on social media.

Don’t be shy! – Last, but certainly not least, pay attention to the attendees. Don’t sit back and focus on your laptops or cell phones, while dealers simply walk by without being acknowledged. Chances are that your booths are manned by salespeople. All salespeople are used to rejection. That’s part of the job. There’s no reason that they shouldn’t be front and center, greeting each attendee as they walk by, inviting them to check out their product. Just because everyone is in the same place doesn’t mean that dealers are going to flock to your booth. You still need to “sell” them on why they should listen to you. The advantage is that you don’t have to do it over the phone -- at a conference you can do it in person.

Have a great and successful 2016 conference season. I hope these tips and strategies help you be more successful in your investment, and look forward to seeing everyone soon!

In reflecting back on 2015, I would like to reach out and share my thoughts about how grateful I am to be in a career I love and for that career to be in an industry that I love!  Very few days go by without thoughts of how truly thankful I am to be involved with so many great companies – from the large mainstays to the tech start-ups. And I am also lucky to work with the many truly great editors, publishers and sites that provide such good content and opportunities for us all. There are so many unique and wonderful people I get to work with. I just added it up and 2016 will mark my 23^rd year in this industry!

Regardless of whether someone is my client, or simply a business associate, there are so many wonderful people in this industry striving to help dealers be more successful through innovation, training and support. It’s always a pleasure when I get the opportunity to attend conferences and catch up with friends, while also making new ones. It’s my goal going into 2016 to make a concerted effort to attend more industry events in order to support and nurture the relationships I have that I truly treasure.

The automotive industry is constantly in motion. It’s challenging sometimes to find that right balance in order to effectively deliver a message to dealers. I’ve found that most of the individuals on the vendor side of our industry truly have a deep appreciation for and sincerely wish to help dealers. This is not just an industry, but a community, and I’m grateful to be a part of it.

As we move into 2016, I look forward to continuing to be a part of this industry. In some cases, that may be assisting vendors to get their message out to dealers and, hopefully, directly contributing to their growth. In other cases, I’m content to simply watch as the industry transforms and changes in the dynamic way it always is. Regardless of which situation I find myself in, I want everyone to know that I appreciate being a part of this wonderful industry. I cherish the relationships I have and those yet to be formed. And I’m excited to see what the next wave of entrepreneurs and innovators brings, while the larger companies continue to bring more value to their clients.

Thank you all for the opportunity to be a part of this intricate, dynamic and complex thing we call the auto industry. Each individual has the ability to change things for the better and I hope that I can continue to be a part of this wonderful group of people and companies. Lastly, I want to thank my great team of public relations professionals, social media gurus and masters of content creation – you know who you are and I LOVE working with each and every one of you.

Best wishes to you and yours.

Sara Callahan

So, you’ve recognized the value that social media and content marketing present for your business. You faithfully promote your Facebook page to your audience through your marketing efforts, e-mail signatures and website. You’ve enlisted employees or executives in your organization to start creating unique content for your blog or website and are seeking out content daily to be shared via your social media channels. It’s now the end of the month and you’re sitting back trying to figure out whether your efforts made any difference at all. You look at reports, but all of the charts, graphs, percentages are simply confusing – you certainly don’t have a PHD in Google Analytics. Sound familiar?

How can you, at the very least, get a vague idea of whether or not your efforts are working?

In a perfect world, all businesses would have dedicated professionals who craft the most effective content and social media marketing strategies. But, in many cases, this isn’t possible, due to budgetary reasons, or otherwise. First and foremost, my advice would be to study and educate yourself for the future. There is no better tool than personal knowledge. That being said, here are a few significant metrics that are easy to understand and measure, that will get you started.

Total Engagement – This includes activities such as “likes” on content you’ve posted, shares, post clicks and comments on Facebook; or favorites, retweets and shares on Twitter. Obviously, the more engagement your content receives, the more interested your audience is in the posted content. Keep in mind that your content is limited in organic reach. The more total engagement you have, the more people will see it. If you’re looking on Facebook, you can see this number within the “Insights” tab of your Facebook page, on the right side listed as “Engagement.” The default time period is for the last week, but you can change this to whatever time period suits you. Look at what gets the best engagement and concentrate your efforts on creating more posts and content along that line.

Increase in Fans/Followers – I should first warn you that this metric can very easily become a vanity metric and lose all relevance. It is a far better strategy for your Facebook page to have less fans, but ones that are truly relevant, than hundreds of fans that have no benefit to you. I cannot believe how many requests for “likes” I get from high school students and people completely unrelated to my industry.  It’s all about quality not quantity. Don’t measure your success based on how many fans or followers you have. In addition, there is no way for you to control WHO is following you or liking your Facebook page. In a perfect world, we would all have Facebook pages filled with the exact audience we wish to reach. Reality is that if that high school teenager who lives in Poland wants to like your Facebook page, he can -- and there’s not much you can do about it.

Now that we have that out of the way, you should endeavor to build your fan/follower base through organic methods. Clearly display your social media sites on your website and invite people to “like” your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter. Include your social media icons in all your marketing and ensure that all employees have links to these places in their e-mail signatures. On Twitter, you can proactively find relevant Twitter accounts and follow them -- chances are they’ll follow you back, as long as they can view your account and see that you are sharing relevant content and don’t just broadcast promotional messages. On Facebook, in a B2B situation, you can spend the time reaching out to other businesses and liking their pages in the hope that they will reciprocate, However, this doesn’t work very well in B2C marketing, as Facebook pages cannot initiate contact with individuals.

Inbound Links – Inbound links are when people refer to your content in content they publish on their website. These links could be contained within content they write and publish. Or, it could be syndicated through their own marketing efforts. The important point is that an inbound link is a signal that another entity found your content valuable enough to either refer to it or share it themselves. And Google knows. This will drive more traffic to your website, position your content with more authority in search engine results and increase the likelihood that your audience will find your content. The more inbound links your content marketing efforts generate, the more successful your efforts are.

Web Traffic – The ultimate goal of any content marketing is to generate more interest in your company. Social media and syndication can be used to increase the probability that people will see your content. If you generate unique, relevant and helpful content, there is absolutely a direct correlation between content and web traffic. Some very detailed analytics are available within Google Analytics. But, if you’re looking for a simple metric to get you started in evaluating your content marketing activities, start by keeping track of your total website visitors.

This primer is simply a starting point in your social media and content marketing efforts and is far from a comprehensive guide to tracking and monitoring the success of your efforts. Take the time to learn more detailed metrics as you go. I hope these five metrics offer a good starting point and serve to provide you with a general idea as to whether any content and social media marketing efforts are succeeding. To your success in 2016 and beyond!

If you’re on any social media platform, there’s no doubt that you’ve seen or heard of a multitude of topics where someone somewhere was offended. Not counting obvious religious, political or other volatile topics - there are many that seem, well, baffling. Take for example, the University of Ottawa’s decision to cancel its yoga class over concerns that cultural issues could offend students. Another recent example involved Starbucks decision to remove Holiday words and symbols from its traditional red cup which quickly went viral with detractors claiming that Starbucks hated Christmas. Target got into a mess recently with a Christmas sweater they sell that has the words “Obsessive Christmas Disorder” on it. People called them insensitive to those with mental health conditions. There are far too many examples of this recent phenomenon of unintentionally causing offense infiltrating and dominating social media conversations.

It’s a given that you can’t make everyone happy. But no business wants to find itself on the wrong end of public perception. So what is a business to do? In our age of political correctness, marketing is not quite so simple a proposition. Businesses have to rethink what messages they put out to ensure they don’t step on any toes. Simple things like wishing customers “Merry Christmas” can be perceived as insensitive. That being said, from a public relations perspective, the opinion that matters most is not the world’s… it’s that of your audiences. Business owners know how their patrons think and feel. They interact with them daily. As long as content and/or messages don’t cross a line, if your business feels like wishing customers a Merry Christmas, there’s no reason for you not to. Could someone come along and criticize you for being insensitive or politically incorrect? Certainly. If they’re not your customer (or potential customer) does it really matter? Do you think yoga instructors around the world are going to become unemployed because a university decided that their physical activity might offend students? I highly doubt it. What about Target and their OCD sweatshirt? They’re continuing to sell it despite the commotion. And we all know that Starbucks didn’t change its cups back.

The bottom line is that if you operate your business from a standpoint of high ethics and professionalism, genuinely care about your customers and show them that by treating them well, chances are that if you do find yourself in a position where someone criticizes a message as being insensitive, you probably won’t have to worry about how that could affect your customer’s perception of you. Starbucks and Target know their customers and made the decision to move on with their choices. They believe that they are socially responsible and give back to their communities and the world, and that they treat their customers and employees well. So, they stuck by their guns when they received pushback.

There’s no reason for you to operate your marketing as if you are treading on thin ice out of fear that you may say or do something that will offend someone. Just be a human being. Treat people how you want to be treated and everything should be just fine.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday. Eat turkey. Watch football. Take a nap. Or whatever it is that you like to do. You’ve worked hard and deserve it.

Regardless of what industry you are in, your audience is seeking information and it’s in your best interest to be the place that provides it for them. High-quality educational content has many great benefits.

However, is it better to keep the content on your site, or push the content to other sites in an effort to get the most bang for your buck? The best strategy is a mixture of both.

I’ll explain the benefits of each.

The benefits of keeping the content exclusively on your website include:

1. If the content is placed solely on your site, this can help attract new site visitors. If you push your content to multiple sites, you are essentially competing with yourself in terms of search results. Unless you have a very authoritative site in the eyes of the search engines, you may find your site ranking below others.
2. If your website consistently has fresh content, search engines will crawl your site on a more regular basis. Failing to add fresh content to your site regularly, the amount of time between visits by a search engine increases. Keep them coming to your site.
3. Fresh content also encourages your current customers to return to your site. A regular content schedule promotes return visits. Think of it like a television series. You know your favorite show airs on a certain date and can make plans to watch it. Make sure that your audience gets used to seeing your content on a regular day so that they can anticipate and look for it.
4. Prospects most likely visit your site on a regular basis. These prospects could be potential customers, or future employees. Good educational resources and fresh content can help to show these visitors that you care. This can provide a sense of who you are as a company beyond just the information about your products and services.

The benefits of publishing your content off-site include:

1. The ability to reach new people. By regularly publishing that content on community sites within your industry, or in trade magazines, you’ll stay top-of-mind with potential future customers. This can help build familiarity and brand you as an expert in the industry – someone who knows what they are talking about and is worth listening to. While readers may not be in market for your service now, they certainly may be in the future – or know someone who is. If you’ve been visible to them on a regular basis, the chances increase that, at the very least, they consider you.
2. It is in the best interest of these sites to promote their content by syndicating it to members. Oftentimes, these communities or trade magazine’s websites are ad supported. That being said, they cannot simply e-mail ads to their members or subscribers. They need content as well. In most cases, they also need the help of industry experts to provide it. They appreciate your content and provide you with an opportunity to reach a huge database of people in your industry.
3. In most cases, these sites allow the author to include a bio in the content as well as a link to the company website. This can increase your website’s authority in the eyes of search engines.

The solution that seems to work well is to keep long form content exclusive (white papers, case studies, etc.) on your website. Many companies require an e-mail address to access the content. This can help increase any database for future marketing.

Short content, such as blogs, seem to perform well when shared within communities and/or with trade magazine’s or news sites. Keep a good mix of both and you’ll be on your way to a rewarding content marketing strategy.