85 Content Distribution Tips To Reach Your Largest Audience

If you want to see the benefits of content marketing, then you need to embrace two things.

The first is creating great content. We all know this. It’s why 77% of marketers increased their content marketing budget between 2014 and 2015.

The second thing you need to do is something that most people overlook.

It’s the act of distribution.

Content distribution is an important piece of the content marketing puzzle but one that is often overlooked. Too many marketers press publish and expect that that magically the content will take off. It doesn’t work that way.

Unless you’ve built a following that is engaged and waiting for your next piece – you have to put in a bit of elbow grease and spread your content. In this blog post, I’m going to share more than 80 different tactics that you can use to make your content spread.

Let’s get to it…

Facebook

1.  Share the content on your company Facebook page. Be sure to mention any of the brands that are included to increase the likelihood of showing up in your followers feeds.
2. Share the content on your personal account but make sure your privacy settings are set to public rather than private or just friends.
3. Use Facebook advertising to distribute the content to a broader audience than your page would likely reach. Target an audience that is more likely to share the content and drive virality of the post.
4. Join Facebook groups and share the content you've developed in them as soon as it's published.
5.  Comment in Facebook groups when people ask about topics that you've written about and link back to your resources. Be sure to add value before sending them to your content.
6. Use retargeting display or Facebook ads to connect with your mailing list. Upload your list and you can target these individuals.
7. Reach out to a few of your closest friends on Facebook and ask them if they'd mind sharing the content.
8. Create a Note or Instant Article on Facebook that drives to the content you’ve developed or is a repurposed version of the content.
9. Pin the content to the top of your Facebook page.

Snapchat

10. Did you know that Snapchat users who scan a QR code can be taken to a URL? Share a QR code and tell people to snap it to learn more about a specific topic or watch a new video.
11. Leverage your Snapchat following to drive traffic to your site. Send a snap directly to your connections telling them to check out your latest and that you'd love their feedback.
12.  Share a video to your story telling people what your content is about and tell them how to find it.
13.  Create a Snapstorm (multiple snaps one after another) that talks about a portion of your content but tells users that if they want to learn more they have to check out the actual piece of content online. Tell them to screenshot the next snap for the URL.
14.  Send one-to-one Snapchat DMs asking people to check out your latest.
15.  Send one-to-one Snapchat DMs asking people to give you an upvote on one of the various sites you    submitted your content to.

Instagram

16.   Share a post on Instagram that tells your followers to click the link in your bio which happens to be   a link to your content.
17.  Run paid advertising on Instagram driving users to see your content.
18.  Hire influencers on Instagram who have an audience that lines up with your target audience for this content to promote it. The influencers must change the URL in their bio and put up a picture telling their followers to check out your content.
19. Find people that are using hashtags that are relevant to you and comment on their content. For example, if you've created a post about Getting Started With Yoga – search the hashtag #YogaEveryday and comment with a compliment and call to action.

Email Marketing

20. Send out a link to your mailing list telling them that this is your latest piece of content.
21. Reach out to someone who has a large mailing list and ask them if they would be interested in sharing your article with their audience.
22. Sponsor an industry newsletter to have your content featured within it.
23. Build a newsletter and include your own content within the newsletter that you're using to share links about a specific topic.
24. Update your signature for the week to include a reference to your latest article saying: “Check out my latest: [Content name here]”
25. Reach out to influencers who you mention in your blog post and let them know that you've referenced their work.

Twitter

26. Share your content on Twitter so your followers are aware of it. Be sure to use hashtags that are relevant and frequently used by your target audience to drive increased reach.
27.  Retweet posts from users who are sharing your content on their own Twitter accounts.
28.  Leverage content curation for all its worth. Use a tool like Crate to find and curate content but mix this new piece of content into the batch so it doesn't seem like you're only sharing your own content.
29.  Respond to people who are sharing other pieces of content you have created and let them know that they might enjoy your latest as well.
30. Instead of Tweeting once and never coming back to that post again – bump your tweets by replying to the initial tweet, deleting the mention of your name and sharing a relevant tweet below it. That tweet will automatically bump the original tweet back into your followers' news feed.
31.  Tweet links to your content on more than one content platform. For example, if you've uploaded the content to Inbound.org and Medium – include both links in one tweet so your most passionate fans can like & upvote.
32.  Mention the influencers who you included in the content on Twitter. It's possible that they'll RT the content.
33.  Create imagery with quotes of the influencers in the content and tag them in the photos shared on Twitter. It's possible that they'll retweet the content.
34.  Send direct messages to a few of your followers letting them know you just wrote a post they might be interested in. Include a link to the tweet.
35.  Get involved with industry specific or content relevant Twitter Chats and take part in the dialog. After delivering value to the people taking part in the chat, share a link to your content when it makes sense.
36. Use Socedo to find people who are tweeting about things that are related to your content and automatically follow, like and DM them your content when they follow you back on Twitter.
37.  Pin the content to the top of your Twitter account. Pinning posts to your profile ensure that organic visits to your accounts see priority content.

Reddit

38. Identify a Subreddit that is relevant to your audience and the content you've created. Upon finding the right subreddit, submit a link to your content.
39. Similar to the last point, find the appropriate subreddit but this time, focus on crafting a more content rich post and linking to your content within it.
40. Comment in a discussion happening in a relevant Subreddit and link back to your content.
41. Turn one of the quotes from your article into an image and upload it to a Subreddit as a visual element. Include the URL to your content within the visual.

Hackernews

42. Submit your content to the Hackernews community if you're writing something related to technology, entrepreneurship or startups.
43. Engage in a conversation that is related to your content and reference it when appropriate.

Niche Online Communities (Forums)

44.  Submit content to these communities if you're crafting content about marketing.
45.  Answer questions on these questions and link back to your own articles where appropriate.
46.  If the forum allows, use your signature to promote your content.

Note: Benjamin Brandall of Process street created a great post on leveraging bookmarking sites like these to drive traffic.

Imgur

47. Republish your content to Imgur as a long-form piece of content filled with images and captions.
48. Create a piece of content on Imgur that is unique and compelling. Include a link back to your other content sources throughout the text.

Sponsored Content

49. Leverage sites like Outbrain or Taboola to distribute your content at the bottom of popular sites in the Suggested Stories or Recommended Content section directly above the comments. Contently wrote a great piece on the different sponsored content opportunities.
50.  Conduct full page advertising on channels like StumbleUpon.

Blogging

51. Write a blog post for another site and reference your content within the new piece. Concluding with a call to action telling readers to check out a specific piece of content increases the likelihood of conversion.
52. Comment on the blogs where your audience spends time and provide value to the audience. Include links to your content within the comments if possible.
53. Establish a syndicate relationship with media sites that have a quality audience but republish content through syndication.
54. Create a round-up post and include your content within that post. For example, if you write a blog post about the ultimate guide to content curation and created a deck on the topic – include your own post.
55. Comment on the posts of someone who wrote on a similar topic on Medium and reference you content.
56. Republish your content to Tumblr. If you don't have an already well-established account it might be challenging to spread.
57. Republish the content on a larger media companies website. Reference the original post in the conclusion but leverage their existing audience to arm you with extended reach.

Slideshare

58.  If you created a blog post, turn it into a Slideshare presentation.
59.  Once you have a Slideshare presentation developed, chop and skew the Slides before uploading them to Medium with a bit of written context surrounding the slides and story. Here’s an example from Sarah Tavel.
60. Do the same thing on LinkedIn.
61. Use the Slides on Slideshare as visual support when you answer questions on Quora. Like I did with this post about content marketing tips.
62. Use the Slides as visual support for a short video presentation that highlights the key points in your content.
63. Use the Slides as visual support for a webinar. Use the various tactics within this blog post to share the fact that you're going to be doing a webinar.
64. Creating a Clipping on Slideshare that includes content from the content you turned into a Slideshare.

LinkedIn

65. Share a status update about the content. Tag the influencers who you mentioned in the content within your status update or spread it out over the week so there are multiple posts.
66.  Write a blog post on LinkedIn that drives readers back to your content. It will give a notification to the majority of your connections so they see the activity surrounding the post.
67.  Share your content within niche communities and groups on LinkedIn that is relevant to your content. Jason Quey wrote a great post on this tactic.
68.  Export the emails of your contacts on LinkedIn and reach out to them so they're aware that you just created a new piece of content and you think they might be interested in it.
69.  Export the emails of your contacts on LinkedIn and run ads using Facebook custom audiences that tell them to check out your latest piece of content.
70. Run advertising on LinkedIn from your company page driving users to click and read your content.

Pinterest

71.  Create a board all about the content you've published and pin the content there.
72.  Request access to post to highly active and engaged Pinterest boards and pin your content to the ones that are relevant.
73.  Search for the names of people who have a large following on Pinterest, reach out to them to see if they're interested in the content you have created. If they enjoy the content, they may pin it to their board.

Other Resources

74.  Upload your content to Scoop.it and share it to communities that are relevant to your audience.
75.  Leverage Startafire as a way to drive users to your content even though you're curating and distributing content from other sources.
76.  The website Triberr is a digital marketer's dream. It's a community of bloggers and writers who read and share content with individuals with similar interests.
77.  HARO is built for journalists and people who have an interesting story to tell. Each day, HARO will send out a list of topics and questions that may or may not be relevant to you. If you find a story that is relevant to a piece of content you've developed, write a thoughtful response and include a link to your content in it.
78. Quuu and Upflow are sites that let marketers distribute their content through the social accounts of their users
79.  Go on relevant podcasts and promote your content as a part of the interview. Interviewers often give you a chance to plug something – plug the content that you’re looking to distribute.
80. Take part in Online Summits and promote your content at the end of your interview or presentation.

Content Optimization

81. Make sure that it's easy for people to share your social content with the click of a button. Use social media share bars that allow the reader to share to the network of their choice. Share This and Shareaholic are two great resources.
82. Create a Social Locker for your content. Meaning, the content can only be consumed if a user likes, tweets or shares.
83. Create a handful of tweetables within the text that allow people to tweet with the click of a button. Use a tool like ClickToTweet to make trackable and tweetable pieces of text.
84. On the right hand side of your website, create a place for “Popular Posts” and link to this piece of content so organic traffic can find it while on your website.
85. On your “About Us” page – Create a section that links to your most popular or favourite pieces of content. Include this piece of content.

So there you have it – 85 different tactics that you can use to distribute your content more effectively. At first glance, it might seem like a lot of work but these are tactics that will help you connect with more people and drive meaningful results from the content that you’re developing.

Wondering why content distribution is so important? Check out this deck:

About Author

Kim Garst

Kim Garst is a renowned marketing strategist and speaker who is trailblazing the use of artificial intelligence in digital marketing. With over 30 years of experience as an online entrepreneur, Kim helps entrepreneurs grow their business and authority online by using AI technology. She is leading the way with proven AI frameworks that help entrepreneurs build authority in their space.

She is keynote speaker and an international best-selling author of Will The Real You Please Stand Up, Show Up, Be Authentic and Prosper in Social Media.

Named by Forbes as a Top 10 Social Media Power Influencer, Kim is well-known for her skill to simplify complex technology and make the use of AI understandable for business growth. Her relatable, actionable advice helps guide new entrepreneurs to harness the power of AI to succeed in digital marketing. Kim is leading the way in combining human and technological skills to create a new model for AI-powered marketing.

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