Wow, looks like Slideshare is stepping up to the big leagues.
Today, I perused a nifty infographic that tallies up some impressive stats for the powerpoint hub.
- One of the Top 150 sites on the web
- 60 million visitors a month
- 3 Billion slide views a month
It seems that Slideshare has gone and done the impossible - turned the powerpoint deck into a content marketing darling.
Go figure.
Normally, I would Evernote this info and go on about my business but something sparkly caught my eye...
Look close...
It shows that Slideshare rules the roost for reaching almost every type of business player including microbusiness owners, small biz entrepreneurs, corporate chieftains, and small business employees.
With that little nudge, the lazy hamster in my head climbed into his wheel and started doing his magic...
How to Use Slideshare to Attract a Business Audience
Slideshare dubbed itself as The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing. The pitch goes something like: presentation decks are often filled to the gills with interesting facts, stats, and perspectives and a well done presentation could get passed to thousands of decision-makers.
So, creating a great presentation document could be an easy an inexpensive way to show off your thought leadership. Oh, and Slideshare is the best platform to spread your fame far and wide.
They had me at "facts and stats"
Here's some ideas to get you started:
- Turn presentations into eBooks: Add a narrative and a little structure and you can turn your presentation into a nice juicy ebook. Tablets and smartphones are making ebooks easier to read on the run and Slideshare has the reach.
- Add Call-to-Actions to your Presentations: Use every opportunity to ask for a Twitter follow or even better an email subscription. See your presentation as front-end advertising that needs to generate a conversion.
- Upload Often: As with all content marketing, the more you give the more you get. Add creating a Slideshare presentation/ebook to your monthly publishing calendar.
- Optimize Like It's 1999: Slideshare has a search engine that makes finding presentations on specific topics easier. Where there is a search engine, there is an optimization opportunity. I'm not an Slideshare optimization expert but I'm sure it can't hurt to add relevant keywords to your presentation title. Also consider adding 1 or 2 targeted keywords as presentation tags as well.
- Promote Your Slideshare Content: Slideshare has added social sharing buttons to the presentations. Asking for a share within your presentation may nudge a reader to hit the retweet button. Also you should make sure your twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn audiences know that you have a new presentation available.
- Look Like a Million Bucks: Most of the presentation graphics on Slideshare are god awful. Take some time to create an attractive design template for all of your presentations. This will insure that potential customers don't misjudge your professionalism and expertise.
- Don't Be Stingy: Slideshare gives you the option of restricting presentation downloads. Don't do it. Content Marketing works best when there is minimal friction to sharing. Encourage people to download your presentations and share them with as many people as they like. Just double-check to make sure that your blog url, twitter handle, and offer to subscribe to your blog newsletter is included in every presentation.
Are you a Slideshare Ninja?
I'm sure I've just scratched the surface of how your can use the new King of Content Marketing. Leave a comment below with your tip and I will add it to the list.