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4 Content Marketing Boosters

I find it very interesting that "content marketing" seems to be an issue.

If I was a Internet Manager for a Ford dealership, my content would come from Ford's Facebook, Twitter & Instragram pages.

When you "like" a page and follow a Facebook page like Ford (or any company), Ford is going to send content to your timeline. If the admin finds the content on the time line interesting or humorous, they can share with their fans. Your fans will trust content being created by Ford Motor Corp.

Coincidentally, I'll bet that people who like and follow Ford Facebook pages are Ford owners.

Just a thought.

Dan O'
 
Content Marketing is the process of creating content that gets Visits, Shares, Likes, Tweets or Links. Typically, the one that gets the most benefit from great content is the person who posted it first. Here's an example of the most successful pieces of content for links: 10 Extraordinary Examples of Effective Link Bait - Moz

Typically, Ford posts industry news. What's new with their vehicles, etc. Reposting this content most likely won't generate page level, not account level, links, shares and likes. In fact, if you use the same exact content you could run into issues with duplicate content (Google Panda). If you just post the link that Ford posted you won't be driving traffic back to your site, and your competitors will gladly steal your post.

As for what actually drives links in the automotive world, no one will probably give out their secrets. It's a competitive landscape for vendors and dealers alike.
 
Ford has many Facebook pages & the content being shared is much more than industry news.

They have over 6 million fans for Ford Mustang alone. Ford Fusion has over 400K fans.

Not only are they fans, but many are probably Ford owners looking to keep up with current updates.

What I have suggested works. No issues, no "most likely". It works.
 
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What I have suggested works. No issues, no "most likely". It works.

My goal isn't a pissing match, just a clarification of content marketing. Again, the goals of any content marketing campaign are:

Traffic to your website
Email Subscriptions (Not typically relevant in the auto industry)
Likes on the page level of your website
Shares on the page level of your website
Links to your website

The metrics people measure are immediate traffic, and anything that can potentially lead to traffic in the future (known and assumed SEO factors). With that in mind, copying articles from Ford, and posting that same exact article on your blog would put you into the duplicate content realm. Google has several algorithms that look for this style of spam, and will either penalize the website or ignore the article.

So, copying articles from Ford to your Blog is not a sustainable solution for continued content marketing success. You are a Marketing Consultant, so I have no idea which website you have been successfully generated website page level Likes, Shares, Links or traffic. Sharing articles from Ford on your Facebook does lead to an increase in Facebook likes. I'm pretty sure that's what you are referring to. However, that does not generate traffic or increase your websites authority, the crutch of a successful content marketing campaign.

A good example of this would be Elliot Hulse (Lots of cruse words): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkVOlnoIJ_o

The intent of his content marketing is to sell is workout programs. He gives out free and helpful info on Youtube, and then pushes people to visit his website in the descriptions. He then works to convert these people to his email list to push his workout programs. Over his 3 Youtube Channels, split up to target specific demographics, he has over 1,000,000 subscribers.
 
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Sorry for the comment.

I managed a Facebook page for a few Charities & even a Piano Store. My experience comes from being administrator and learning social media marketing from multiple sources. John Haydon is one of those sources. http://www.johnhaydon.com/

Putting a video on Youtube makes sense because Youtube always has the highest organic ranking.

"Sharing articles from Ford on your Facebook does lead to an increase in Facebook likes. I'm pretty sure that's what you are referring to. However, that does not generate traffic or increase your websites authority, the crutch of a successful content marketing campaign."

Companies are paying money to get Facebook fans (likes). To say that Facebook "does not generate traffic or increase your website authority" is kind of contradicting why a businesses would pay for a fan.

If you share and interact with content that Ford shares, that is what Ford is hoping for.
 
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To say that Facebook "does not generate traffic or increase your website authority" is kind of contradicting why businesses pay for "likes" ( fans ).

If you share and interact with content that Ford shares, that is what Ford is hoping for. Shares are more viral than likes and comments.

Website authority is a combination of trust factors that the search engines utilize to determine part of your ranking ability. Since Facebook purposely messes with Google's bots, it's hard for them to get much data from a Facebook page. Getting page level stats is much easier thanks to the plugins / tools people use to show the share / like metrics. That's why it's assumed that your page level social metrics are utilized in the ranking algorithm, even though Google denies it.

As for traffic, I meant direct traffic generated from the articles you write. If you send me a PM I can send you some examples of content that has generated 200+ organic visits, and more from social media. It's literally something you could start doing today, and it can be beneficial to your clients.


So there has to be value in getting likes.

We both know that the number of likes don't matter much if there isn't the interaction. The ideal use of social media is to create your own community. Creating a community takes a specific skill set, and the ability to constantly critique what you are utilizing to engage with your community. If you can do all that with your social media you are doing an awesome job. If you are just gaining likes, and no new interactions, then you aren't getting the most you can out of your community.

Social Media Marketing is a slightly different subject, though. They are both part of "Inbound Marketing," and often work hand in hand. There's just parts where they don't overlap.

Copying articles word for word from Ford onto your own blog will eventually lead to you getting hit with a Panda or Manual penalty by Google. They are still valuable to your Facebook community.
 
My goal isn't a pissing match, just a clarification of content marketing. Again, the goals of any content marketing campaign are:

Traffic to your website
Email Subscriptions (Not typically relevant in the auto industry)
Likes on the page level of your website
Shares on the page level of your website
Links to your website


Agree with everything but...

What about content for the sake of actually telling people what we do? No SEO, no traffic, etc.

A Ford dealer argued with me that we built a piece of content about lifted trucks and he claims he doesn't sell lifted trucks, however new Fords can be ordered in several different lift sizes, some business applications may require to lift a new trucks, etc.

We are the enemy of our own content.

Customers don't know what we do or what we sell for the most part and we don't tell them in our sites.

I encourage every dealer to start adding content just to explain what they do. Internally I pushed SEO for a long time, so I'm the first to be at fault.
 
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I definitely think SEO / Traffic first, as you stated. I've recently started suggesting adding How To's and general information articles as well (when to change brakes, etc.). Information like this can be a great way to interact with your visitors, and generate additional eyeballs on your website. People reading these aren't in the market today, but if you make a big enough impact they may remember you the next time.

They are also more likely to be shared than a piece of sales copy.

That's funny that you mentioned the lift kits. I've been hitting clients up about creating videos about these forever, and no one seems to want to. Same goes for different combinations of accessories.