The internet is a vast playground. You can write about pretty much anything. You can take all the pictures you want and make as many videos as you like. You could create the greatest pieces of content since Da Vinci took paint to canvas.
You can whip up masterpieces of prose, veritable works of photoshop genius and Spielberg-ian levels of quality video.
The very real fact, however, is this;
Horrible realisation #1 – Your content is most likely going to wither and die, hardly seen by anyone.
With so many pages of content online, did you really think that yours was something special?
Horrible realisation #2 – It’s not.
No matter how great you think your content is, there is little chance of it being seen by a large audience.
But what about social media you ask?
Did you know over 80% of content you send to Facebook doesn’t get seen due to the Facebook algorithm that only puts the most relevant content on those people on their news feeds.
Here at Neil Walker Digital, we’re big fans of Network Science. If you’ve read our stuff before, you know this. We certainly know this. So how does NS help you with getting your amazing content seen?
Headhunting
Well, NS is all about hubs. Areas where influence and interests gather. This is a fundamental part of getting content seen. You need to place it in the right hub. One where the information you provide is valuable and needed. This is why it’s so much better for you to contact the most influential people in that hub, rather than contact everyone.
People, on the whole, will ignore your content. Sorry, but that’s the plain truth of it. You are just not important enough for them to warrant taking an interest in. However, they will not ignore the people they already trust and follow within that particular hub.
Of course, when you think about it, this makes perfect sense. The influencers are the ones that can give your content the push it needs. People gravitate towards these hubs and you need to start contacting the few people at the top rather than the many people lower down.
Here’s a simple example of what I mean:
It’s the snowball effect; If you can get your content at the top of the hill, then there’s only one place it can go, and that is down to the masses.
Making inroads with these influences through social networks, emailing or even a good old-fashioned handwritten letter can be beneficial to getting your own work noticed.
Of course, this means a lot of research. Digging through immense amounts of data and pages to find the right people. But it’s completely worth the work if you want your content to be seen and to be read by the right people.
Again, for the cheap seats…
- Find the hub you want to aim your content towards
- Research who are the leading influencers in that hub.
- Direct your content towards that influencer.
What do you think? Is this an oversimplification of the matter? Does it take much more than this?
I think so, but it’s a start. What are your thoughts? Send us an email/tweet and let’s discuss…