According to the popular Content Marketing Institute 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing. If you are leveraging Content Marketing to generate traffic you understand there are some challenges. To be successful you must understand the basic principles. Say you make it past the first hurdle and you are creating great content. Give yourself a pat on the back, you can check one thing off your list. However, that is just the beginning, in order for your plan to work you must have a promotion strategy for that content or no one will ever see your fabulous content. We have outlined some helpful steps to boost your Content Marketing Strategy with Social Media.

If you look at anyone that succeeds in content marketing they all have the right combination of content and promotion. Most will quote the formula of 20% content creation and 80% promotion. Everyone mentions the fact that you must promote your content but where should you start if you have never done this before? How do you take it to the next level if you have had a little experience?

#1 Look For Social Proof Before You Write!

Create great relevant content, if you do not start with the right content no amount of promotion will lead to a successful endeavor. Look for social proof before you write a word! Finding topics that are popular to begin with will make your job a lot easier. Establish your keywords  carefully, looking for trending topics that you can incorporate into your headlines and titles.

Research Tools

Topsy is a great way to see how much activity has been created involving your keywords. I like to use the Social Search feature to show details of who is talking about the topic and the Social Analytics feature to see how many Tweets per day. You want to look for topics that are trending.

Buzzsumo is a great way to see social shares in one place. In this example we have used “Social Media” and “Content Marketing” to see if our topic has received many shares. I always like to use the Filter by Date: option to limit the results to more recent articles.

You can also see where the content has been shared. You can use this information in the next step “Choose the Right Social Platform”. This will help to focus your efforts  on where to to share your content when you publish.

#2 Choose the Right Social Platform

For starters we will take a look at some social media options. Social media gives you many options to choose from and your choice in where to devote your time should be based upon your audience. The key here is about reach, how many people in your target audience can you reach with each platform and which platform your type of content has previously been shared on.

#3 Promote Your Own Content

Use your own network to begin your content distribution focusing on networks that you have the greatest engagement. This usually includes Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Utilize some useful tools that can help you schedule your posts such as BufferApp, Hootsuite and Post Planner which is great for organizing your Facebook posts.

Leverage LinkedIn Groups to share your content. Begin by joining groups within your niche and be sure to follow the rules on what type of content you can share.

#4 Reach the Right Influencers to Help You

Say you have 1000 followers on Twitter and every time you share a blog post you get a few clicks. Now think of the influencer in your niche that has 100,000 followers and imagine how many clicks you could get if that influencer were sharing your post!

Your first order of business is to identify your target list of influencers. I like to create a Twitter list to make it easier to track those I think may be a good fit. Once you have created your list it is important to gain their attention on their turf. If they have a blog be sure to subscribe to their newsletters and feeds.

Be sure to engage with them in their favorite setting. If they prefer Google+ begin with a +1 and comment their post. When sharing their content be sure to personalize your post with more than just a generic post. On Twitter be sure to retweet, favorite and toss in a mention here and there.

#5 Boost Your Traffic With Some Paid Promotions

There is no golden rule that says you can’t buy a little traffic to spread the word! This does not mean you have to spend thousands of dollars promoting a blog post. There are some very economical solutions that can give you just enough of a boost to get the ball rolling.

If your content is really good the people you reach with your paid promotions will also share your content which can really pay off in the long run.

Use Twitter to promote posts containing your keywords using Interests and Followers filters. This is a great way to increase your traffic as well as your followers.

Take advantage of Facebook boost posts or promoted posts to increase your exposure since most Facebook users have experienced a decrease in organic reach.

Creating a small mix of paid social campaigns from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in addition to your own sharing can give you the full coverage that will drive traffic.