The Power of Engagement: How to “Earn” Your Way into People’s Lives

The Power of Engagement: How to “Earn” Your Way into People’s Lives

When it comes to earned media, all marketers know that it means earned coverage which is almost always considered free. However, it is not free in the literal sense, and cannot be simply provided out of nowhere. It is the end product of a lot of timely investment, creative brainstorming, marketing and most importantly, struggling to build a decent reputation.

If you have written something that has appealed to another person, driving them to share it with their own audience or on another platform (exposing the information to a larger audience), you achieve:

• The attention of the person who first shared it
• The trust of the same individual, and
• The attention of people who saw the post and possibly even shared it further.

When this cycle is repeated (someone shares a post that is further shared, and continually so), it’s how something goes viral and traffic is created.

So, how do you achieve this viral post?

Create Content that Everyone Wants to Share

Anyone who uses the internet is a consumer. Some people read about things that fascinate them (like celebrities), while others look for information relevant to their job and other fields of interest.

When information being searched is relevant to the problem and written in an interesting and creative manner, the same consumer then shares it with others. It’s important to keep in mind what feature within a certain text might motivate a reader to want to continue reading and share it with more people too.

What Will Drive Someone to Share Your Content?

In a nutshell, people want to read things that are relevant to them, useful to their concerns and written in an interesting way. You can only understand if the information you have shared is useful, once you have identified and understood your audience. You can get an idea of this by taking a look at what your competitors are doing.

What are the Conditions for Success?

If you wish to ensure that the content you’re publishing stays on top of the list, then you have to ensure that you’re marketing yourself to the right people and that your voice is being heard.

Here’s what to do if you want to accomplish the above:

1. Ensure that you are an active brand ambassador
2. Ensure that the social media team you’ve hired stays on top of their game at all times.
3. Ensure that content going up is relevant and intrigues the reader, and does not appear dull, boring or redundant.
4. Interact with your consumers, make them feel relevant.
5. Allow users to interact over your post by liking, posting on it and sharing it. This way you will get more attention for free!

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

Yes this may sound completely redundant but you have to ensure that you repeat the things that are successful. Observe and implement your successes in a repetitive manner and you’re good to go!