How to Make your Content Sticky

Make it very useful, then make it portable and spreadable.

Package it in as many ways as you can think of, build it out, extend it with participation, give it away for free, give it away for leads, give it away to sell it.

These and many other ideas can help you raise your online profile and be tactical at the same time. A quick tactical list:

Twitter

Regardless of how much we'd like to think of this tool in the context of chats, it really isn't suited for that. However, chats are our way to establish a consistent, time-based (weekly seems to work well) stream of topical content that humanizes you.

Add to that useful links to content elsewhere, announcements, and offers sent when your monitoring uncovers opportunities to be helpful, and you have several ways of allowing people to spread your information.

More on business uses for Twitter.

Facebook

Start a fan page, group, or create an application. Each is a different way to propose content so you'll need to make sure you write and package the content in ways that are suitable to the medium, and to the way people behave in that medium.

For a group to be successful, once you integrate it with your branding, you can seed it by inviting existing Facebook friends. Reach out to your email list to grow it and don't be afraid to use news announcements to attract people outside your immediate circle and list. Best advice for creating an application: find a developer.

How do you know if your Facebook fans are truly engaged?

Widget or API

For the less geeky like me, API stands for application program interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

For example, TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR desktop Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn application. Like other Twitter applications it interfaces with the Twitter API to allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles.

You can find plenty of widgets at Widgetbox. Alltop.com and MarketingProfs Daily Mix use widgets to make the content on their sites viewable on other sites.

Video

All I have to say here is Gary Vaynerchuk, and your probably know I'm talking about Wine Library TV. Gary does educational content with panache. You could be doing a short white boarding session, a lively Q&A, or something a little bit shorter and punchy.

The point is to make it interesting, and interactive. More on video, customer interactions, and getting seen.

Live streaming

What an amazing opportunity missed by the Oscars! Imagine what would have happened if they had integrated (that's key) Ustream, Qik to name two, into their program. From the red carpet to the auditorium, they could have curated the content for TV, print, and live stream -- and gained more attendees in the process.

Think about that alternative to WebEx when doing for demos and training. If you're thinking that live streaming may be too complicated, for live events you could be using something like twitterface, the one linked was developed for a recent conference. Check it out.

Newsletters

Use software to do your email marketing. Providers like AWeber and MailChimp have templates you can set up with offers. AWeber has a Twitter integration mechanism, MailChimp has geolocation tools. I would be remiss if I didn't also mention Blue Sky Factory.

They all have tracking and analytics capabilities that will give you information back to give you insights about which content gets more traction, and make your newsletters more compelling.

Mobile apps

Think about making your Web site friendly for mobile, because many more people today have smart phones. The other part of this equation is the numerous apps developed for the iPhone.

A few weeks ago we talked about mobile news. Think about mobile instruction manuals, and other training and reference materials.

Desktop apps

You may think about developing one, like Hulu did. Hulu Desktop is a downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs. From desktop to online, back to desktop, Google is now releasing offline gmail. 

Another example is eBay Desktop.

SlideShare

You can use this tool to share presentations, documents, studies, and package the content in written and video form. With SlideShare, people can view, embed and share your content, and you get to see what they've looked at and downloaded.

SlideShare is a favorite tool of mine because the way it formats presentations -- I love visuals. Scribd is another tool that allows you to share documents online and get them seen.

Blog posts

You can always repackage blog posts into eBooks, especially if you run series. Or you could expand each post into a short eBook to go deeper.

To spread content further, you could also guest post on high traffic blogs. This will allow you to cross network and socialize your content in different and related or pertinent networks.

***

The idea is to create and package content for the medium, while you repurpose the ideas and concepts, stay true to your brand essence, and integrate it all to connect the dots. It's not your Web site that needs to be sticky and keep people there at all costs, it's the content in and around it that does. The more portable you make it, the more spreadable, the stickier.

What else? What do you use to make your content sticky?

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[DJ Waldow]

Valeria:

Ahhh. Sticky content. I love it. I think it's also important to understand what channel works best for you and your intended audience, right?

Thanks for this statement:

"I would be remiss if I didn't also mention Blue Sky Factory."

It made me smile.

See you ... soon?

DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow

[Brian Driggs]

I love the idea of making content shareable through whatever means the user deems prudent, but at the same time, I have a hard enough time keeping up with the goings on with just a blog/Twitter/FB package. I don't want to create profiles on all these platforms, only to provide a poor experience for those communities.

That said, I recently implemented Sociable or something on our sites and through it offer readers the option to share the content across a dozen or so platforms. Of course, we always ask readers to share the content if they enjoyed it at the same time.

I think the analytics will reveal those platforms where the content is being most used/appreciated. We might reach more eyes on Facebook, but if the analytics reveal that more is being discussed on foursquare, well, I guess I'll have to break down and sign up (again).

Gosh. I hope this comment works...

[Angela Daniello]

Valeria, thank you for a great post!

Your Widgetbox link is an exciting resource that I was not aware of. And your thoughts on live streaming and the Oscars is right on. I have read some interesting uses of twitter in the classroom and see that developing presentations in this manner adds dimension and allows for more participation, which leads to more in-depth conversation.

Angela
A Before D
@angeladaniello

[Jon Buscall]

I think it's also important to have the right mindset no matter what you're creating to make your site sticky.

Put your reader in focus, provide answers to the questions they have, serve their needs.

User-centered content makes a site very sticky!

Great post.

[Rich Becker]

Valeria,

Excellent round up of ideas. You might add anything interactive to the list, ranging from polls to whatever else anyone can think up.

As long as they are not used too frequently, it helps people contribute something easily with very little effort or enjoy something within a short span of time.

All my best,
Rich

[Valeria Maltoni]

@DJ - we'll miss you at SxSW. Since we talk about being where your customers are all the time, I thought of getting tactical on tools for once :)

@Brian - that's why you find out where your customers are, and build from there. And yes, it is best to figure out if your customers are actually using those tools by analyzing metrics. I hear you on being on all platforms. I'm trying Gowalla at SxSW and am already going crazy with pop up messages. Interesting though.

@Angela - we learn new things all the time. Glad to have shared something you could use.

@Jon - and not just the site, the whole ecosystem of participation.

@Rich - good thought! Polls are interesting. I used them a few times and just haven't gotten the response I thought I would. This last week, I also implemented the "favorite" button on posts because people where telling me they Wanted to like my posts and not necessarily leave comments. So far, the only hit is my test.

[Sales Training]

Sticky content is a must. Who knows where the slippery content goes! Seriously though, great post. Especially for me, because I strive to keep visitors on my pages! :D

[Scott Moir]

Very informative and comprehensive article!

As your correctly pointed out the Oscars didn't take advantage of this golden opportunity, probably because they are a television biased event. However, Google was streaming live Twitter feeds related to the Oscars under nominated movie names, indidual nominees and other keywords.

Great content!