Comments on: Want More Results? Make Your Content Likable and Linkable

By: Jamie Favreau

Jamie Favreau — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:39:10 +0000

Great post!I love sharing!

By: Jason Kintzler

Jason Kintzler — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:03:08 +0000

Great post Jeremy!
There are indeed so many things that can make today’s PR content more sharable and findable. I would also suggest including a shortened url in your content to encourage the reader to share.

All good feedback, and thanks for mentioning PitchEngine – can’t wait to show you what’s on tap!

@jasonkintzler
PitchEngine

By: Jason Kintzler

Jason Kintzler — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:57:56 +0000

Kim, Jeremy is correct, PitchEngine is a very secure site. We just made the switch over to a faster, more robust server last week and you may have caught us in that transition. Could explain why there was a message up at one point.

My apologies for encountering this and hope you’ll be able to log on and see what you’re missing!
Best,
Jason Kintzler
@jasonkintzler
PitchEngine

By: Jeremy Porter

Jeremy Porter — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:22:17 +0000

Kim, thanks for your feedback. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you must have done something wrong or gone to the wrong site (or have some funky pop-up blocker that doesn’t like the site for some reason).

I can assure you that PitchEngine.com is a trusted site. The company’s social media release platform is used by a ridiculous number of top brands, including IBM, Mattel, Xerox, Microsoft, The American Red Cross (and me).

Thanks again for reading. I’ve personally used the service myself and it’s great. If you are going to the right site and you’re still getting the message, you may want to let them know about it.

By: Michael Morisy

Michael Morisy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:22:12 +0000

Back to the journalism side of the equation, do you share links to your recent articles across these channels? You can’t rely on search engine visitors, email and RSS subscribers and your friends and family to pass the word along. You need to get your content into the hands of as many people as possible.
I’d be very careful on this front. While promoting your work through social media is fine, there’s a thin line between promoting and spamming, and people have widely variable tolerances for both.

I’ve long used Twitter primarily as a way to get story ideas and sources. In a new role, I started promoting more content, and ended up losing a few long-time sources as followers. And for what? The traffic Twitter drives, except in a few exceptional cases, is relatively minimal, and if you’re just spamming people, it’s probably not targeted to the right audience always.

Perhaps Vonnegut said it best when he advised, “Pity the reader.”

By: [Enikao]

[Enikao] — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:01:45 +0000

Another point could be the ambivalence of “likable” : not only that people like it, but also can express it by a vote or a +1 or whatever.
You get then useful data on what your readers enjoy & appreciate, you can sort the “most liked articles” in a column. The reader has a sense of participating to the organisation of your own homepage. This enables you also to make “best of” articles on a regular basis (weekly, monthly…).

By: Kim Randall

Kim Randall — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:01:24 +0000

OK so I tried to go to Pitch Engine and it is NOT a trusted site. It looked like an awesome site until I tried to sign up and got the big fat warning and the button that says “Get me out of here” Looks like I wont be using that one. Thanks for the article. Good stuff

By: Jeremy Porter

Jeremy Porter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:59:11 +0000

Great point. But no surprise, you are the expert in this area.

I think a great example is the stuff HubSpot has done, particularly around the Grader stuff (grader.com). I was pleased to see them mentioned in your book, because I was a fan way before that. I’ve never done business with them, but their information is always very helpful and informative. They remain top of mind with me. If I were to ever buy marketing automation software, I’d probably call them first (because they’ve already helped me out).

If all they did was host webinars about how great their product is, I would probably never attend (and would forget about them). Keep the ego in check. Help people and they will help you.

By: David Meerman Scott

David Meerman Scott — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:37:44 +0000

Jeremy, Great post and thanks for mentioning my book.

Another thing I would add is the importance of writing for an audience, not for your ego. With companies, when ego gets in the way, the content is written about the product (which nobody cares about). If you write for an audience, it means you focus on people’s problems.

Best, David