Get the most out of your publication: free tools to expand the reach of your content
Maybe a blogger just posted an interview with you that you’d love for the whole world to read, or maybe you’ve created great content for your own website. Here are some ideas you can experiment with to help increase the chances of your link achieving the wide distribution you’d like it to receive.
Sometimes it’s easy to miss the obvious, so I’ll say what almost goes without saying: start with your own social media. Share the link on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, or any other networking site you use to connect with family, friends, and colleagues. If the link points to something that isn’t hosted on your own site (like a guest post or an article you wrote for another site), be sure to post it on your own blog as well.
When you use Twitter to share your link, use relevant hashtags so that people you don’t know personally but have an interest in your subject area can find it. Do a quick Twitter search for keywords that you think might be relevant to your topic and pick two or three to include in your tweet along with the URL.
Don’t forget email as a promotional tool. Many of us are used to sharing good news via Facebook etc., and we forget two important facts: not everyone is glued to social media, and a personalized email can sometimes get more attention than a post similar to one broadcast on a website.
When you don’t send mass emails very often, people generally don’t mind the occasional one, especially if you use BCC to avoid sending a long list of addresses. If you choose to send your link via email, another option is to write a template with the information about the link you want to share and then copy and paste it into the individual emails you send, beginning each email with a personal greeting and another sentence or two. written specifically for each person you are emailing.
If you feel like spamming to email your link, why not just add the link to your email signature for a week or two? We get used to people using the same old email signatures, and it can be a good thing to change them.
Two other free tools you can try to share your link on the web are Craigslist and reddit. While Craigslist is locally focused, you can (carefully) use it more broadly and share your link on Craigslist sites for multiple cities if you think your link is relevant to people in different geographic communities – just be careful and don’t go overboard. . post as this may cause your posts to be blocked.
You’ve probably used Craigslist for jobs, furniture, or anything else, but have you used the “community” section, located at the top left of your screen? This area of ​​Craigslist is a good place to share a link in a short post, possibly including an image as well. If none of the specific sections for community posts fit your content, you can use the “general” section.
On reddit, users submit links related to various topics called subreddits. You can usually find a subreddit related to the topic of your link; use the reddit search tool to find subreddits where your content might fit. The reddit community is sensitive to spam, so please read and follow the user guidelines on any subreddit you choose to post to, and add your link in moderation, being careful to use tags requested by moderators (there is often a tag to indicate that you are sharing your own content).
I have mentioned only a few ideas; there is always more. The more you search the web for places where people are discussing your subject area and sharing content, ideas, and links, the more avenues you can find to let others know about your work. As a result, you’ll have more opportunities to get the most out of your post when you have something special to share.