Most social media practitioners would agree that content is King when it comes to engaging and building online communities.  However the challenge is often determining where a company can access a fresh supply of interesting content to keep their social media outreach interesting and relevant?

The smart companies establish a Digital Resource Center where people can access information on a wide variety of valuable topics 24 hours a day. Most companies already have a variety of valuable information scattered throughout their organizations in the form of training videos news releases white papers newsletters etc.  Unfortunately this information is usually housed in various corporate silos within an organization. Much of it was produced for a single purpose (such as a training video or news release) and then languishes in some hidden nook on the company’s website.

One of the first things we do when we develop a social media program for our clients is work with them to create an Information Resource Center that they can use for a variety of marketing purposes.  In many instances our clients didn’t realize all the valuable information they had scattered throughout their organization and how beneficial it is to make it available in one easily accessible source.  After that is accomplished several blog posts Tweets e-mail blasts and marketing messages we create refers readers back to the Resource Center for the specific information they need.

This drives significantly more traffic to their website and makes them aware of a wealth of information they didn’t know previously existed. Typically they will go to the resource center to find information on a specific topic and then end up linking to a variety of other related topics. This also results in higher search engine rankings and more traffic to your website.

Some companies may believe they don’t have enough content to create a Resource Center which is usually not the case. However regardless of how much existing content there is companies also need to reach out to your media and association partners for additional content.  Trade magazines and consumer media associations and other industry partners usually have a wealth of content they are willing to let you share online in return for links back to the source of the information.  You can significantly expand your “content kingdom” by offering videos feature articles white papers and other items from your content-rich partners.  As we all know links to other sites is one of the most effective ways to drive your website traffic.