As busy marketers we are often looking for resources that help us work smarter, not harder.
Enter Buzzsumo. I discovered this nifty little app earlier this week and I’m so impressed at the opportunity it presents for my Content Marketing strategy.
Buzzsumo essentially provides insights into the most popular content online and the influencers sharing it. Let me take you on a quick tour before heading on to the ways you can use Buzzsumo to guide your content marketing strategy.
Head on over to Buzzsumo and sign up.
Search bar: You'll start your search here by entering 1 - 2 keywords that are likely to appear in the titles of content related to your industry. You're also able to search by domain or subdomain.
Content type: You can refine the type of content to search by checking or unchecking boxes. Options include articles, infographics, videos, guest posts, giveaways and interviews.
Date filter: Refine results based on time published. Select from past 24 hours, week, month or 6 months.
Social shares: To the right of your result will be the number of shares per network. This includes Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as well as a total shares column. You can sort your results by clicking on individual networks.
URL: You can click through to the content by clicking on the URL in the listing.
Part of our job is to keep an eye on our industry trends and what content is trending. Buzzsumo makes this incredibly simple.
Type in the topic you’re interested in and hit search. You can refine your search to include only certain content types or apply time ranges. The results will show ‘hot’ content based on the total number of shares across the main social platforms.
These results present a number of opportunities related to your content, namely:
Content insights: Identify the content quality and format of content that is proving successful in your niche.
Article research: Ensure that your approach to a particular topic is unique and of interest. You can also use results as part of your content research.
Headline analysis: Examine the format and wording of headlines that are gaining popularity. Use this as a guide when crafting your headline.
Content curation: Find popular videos, infographics or articles to share with your audience.
Competitor tracking: Using the domain search function will uncover your competitor’s content. This can provide insight into what content is working well for them.
Reach is key in content marketing. In order to reach more prospects you need influencers to share out your content. But finding and researching industry influencers can be tough. Well, not anymore. In Buzzsumo, simply switch to the influencer tab and do a search. The results will provide you with a list of 'top sharers' for the topic at hand. You can see their Twitter handle and website as well as their levels of engagement. This is fantastic insight and information, allowing you to connect with influencers in your niche.
Buzzsumo offers a 7-day free trial, so go check it out!
Do you have any favourite tools or apps that help you work smarter? Feel free to share in the comments.