Content, Relevance, Your Opinion, in Your Voice, not Just another Link

A couple of weeks ago I caught Ray Hiltz's Are You Auto-tuning Your Content Marketing? during my internet travels.  I set it aside after reading it until I could get a chance to watch the panel video, a great discussion with relevant insights for us all. I urge you to take the time to watch it in addition to the takeaways listed.

One of the keys to life in the social media world is to never stop learning how to better play here, providing value and/or insight by keeping things relevant for those with whom you engage.

A few of the points (excerpts below) reminded me of a post I have done now and again that is key but often ignored by so many when they share with others on the web. It's a posting etiquette 'request' I have shared in the past, perhaps too dry for some thereby ignored.  Maybe combined with these insights it will be a more relatable and compelling story for those that tend to share the "Link" without the "Why".

Add something to the conversation - Don’t regurgitate the same content everyone else is sharing. This is both sound SEO and content strategy. Read Eric Enge’s post: The Concept Of Sameness & Why It Should Matter

Tell us why you care and why we should - Don't just Have an opinion that was the reason you shared this with us, Share the opinion as well - this, along with our expectations following you, provides relevance.

Provide Authentic Helpfulness, shared "acoustically" in your own voice - Does your content reflect the real you? Is it consistent with your voice on the web?

From a more negative perspective, sometimes I read the content someone shares and wonder what the message was. Is this because the headline you shared seemed interesting to you but you never bothered to read the content behind it yourself?  If so, that's kind of rude (see definition of Etiquette).  If you can't be bothered to read what you are sharing, why would you ask us to do so?  Think of how many other people's time you are wasting with this behavior.  If this doesn't matter to you, I don't want to be following you.  This is probably not the outcome you were looking for when you posted.

In summary, if you are going to share something, please don't just post a link. Read the content, watch the video, think about why it's relevant to you and your audience and then add a comment so we, your audience knows why you think it's relevant for us as well.