Getting your readers to read your content

In my social media class, we've focused on strategy development, monitoring and measurement. We've talked less about content itself, mainly because we're all  working on different blogs and sites, with a variety of topics, audiences, and objectives.

 

Any search about social media quickly reveals that "Content is king-- or queen", a trite but true claim. And the key is quality, we are told. A recent study from nRelate with Harris Interactive, reported in the January/February issue of EContent magazine, offers some pointers of how to get the content in front of your readers.

What they found:

• 76% of US adults clicked on links to related stories for more information-- these are links at the bottom of the story or in a sidebar, not embedded links. This beats out content links recommended by friends or social networks.
• 62% of people first look for traditional media news stories rather than images, videos, blogs, etc.
• After reading a story, more people click on a link to amother article rather than to a video (34% vs 15%).
• 39% are more likely to click on an article if there is an image associated with it.

Online consumers also defined what they meant by quality content:

• it is from a source already known in the offline world
• it includes images
• it includes an author image and byline
• it includes an embedded video.

They also said they read and click on content pushed to them via email newsleters from brands whose products and services they use.

Titled Behavior Shift: Getting Content in Front of Consumers, it's worth a read.