by RushPRNews editorial team
For months now, perhaps even years, website owners and content creators have been slowly killing off their websites with poor content. This could include you. You may not know you are doing it, but your content could be slowly degrading and cheapening your website, and consequently your company and its brand. You could have the best writers in your field churning out article after article and blog post after blog post, but the slow and silent expiration of your Web presence will continue on and on. Why? Because you are not influencing anyone.
Influence has gradually become the Holy Grail of web content. If you can influence readers you will have readers for life, and that readership will grow quickly and massively. You have influence if what you are writing about is quoted, shared and generally loved. For some people, influence comes naturally. But since we don’t all happen to be Justin Bieber, or more appropriately, Guy Kawasaki, we have to work a little harder to grab a piece of that influence pie. In this article, we will give you a few pointers that should help you develop your influence in your field. It takes time, but put the effort in, and you should find that you begin to be seen as an authority that people can trust. And most importantly, they will read what you write.
Your first step is to check out the sites of your competitors and see what they are giving their readership. You should then be inspired enough to create your own spin on their work, and therefore create content that is unique and engaging, but also that you know is interesting readers. Therein begins influence, because you are creating high quality content that means something to people.
Give them what they want
Then, ensure that your writing is about what readers want to read, not what you want to write about. Readers don’t care about your company, believe it or not. They don’t care about your products, at least not until they are ready to buy. They care about your expertise and your knowledge. More specifically, they care about whether or not you can actually help them with a problem they have. So your content has to work towards being an influence by giving concrete and practical advice and insight into the problems the customer has. Nothing else.
Find your niche – that is so important! Don’t waste your time trying to be everything to everybody. Write about what you know best and share the knowledge. Niche writing is key. If you are a prostate cancer specialist, share THAT knowledge, if your niche is music, be musical! RushPRnews knows about public relations, so we write about PR.
Our last piece of advice is about ownership! Ensure that you know where you are starting to build influence and know how you are using the places you build on. Of course, your Facebook account and your Twitter timeline are important! But don’t invest the biggest amount of time to build up authority on these. Your opinions should not be spread about on these platforms, simply because you do not own these platforms. Twitter can shut you down, spread your ideas without letting you know, and so on. True ownership and true influence comes from readers getting to you through Twitter and other platforms, and going to your website, which should be the ‘hub’ of your influence. Be careful what you put out there when the platform is not your own.
Remember news is newsworthy, so do include your press releases and others, too!
While it is tempting to treat your website like one big newsroom, sending out missives every minute and hoping to be found, the true way toward influence is to spread good ideas, and help people. The influence will follow.
