Last month, I shared about a social media link sharing tool that I have been using to get the word out for various posts I’ve published.

QuuuPromote.co has taken my submitted posts and offered to their network of social media influencers / customers who are looking for quality curated content to share with their own audiences.  My submission gets put into the inventory of suggested posts people can pick and publish/schedule to their own social media accounts.

Today I report on what happened with two example submissions so you can better understand the potential of content curation networks as a marketing strategy.

CASE EXAMPLE #1

So I submitted a post in the Education & Careers category as well as on in the Social Media category.

Here is a peek at the results of one 30-day sharing campaign and the initial results of a recent post.

This first post didn’t do as well as I thought it would. We had a “video” tag, “#1” label as well as referenced “TED talk” which has broad brand recognition for quality content.  Seeing only 126 people pick this link up and share it was a bit disappointing.  BUT in post-promotion debriefing, we wonder if it was because the number of quuu customers that subscribe to the Education & Careers category of content might be thin to begin with.

That’s why there’s different tiers of pricing based on category of content.  BUT Education & Careers commands the top $30 level pricing.  Hmmmm…..

So one of the most important things about any campaign management is figuring out what metrics are import to look for and evaluate.

Here, 126 people Tweeted it or posted the link & status update on Google+, LinkedIn or Facebook.

That’s good if they are quality audiences following those 126 people.

But the 2nd number is what was disappointing to me: only 8 click throughs to the actual blog post / link that was offered in the actual social media status update.  That’s about a 5% click through rate.

On the surface it sounds decent.  But if you’re paying for a service like this, that means that this campaign really got you visitors of your site for $6/click.  WHOA.

Of course, YMMV, and it also really depends on your copywriting of the status update you submit to share as well as choice of graphic image you pair.  So I’d have to test the Education & Careers category one or two more times before I come to a conclusion that this platform isn’t worth it.

CASE EXAMPLE #2

Ok, then we have the 2nd post example submitted to QuuuPromote.  This time, I chose a post that had broader appeal – an overview of 5 Instagram Tools that I use in my daily workflow.  People love learning about what others use.  And anything that is educational about Instagram should be attractive to a broad audience.

If you notice with this post, I tagged Instagram itself @Instagram and used the #SocialMedia hashtag to see if we can further juice out of this one.  I’ve also included my own @kennyjahng twitter handle hoping to get some follows as well.

THIS CAMPAIGN, submitted in the Social Media category did much better.

FIRST: this campaign has been running for ONLY 14 days. So these results are for 1/2 a month.

Ensure You Have Some Strategic Intent

Traffic for traffic’s sake isn’t a good goal to pursue. So one big suggestion I have is that if you’re going to do any promotion of your content, especially paid promotion, you need to consider what you’ll do with that traffic when you get it. Otherwise, you risk just throwing away money and momentum.

One of the things both of these posts had was a final call to action leading to an opt-in form.

For the Instagram Tools post, I offered a free downloadable PDF regarding Instagram Stories – completely related in topic to the original post.

That way, if the content strikes a chord, the visitor will have a chance to sign-up for something else (and I get them on the email list.)  So weaving in relevant lead magnet offers into the content was key and intentional for both of these promoted posts.

Examine the Results

233 shares is fabulous.  If I can get over 500 actual published tweets and status updates referring to my blog, my twitter handle, etc, that’s great.

What is really impressive to me is that a full 133 people have clicked the link to go to my website.  That’s basically a 60% click through rate!

. . . AND we have 2 more weeks to go in the month to potentially double these numbers if not more.

HOW I’M EVALUATING IT AS OF NOW

Overall, depending on what your campaign objectives are, this social media resource has potential. Like many other tools and resources, it really depends on how you use it.  Meaning — nothing is completely turnkey magic out there.

You need to be strategic in curating what content to promote. You need to be thoughtful about the copy and images you submit for sharing.  And you really need to think through what you’re going to do with any realized traffic to your site you’ll gain in the end.

CHRCK OUT THIS CRAZY DEAL FOR QUUUPROMOTE CREDITS. (5/31/17)

What did you take away from this case example? Please let me know in the comments below.