Leveraging Other People’s Audiences To Create Buzz

January 26th, 2010 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Jordan Cooper | View Comments

The following is a guest post by Jade Craven.

Recently, I did a guest post at Remarkablogger about hustling. Many people seemed to really enjoy it and Jordan asked if I could elaborate on how people can leverage someone else’s audience to create buzz. Now, I’m nowhere near as awesome as him when it comes to the humor stuff. I’m Aussie. My sense of humor is likely to get me mocked. So, I thought I’d make this post incredibly chillaxed instead!

So, what the heck am I on about?

Typically, people write a piece of content and publish it on their own blog. They then rely on their own network to spread the word. If they are feeling desperate, they will beg for attention. That’s when people DM you asking for retweets and will constantly request social media attention just so they can achieve their attention of viral.

That’s fine, but you can achieve a bucketload more success just by popping that baby on someone else’s blog.

Do you know someone in your niche that always seems to get retweeted? Or a topic that causes people to go nuts? If you guest post on that blog, you will be able to tap into that organize network.

This may be a bit geeky for some, but let me explain. If you are lucky, one action can lead to multiple audiences being leveraged. For instance, I do a number of guest posts on Problogger. Each post gets me exposure via a number of methods.

• All posts get delivered via the RSS feed. This is the main method of exposure.
• All posts are delivered to Twitter via Twitterfeed. This can lead to a number of retweets.
• Because more people see it, more people write opinion posts and mention the person that wrote the original article. This puts my name in front of more readers.
• Darren links to each post via his Facebook page. People provide additional comments and ‘likes’ via this platform.

One post can lead to five different groups of people reading your content. These are just the ones I remember while simultaneously watching a very long movie.

Tap into the right audience:

To do this, you have to look at relevant blogs in your niche. You have to:

• Check how much of their content gets retweeted. Read the associated comments and see if particular posts get retweeted more than others.
• See how many comments are on the post. This is the true sign of engagement and is where you can find fans for your own blog.
• See where else they promote their blog.

This can give you a fair idea of the potential for that post to spread organically.

You then have to check out what type of content does really well via that network. I’ve found that there are two things that influence this. The first is the viral potential of the headline. I still suck at this – you’re better off going to Copyblogger.

The second factor is how awesome the content is. Now, if you’re working your arse off like many of us you will already have a good eye for picking out the content that rocks the blogosphere. Figure out ways to replicate that.

What do you do if the post goes viral?

Let’s say, your unpolished guest post about 30 Bloggers to Watch in 2010 gets published and goes viral while you’re sleeping. What do you do then?

Firstly, you pay attention to the comment section. Encourage people to contribute to the discussion and respectfully deal with those who are picking fights. Sometimes it’s just a reflection of how much they value the community.

Second, you head straight onto Twitter. Don’t just look for straight out retweets. Look for keywords relating to that post, your name. If someone sounds like they really engaged with your content, follow them. Send a nice DM or @reply and invite them to engage with you elsewhere.

If you are respectful and give back to the community, they are likely to help you out when they see your name pop up again.

Over to you!

I’ve had so much success by leveraging other peoples’ audiences. And, while it sounds totally icky, it’s really not. I provide free content and the opportunity to earn cash in return for getting some exposure. It’s a win/win situation and gives you the opportunity to learn a lot quicker.

I understand that you may still have questions. That’s cool. Leave them in the comments and I’ll help you out.

Jade Craven is passionate about helping small businesses and solopreneurs create social media strategies that resonate with their customers. Visit her blog as she shares her stories. Jade is a guest posting ninja on many of the top blogs, so it’s an absolute pleasure to have her stop by today!