Writing – whether it’s blogs, newsletters or longer pieces of content – is the smartest way to spread the word about what you do. However, getting down to the act of writing is difficult if you’re running your own business. It’s impossible to just drop everything and focus on writing alone – there’s so much else that needs your attention. Even when you do get the time, suddenly other things seem more pressing. Should I check my email? Tidy my desk? Have a cup of coffee?

Here are some things that help get writing done:

1. Think of the bigger picture.

The words you are writing are part of your big marketing plan.  An easy small step in the right direction, not a huge unsurmountable hurdle. Get it into proportion and it won’t feel as hard.

2. Stop wasting time shivering on the edge, just leap in!

Open your computer, don’t turn on Twitter, don’t look at Facebook, don’t open email, just start writing. Once you start, you’ll get into the flow.

3. The sooner you start the sooner you finish.

Anticipate the end. Once you’ve done it, it’s done, and it won’t have to be done again. Get on with it!

4. Promise yourself a treat.

It works for small children and for grown ups too. 400 words and I can go for a walk/have a cake/make that phone call.

5. Remove yourself.

Write somewhere different, away from the distractions of your usual working day. A quiet meeting room, a café, a library, even a different desk.

6. Make a commitment.

Deadlines work, (it’s the only way we ever get our writing done!)

7. Carve out some real time, and protect it from other demands.

Five minutes a day to record your ideas in a blog diary, half an hour to plan a blog (and write one too, once you’re really up and running), an hour and a half to write something that addresses the question that keeps coming up, and get it up on your website.

Writing really will make all the difference to your business, so set aside the time, and keep to it.  What works for you? We’d love to know.

Other writing articles you might like:

• How to find stuff to write about
• Stop, look, EDIT. 5 things to check before you press publish
• How to write a good enough article

In the course of writing our book we have spoken to many experts and businesses who know how to make marketing work. Large and small, here in the UK and around the world, we found people getting great results by making their marketing genuinely valuable to their type of clients or customers. We thought you might like to hear some of the best advice we found. So without further ado, here are ten valuable tips for your marketing and content.

On marketing strategy

1. From David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of PR and Marketing www.webinknow.com:

“Don’t be egotistical. Nobody cares about your products and services (except you). What people care about are themselves and solving their problems.”

2. From Andrea P. Howe, BossaNova Consulting Group, co-author ofThe Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust:

“Give content freely, with generosity. If you’re concerned about giving away too much or you’re otherwise holding back in any way, worry less and give more. The spirit with which something is offered matters as much as the ‘something.’ And while your value includes your content, it definitely doesn’t stop there. The ones who are interested will see that and want it all.”

3. From Bryony Thomas, marketing strategist and author of Watertight Marketing:

“Effective marketing is about drawing people into a dialogue about their needs, and then showing how you can meet them. If you have a steady stream of interesting and useful content, you always have something to talk about.”

4. From Brian Inkster, Inkster’s Solicitors:

“Cast your net wider by publishing your knowledge, our expertise and achievements online. You never know who might be searching for the specific assistance you can provide.”

On creating quality content

5. From Mark O’Brien, President of Newfangled and author of A Website That Works:

“When considering creating on-site web content for your customers, be sure to know what sort of client you’re trying to attract, know what they are struggling with, and why they might hire you. Once you’ve figured that out, share your expertise generously.”

6. From Paul Simister, www.differentiateyourbusiness.co.uk:

“Valuable content to attract potential customers needs to be a triple punch that leaves the prospect wanting “more, more, more”. It needs to be keyword driven to attract, curiosity based to encourage email opt-ins and relevant, practical and interesting to build the relationship.”

7. From Richard Gauder, CMS Web Solutions Inc.:

“My thoughts about content: create quality over quantity and make sure it is personal and practical for your audience. Anything else wastes a person’s time and is spam.”

8. From Heather Townsend, author of The Financial Times Guide To Business Networking:

“Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes to help you decide what sort of content they would find valuable. Don’t just make it up, ask them -  what information would they appreciate?”

On writing

9. From Mel Lester, The Business Edge:

“If your in-house experts struggle to write then have someone else interview them to produce valuable content. Sharing the credit doesn’t diminish the reputations of your experts.”

10. From James Chapman, Development Done Right:

“Don’t be afraid of not knowing enough. Remember, your bread and butter is someone else’s rocket science. Keep it simple and relevant to your audience.”

We are hugely grateful to all those who contributed their ideas and stories for the Valuable Content Marketing book. More valuable tips from the book coming soon. Next month – quick tips for your website, blog and social media.

No doubt about it: focusing your marketing efforts on sharing valuable content will transform your business development capability, but it delivers wider business benefits too.

Here is a story of how a valuable approach to marketing has helped one company to achieve sustainable business success.

Top Consultant’s valuable content tale

Top Consultant is a specialist careers website offering jobs in management consulting and Internet consulting. Since its inception in 2000 the company has built its business by sharing valuable content that people in the consulting sector and consultancy recruitment industry find compelling.

Top Consultant has become a hub of industry news, thought leadership and research, producing popular up-to-the-minute reports such as its annual Salary Benchmarking Report – a comprehensive study of remuneration levels within the consulting sector. All this content is free on their website and distributed via their monthly e-newsletter and active social media feeds. It is just what their audience wants, helping to generate around 125,000 monthly unique visitors to their site – 100,000 of whom are subscribed to their e-newsletter.

Top Consultant’s business development model brings in the sales they need but it has wider business benefit too. Contrast this with business development at another, more traditional niche job board and you will see the difference that ‘being valuable’ can make.

Top Consultant’s business development model

• Focus on: Sharing valuable content motivates inbound leads
• No need for outbound sales team
• No expensive commission structure
• Low turnover of staff
• Business is resilient to anyone leaving
• Excellent client retention

Traditional job board business development model

• Focus on: Outbound sales to drive advertising take up
• 30-40 telesales people
• Large commissions to motivate performance
• High turnover of staff
• Drop in business when a good sales person leaves
• Poor client retention

As you can see, a focus on leading with valuable content has made all the different to Top Consultant. It has helped to create a healthy, happy business.

Top tip from Top Consultant:

Deliver content that is either unique, more engaging, more timely or more conveniently delivered than your competition. Businesses that get success from their content do at least one of these things really well.

Tony Restell, MD of Top Consultant www.top-consultant.com and Founder of www.Social-Hire.com @tonyrestell

Congratulations Top Consultant. You win win a Valuable Content Award!

Related posts:

• How Conscious Solutions uses valuable content for sales success
• Learn from Mel Lester: winner of gold valuable content award for 2011
• Yoke Design: from launch to ideal clients in six weeks

Let’s be clear about what we are talking about here. ‘Content’ is the words on the page you are reading. It’s the copy on your website, the Tweet you posted last night, the videos and images you share. When we’re talking about content, we just mean words, knowledge, and information.

Valuable content is supercharged content. It is content with a bigger purpose; useful information created for a particular audience; content that hits the mark. By valuable content we mean the words, knowledge and information you choose to shape and share for your clients and customers: content that educates, helps or inspires them. Content they appreciate.

Like beauty, the value of a piece of content is in the eye of the beholder. What is valuable to me isn’t necessarily valuable to you. Here is some of content that I find valuable.

My valuable content

It’s Monday morning. I sit at my desk with a packed week ahead. I open up Outlook and face the usual deluge of emails. I delete about 30 of them straight off (starting with the spammy ones I don’t know and didn’t ask for), but there are a few emails I always look out for:

• The niche newsletter from Recourses for marketing services firms like mine which consistently gives me good ideas on how to run my business better.
• The timely ‘Monday Morning Wave’ email from Surfers Path magazine, with a stunning surf photo and links to videos on their site.
• Swimtrek’s monthly missive about wild swimming, with tips on swim technique, photos of gorgeous places to swim and upcoming events I can join.
• Copyblogger’s superbly written articles on writing and marketing on the web.

I valued the content on these companies’ websites enough to sign up for their email updates in the first place; and I read them, even look forward to them despite the pressures on my time.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m fully aware that all these companies are trying to sell me something.

• Surfers Path want me to keep buying their magazine (and I do).
• David Baker of Recourses has a few books he could sell me (I have got most of them).
• Swimtrek wants to encourage me to take up one of their swimming holidays (I have and will again).
• And Copyblogger wants me to spread the word, and sign up for more of their services.

But the content these companies share on their websites, in their emails, across social media doesn’t major on the hard sell. Their marketing all starts from the premise of delivering valuable information to me, their kind of customer. They understand their customers well enough to know exactly what type of information we appreciate, and they focus their marketing communications on generously sharing their knowledge. Their marketing majors on delivering high quality educational, informative and entertaining content – the kind that customers like me really appreciate, and it gets results.

Making your content valuable

Valuable content is at the heart of all successful marketing today. If you want results for your business, take a leaf out of the books of the companies listed above. Here is a quick guide to help you ensure the content you create hits the spot with your clients and customers.

Create content that is:

• Useful – educational, informative or entertaining.
• Focused – relevant, timely and meaningful to its target audience.
• Clear and compelling – telling a story that people understand & respond to.
• High quality – interesting, well produced, with substance.
• Genuine – written from the heart by people who care.

In any combination, these attributes form just the kind of content that gets read, shared and acted upon. Businesses that really win with their marketing exhibit all these qualities across the variety of content they put out there.

What content hits the spot for you? I’d love to know. And most importantly, what content would your customers really value?

Related articles:

• Are you content with the word ‘content’?
• What makes quality content?
• How valuable content will help you to grow your business

Creating the kind of content that your customers are looking for is the best way of raising your profile and winning more business, but knowing exactly what to write about can feel like a hurdle.  How can your make your valuable content hit the mark?

Five ways to get your content on target

1) Listen. What kind of questions do clients ask you? This blog post was prompted like that. People are always asking us ‘but what can I write about?’ so we’re confident this post is going to find a readership of people who are thinking about their marketing, who may want help from us at some time, or who would be happy to refer us people who know useful stuff about content.

• Keep a notebook. Jot down the questions you’re asked. Answer them with 5 bullet points. Each question will form the basis of a short blog post.

2) Research. What are the big questions in your market? A quick jaunt around the relevant LinkedIn groups, or the liveliest forum in your industry will show you the issues that are raising a stir. Look at upcoming conferences – what are the speaker topics?

• Pick the topic that catches your eye. Draft a simple Q and A blog post that deals with the topic from the point of view of your customers. Don’t worry about being a ‘thought leader’ (you don’t have to give the lecture!) Write about the subject as if you were explaining its relevance to a favourite client. What would they want to know about it?

3) Interview. Uncover your inner journalist and interview a client, an expert from your team, or someone in your industry that you admire. Ask them the questions your clients would ask you.

• Use the interview as a podcast on your website, or the edited transcript as the basis for a blog post. Or two.

4) Survey. 92% of people believe everything they read in surveys. Okay, so we made that up, but there’s nothing like some interesting data to grab headlines, and make an interesting read.

• Try LinkedIn or Surveymonkey. There are plenty of web tools that will let you do this for free. Frame the questions in terms your target market cares about. Use what you find for a blog post, or as fuel for an email marketing campaign.

5) Repurpose. What content are you sitting on? Most companies, if they do a quick audit, will realise they’re sitting on valuable nuggets of content gold e.g presentations, research created for a different context, information your wrote for sales proposals – even printed guides lying around.

• With a bit of reworking you can get these online and make them available to a wide audience.  Make the most of what you’ve already got!

Quick tips to keep ideas coming your way

• Ask your clients and prospects - there’s nothing better than a direct, face-to-face chat.
• Listen in to the top commentators or bloggers in your field – they have their ear to the ground.
• Set up Google Alerts on key terms to find out what’s being talked about on the web.
• Twitter Search tools (e.g.Twilert) are useful – see what’s trending on Twitter.
• Which of your blog posts get the most comment? Write more on that subject.
• What questions do you get frequently asked by clients in sales meetings? Answer them with a blog.
• Guest blog. Ask a related expert to write on your blog, and return the favour next month.
• Share an infographic that explains things clearly from a different angle- look at Pinterest for inspiration.

Other articles you might like:

• 20 article ideas to get you writing again and again
• How to write a good enough article
• Ask your customers for feedback

Valuable content will draw leads to your business. It is a highly effective ‘pull’ or ‘inbound’ strategy but the benefit doesn’t stop there. It’s an equally effective ‘push’ or ‘outbound’ marketing approach, one that your sales teams can use to open new sales conversations and generate good leads.

This article shows you how one of our latest Valuable Content Award winners, Conscious Solutions uses valuable content as a push technique for remarkable sales success.

Guides, not brochures

Conscious are specialist providers of digital marketing services for UK law firms. Sales and Marketing Director David Gilroy is a great believer in valuable content to engage prospects and initiate sales. Theirs is a niche proposition for the top 4,500 out of 11,000 law firms in the UK and they know their market well. Conscious’ content-rich website and social media activity generates leads and referrals but with ambitious growth plans they want more to meet their goals. They take their valuable content to their market with a smart approach that gets great results.

David and his sales team don’t produce any brochures. Instead they have created a stack of useful, well designed guides for law firms held as downloadable e-books in PDF format on their site and in printed format too – guides such as 38 Common Mistakes Law Firms Still Make with their Websites, 29 Mistakes Law Firms Unwittingly Make with their Brand.

“Our valuable guides – in e-book and printed format – are the only marketing materials my sales team needs. Guides, not brochures, open new doors and get us meetings and sales.” David Gilroy, Conscious Solutions @conscioussol

Valuable content campaigns

Conscious Solutions conduct valuable content campaigns around each guide, sending carefully written emails to target contacts with a link to download the guide from the Conscious website. Each campaign builds their reputation as helpful experts in their field and generates around a 15% response rate. If someone clicks the download button then Conscious’ website alerts the team and a sales person will call “…to see if the booklet downloaded OK”. It’s a perfect conversation starter rather than a “hard sell” conversation.

As well as the email campaign David’s team advertises the guide with pay-per-click LinkedIn adverts. David tracks the result of each campaign carefully to monitor return on investment and to learn what works best.

Results from the latest campaign

In August to September 2011 Conscious ran a LinkedIn ad campaign targeted at people whose LinkedIn profile said they worked in the legal sector. The campaign was promoting one of their valuable content tips booklets. The results speak for themselves:

• The total campaign spend was £3,636.
• Conscious’ average ROI target for this spend would be £28,800.
• 1,214 click throughs generated 104 downloads.
• 50 effective conversations generated 12 sales opportunities
• The results was £35,050 of sales with an outstanding pipeline (as of April 2012) of £22,280.

Valuable content is a key part of Conscious Solution’s sales and marketing strategy, and it gets them the results they need. We think they do it very well. A well-deserved Valuable Content Award is on its way Conscious. Congratulations to you all.

Other articles you might like:

• How Yoke used valuable content to go from launch to ideal client in 6 weeks
• Learn from Mel Lester, winner of our first golden Valuable Content Award
• How to keep in touch with potential customers until they are ready to buy

Valuable Content Marketing is the creation and distribution of high quality helpful and/or compelling content in a mix of formats to attract and engage customers.

How do you transform a business that has only ever promoted itself a traditional way to one that markets itself effectively with valuable content? There’s a lot to think about and a great variety of tools at your disposal but where do you start? In this article I want to give you a simple roadmap to help you plan and implement a successful Valuable Content Marketing strategy for your business.

1. Set goals.

As with any change the first step is to know what you are trying to achieve and why. What is the difference you are looking to make through marketing with valuable content?  Greater awareness? More leads from the web? More referrals? More sales? Define the ‘from‘ and ‘to‘ – where are you now and where do you want your business to get to? Write these down.

2. Be clear what you will talk about.

If you are going to create content you’ve got to have something to say. That something has to be relevant to your business and most importantly it must be meaningful to your customers too. Understanding who your customers are is the key. Exactly who are you talking to, and what information will they value? What questions do they have? Do your research and make yourself useful. Create focused content to meet those needs. Read our post on How to find stuff to write about.

3. Pick the right mix of tools.

There is a variety of content tools and types at your disposal but you don’t have to use them all. Begin by finding a way to create all this content. A blog is our favoured starting point because it’s so flexible and dynamic. Whatever creation platform you select remember: content doesn’t distribute itself. You’ll also need to find a way to get your content in front of the people who need it. Search engines can help you; social media is a fantastic distribution channel, and a regular newsletter will keep you front of mind. Don’t forget to go direct too – by all means pass it on to your contacts and prospects if it is relevant. Give it to your sales team to generate leads, like this company.

4. Make sure your website is up to the job.

All this great content has to sit somewhere. You can share articles, videos, e-books and Tweet to your heart’s delight but if the website these pull people back to doesn’t convert interest into action – to return, to sign up to your newsletter, to contact you, to refer, to buy – then your investment will be wasted. Will your current website do your new marketing strategy justice? Make your website into a valuable, lead generating machine.

5. Plan your content like a publishing pro.

Work out the themes you will talk about throughout the year and plan what type of content you will create and share when. Here’s an example activity plan to show you what we mean.

6. Build your content team.

A commitment to Valuable Content Marketing means new skills for many firms. Customer research, design, SEO, social media, email marketing, design, web development and mainly writing. There’s a lot to learn and do. Up-skilling your team and doing as much as you can in-house makes sound economic sense but many companies struggle to find the time, skills and resources. Outsourcing some activities to trusted partners can lighten the load.

Remember: success with valuable content takes top team commitment and company-wide involvement, for it’s the business’ knowledge that needs to be brought to the surface and turned into content. You can outsource parts of the process but we will need your buy in and involvement.

7. Go! Measure, refine, learn and continue.

You are ready to go. Create and share valuable content and measure the results along the way. There are some fantastic free measurement tools at your disposal. Google Analytics is probably the best place to start. Be prepared to learn and change to adapt to your audience’s needs. Measure your success and adjust for even more of it.

And continue. If you focus your marketing communications on sharing high quality information that your customers or clients really value you’ll reap the rewards in increased awareness, interest and sales. Follow these seven steps and make marketing with valuable content a habit – valuable for life.

Other articles you might like:

• Are you content with the word ‘content’?
• The Valuable Content Marketing book – story so far
• Feeding the beast – 5 ways to satisfy the content generation monster

[The 'From' and 'To' concept mentioned in step 1 is taken from Jane Northcote's book - Making Change Happen. Thanks to Sam at Spike Design and his iPhone for snapping the book cover and Claire for drawing up the content calendar].

We should be on the home straight now, and we are getting there, but this book writing is definitely hard going. Coping with the demands of clients, families and relationships while notching up the word count is taking its toll. Before the scars fade from our memories, we thought we’d share some of the things that have made the process of writing the Valuable Content Marketing book easier.

What we have learned about book writing

1. Writing with a partner is good. Aside from the obvious division of labour bonus, having someone else as interested as you in the ideas, shape and detail of the book is a definite plus. Writing it alone would have been a much harder slog. At times getting it right has felt like an obsession, so it’s been good to share it with someone who understands.

2. Taking time away works well. A writing trip to Aberdovey has been my highlight of the process so far. It’s much easier to think clearly when you’re away from everything. Even though a lot of what we wrote during the two days away has been edited out now, the thinking and planning we did far from the office has shaped the book.  It also gave us a big burst of energy and inspiration that carried us a long way.

3. Deadlines focus the mind. We would never have got this far without a real life publisher’s deadline hanging over us.

4. Working with an editor helps. We’ve had invaluable support from Robert Watson.  A critical eye during the process, at a time when you’ve still got room for maneuver will help you get it right.  Be prepared to make big structural changes, as well as minor editorial ones.

5. Write at a time that suits you. I never thought I’d be a 6.30 am person, but there have been weeks when I’ve been getting up at that time to write, because it works for me. Sonja works better at night.

6. Come to terms with the fact you’ll have to say ‘no’ a lot. We’ve both had to turn down client work (scary), disappoint our kids (we’ll make it up to them! ) and generally not be around as much as people we care about would like. If you’re going to commit to writing a book, something else will have to give.

7. Printing it out and reading it on paper is part of the process We got so used to writing and reading on screen that we almost forgot it was a book we are writing, and not a website. Google Docs was really useful for online collaboration in the early stages but something happens when you see it on paper, and turn real pages. It’s much easier to see its failings when it’s in the right format. And it’s exciting too; it makes you feel like you’re getting somewhere – boosts like that are really welcome.

What works for you? We’d love to know.

Other articles you might like:

• How to get the writing done
• The Valuable Content Marketing book – the story so far
• Publish or self-publish

“The key in social media is to share things of value.” Charles H. Green, Trusted Advisor

Why social media is crucial for your content

Creating fantastically valuable content for your marketing is vital, but great content doesn’t spread itself.  Without help it can sit on your website, untroubled by visitors, and not reach the desks and minds of the people it was written to engage. Something is needed to get your content from A to B, and that something is social media.

Social media is your biggest content distribution tool. If you Tweet about your blogs, you will lead people straight to your website, where they’ll find the article that piqued their interest, and dozens more on subjects they may well be interested in too. The content works to demonstrate your expertise and build trust, generating good leads and sales.

Think of it as the candy-covered cottage that lured Hansel and Gretel to the witch’s lair. (Then stop thinking that, because you’re not doing bad stuff and eating children- you’re good guys.) But by advertising yourself with the kind of things that will attract your audience (like sweets – kids, it’s a no-brainer), you’ll get people to the place you want them to be. It’s a big spooky old wood out there, and you need something that guides people through it. The tasters of your blogs, written in the form of compelling headlines, are the neon fruit gums that will shine in a pathway to your website.

“Social media didn’t create content marketing, but it’s an unsurpassed tool for getting it distributed.” Copyblogger

One of the biggest points of Twitter, or Google+, is as a way of getting your content seen by a really wide selection of people. As a networking tool, it’s hard to beat, putting you in contact with far more people than you could ever hope to meet in the real world. Your growing network of followers will see what you’ve written straight away, and if they like it they’ll share it with their contacts, who in turn might share it with theirs, and so on, and so on. Valuable content creates a ripple effect, spreading your ideas across the web, to your kind of audience and often across the world.

If you’re writing a blog, you need to embrace social media – it’s not an optional extra. Otherwise all your wonderful words of wisdom will gather dust, which would be a big old waste of time. If you write it, you want people to read it – and social media is a great way of leading people to your content.

Valuable content rules for social media

There are many different social media options and there will be others to come, but if you want to get the best results across any social media/social network the same rules apply. Here are 7 valuable content rules to help you, whichever social medium you select:

1. Be there. Social media IS important – join the conversation or you’re missing a trick – be sociable, communicate on the platforms. And be consistent – show up regularly.
2. Be valuable. Be helpful, entertaining, educate your clients – not self-promoting, annoying or boring – stop talking about yourself – know your customers – become a valuable source of information for others. All the valuable rules apply.
3. Be generous, generous in the content and information you share, and generous to others – share other people’s content even more than your own – if it is valuable to your kind of customers, then share it – even if it’s a competitor who has created it. Chris Brogan, President of Human Business Works, and a genuine social media expert says to make 10 tweets about others for ever one tweet you make about yourself. Become known as someone who offers things up to others, and eventually people will come to you.
4. Be interesting. Mix it up – all sorts of different types of content. Have something to say.
5. Be human. People want to do business with those they know, like and trust – get people to know a little more about you – not just the work you, but the whole of you, or at least a bit of you – as much as you feel willing to openly.
6. Be on message. Talk around your business mission – not relentlessly, but let the golden thread shine through your message so it’s clear to those that follow you what you stand for.
7. Be polite. Say thanks to those that follow and share your stuff. And “remember your ABC – always be crediting.” (hat tip to Charles H Green for this one).

Your stream of tweets or your Facebook feed are bite sized chunks of content – make them valuable to your customers, share yours and others’ stuff, get people to get to know you – to know, like and trust you, and they’ll remember you when the time comes to buy, or recommend you when others need to do so.

Social media – the big 4 for businesses

But which social avenue to choose? Not all social media channels are the same; different channels have their own rules of engagement. You’ll be using them all for the same aim – to pull people back towards your website, and to expand your network- but it’s good to know the terrain so you can blend in like a natural.

Twitter

As a business this is likely to be your number one marketplace for sharing your blogs, networking, engaging with potential clients. At present it’s by far the most popular way of sharing a business-related blog article. Twitter is a really broad church: it can work as well for professional services firms as party planners. You choose who you follow, so you can build up a targeted list of people that you’d like to connect with. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so there’s no room for waffle. It’s possible to build really powerful connections on Twitter, fantastic both as a way of attracting people to your content, and expanding your network.

Facebook

The biggest social sharing networking site in the world. You’ll find big brands there, as well as pages for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Facebook works by sharing your content with your friends, who in turn share it with theirs and so it spreads. ‘Like’ something on Facebook, and potentially it will be seen by thousands.  Fun, lively, crowded. Great for some businesses, not so good for others (see: Should your business be on Facebook?)

Linkedin

The professional networking site, much less frivolous than Facebook, space to say more than on Twitter. A great place to publicise your blogs, connect with peers and potential clients. Commenting on other people’s discussions, and starting your own threads is great for raising your profile, although our ‘help, don’t sell’ mantra still holds. With over 100 million users worldwide, and highly ranked by Google, it’s invaluable for business networking.

Google+

Launched in 2011, this is currently big in the States, and becoming bigger in the UK too. Secure a presence here if you want to make the most of Google’s enhanced search function. Social sharing is going to dominate search engine rankings over the coming years – Google will deliver results search results based on what people are saying and recommending to each other, over and above simple keyword searches, so it’s useful to make a start here. We like the way it allows you to choose who you share information with, and it’s very intuitive to use – easy to update, easy to upload pictures and videos. Much less cluttered and intrusive than Facebook.

We’re conscious, writing this, that the landscape is changing fast. There are many other tools and the ones we mention today will date, but one thing we’re confident of is that embracing social media is crucial to the success of marketing your business with valuable content.

More social media articles

• Is your business Facebook-friendly?
• Twenty top Twitter tips
• Recommended reading – The FT Guide to Business Networking by Heather Townsend

Deciding which publishing route to go for is a big decision for any author. This article looks at the pros and cons of publishing vs. self-publishing to help you make an informed decision.

We announced last month that we are writing the Valuable Content Marketing book. Sharon and I have been lucky enough to be offered a publishing deal with UK business publishers Kogan Page. After some debate we decided to publish with them in the traditional way.

There are now many options for would-be authors. Before we arrived at this decision we debated long and hard. I thought it would be useful to lay out the pros and cons of the three different publishing routes we considered. I’ll explain the thinking behind our decision at the end.

Advantages of traditional publishing

• Team - the publisher has the expertise and the team to make your book happen, so they can take a lot of work off your hands.
• No upfront cost - they take the risk so you don’t have to pay for printing, design and distribution
• A modest advance – is nice, but worth saying, it’s in no way enough to stop work while you just write.
• Wide reach – through their sales and distribution channels and links with the book trade, nationally and internationally. They’ll get your book in the stores and assist with promotion.
• Quality – the right publisher will guide you to write a better book than you could do alone
• Credibility – there’s still kudos in getting a book deal. With many, many self-published books out perhaps this is still the mark of distinction?
• A deadline – unless you are remarkably self-disciplined this helps to motivate you to get the book done.

Disadvantages of traditional publishing

• Loss of control – you give up a fair bit with this route: control over the content but also over design, even the title.
• Transfer of rights - really, they own them, not you: big decision here.
• Less of the proceeds. c. 10% of net returns is typical.
• Quality – a publisher’s job is to maximise returns which, in some cases can mean that the end-product is not as high quality as you could produce via the self-publishing route.
• Expectation – they don’t take it all off your hands: you may need to invest in an extra editorial layer and you’ll certainly need to take on the lion’s share of marketing/promotion.
• Speed of turnaround – once the manuscript is complete it can take around 5-6 months before the book is available.

Advantages of self-publishing

• Total independence, flexibility and control - it’s all down to you.
• Speed - if you have finished your manuscript turnaround is much quicker.
• Returns – they are all yours (minus the distributors cut: Amazon takes 40-45%).

Disadvantages of self-publishing

• Cost - if you want a quality product it will cost you. You can self-publish on a shoe string but the end product may be disappointing.
• Team - a good book is a collaboration. You’ll need to find, manage and fund your own team to help you – editor, designer, copyeditor, proofreader, printer, marketing, distribution, storage and fulfilment.
• Distribution and reach – Amazon is a pig to deal with as an independent author and it is difficult to get your book available in book stores or internationally; storage can be an issue. It can be a lot of work.
• Quality - if you haven’t done this before there are a lot of steps to get you to your end goal of a high quality, accurate and professionally-produced book. It is possible to produce a high quality self-published book but there’s lots to learn.
• Work - masses to do yourself, which can be hard if you are working and writing the book at the same time.
• No deadline – without one, your book could take a long time.

There is a third way, best described as ‘self-publishing with help‘ or partnership publishing. This offers many of the pros of self-publishing with less of the cons. This are independent companies around now who have the insight, experience and networks to help you through the process, with a trusted team to make it all happen. This route means you avoid many of the pitfalls you could fall into by yourself but there’s a cost implication.

Why we decided to publish the traditional way

We’re busy. A deadline and a supportive and experienced team around us were the main reasons we opted for the traditional route but to be honest, for a small firm like ours cost was an issue too. With our chosen route we didn’t have to pay large sums upfront to make the book happen. We pay later by getting less of a return. For us, this is OK. Our book is a marketing tool; we don’t expect to make money from it directly. Our objective is to build our reputation and attract more clients through proving our expertise.

We’ve  had to give up some control and independence and that hurts a bit. Having helped a couple of authors to produce some beautifully designed self-published books, we know what’s possible. Valuable Content Marketing will be a great book, but we’ll have to get our creative kicks elsewhere.

Kogan Page has a far wider reach than we could aspire to if we self-published and this was important to us: we want to get the Valuable Content message out as widely as we can.

And finally, we really like and trust our contact at Kogan Page. She’s been unfailingly enthusiastic about our project, encouraging and insightful too. It will be a better book with her involvement and we’re grateful to have her onboard.

This is our experience but how about you? What’s your view on the publish vs. self-publish debate? We’d be fascinated by your view.

More articles on writing a business book

• Start here: 12 questions to plan your book with clarity
• What publishers want: invaluable advice from an industry insider
• How to get a publishing deal for your business book – 10 lessons learned by Heather Townsend, author of the FT Guide to Business Networking