Cross-fertilisation in social media: tweet my post and I’ll post your tweet

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Doug Kessler

12. 03. 2009 | 1 min read

Cross-fertilisation in social media: tweet my post and I’ll post your tweet

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Social media is a whirling tornado of content and comment.  Throw a new white paper into it and, if you’re lucky, it gets tossed around in the vortex, throwing bits off into Twitter tweets, blog posts, comments and backlinks.  This cross-fertilisation can feel distressingly self-referential but that’s really the source of social media’s power.

Hollywood used to have ‘the film of the book’.  Now it has ‘the film based on the hit theme tune from the ad about the book’.  Same idea.

It’s no longer enough to create a great piece of content and stick it on your website.  You need to seed it in LinkedIn groups and on Biznik; share it as a presentation on Slideshare;  Tweet about it; refer to it in comments on key blogs; and hope that other people pick it up and do the same thing.

If the original content is the seed, social media is the wind that takes it out in search of fertile soil (or the animal that eats it up and… tweets it out).

Does it work? Sometimes.  We got over 1200 views of our Twitter in B2B slideshare in a few days just by putting it on Slideshare, tweeting about it and seeding it in a handful of LinkedIn groups. That’s far more views than we’d get if we just parked it on our website.

Published in:

  • b2b-marketing

  • blogging

  • content-marketing

  • slideshare

  • social-media

  • twitter

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Comments

  1. Erica Fenik

    March 12th, 2009

    There’s definitely a lot more to be done with content above and beyond pasting onto a website, and the analogy of cross-fertilization is an apt one for social media. The question of “Does it work?” depends on your definition of success. If you carry the plant reproduction scenario further, you can define success based on the plants that come from the seeding of your ideas in others.

    If you are scattering your content in the direction of the social media wind that will carry it to your desired audience, you’re more likely to see your ideas pollinate the ideas of others – folks whose ideas resonate with your own, whose networks are connected to your topic and whose investment in making sure your ideas get sunshine and water to thrive stems from their own interest in you, your company and your message.

    Congrats on spreading the word on your Twitter in B2B Slideshare – I’ll definitely be checking it out!

    Reply

  2. Answering Service

    March 13th, 2009

    I think its a good Idea..

    Reply

  3. Doug Kessler

    March 13th, 2009

    Thanks Erica — nice way to extend the metaphor!
    Let us know what you think of the slideshare — it’s quite simple but really seems to have hit a sweet spot.

    Reply

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