10+ Best Platforms To Distribute Content & Get Insane Traffic
When content is your game, distribution is your aim. Once you’ve curated the perfect piece, a sublime mix of professional and casual, you’ll want to share it with as wide an audience as possible. But with the vast number of platforms out there, figuring out where your content works best can be overwhelming.
–Social Media
Of course, the go-to content distribution platforms are social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, and similar platforms are literally built with content in mind and are perfect for getting your content out to a wide audience.
Though it might not be your first thought, Reddit is our pick for a social media platform. Between the frequency of posts, the upvoting system and the wide range of niche interests, Reddit is a tried and tested way to push your content to a range of users.
With the thousands of Subreddits, it doesn’t take long to find an audience for your specific content, and if you put in the time you can gather a loyal userbase.
It might take a little work — you can’t just post link after link to your own content or you’ll get banned — but a little effort can pay huge dividends. One content creator managed to get 10,000 page views in 45 minutes of careful work.
–Video platforms
Video platforms are renowned for their reach and impact, and you can take advantage of them even if your brand’s content doesn’t normally fit in a video format.
Turn long-form articles into slideshows or tutorials, add some narration and you can convey any message in a visual format.
Make sure to include a description full of keywords between 250 and 300 words and your content will rank high every time.
Consistently favored by Google’s ranking algorithms, YouTube is our top choice for wide-spread video content distribution. Video content is easy to consume and easy to share, making it a fantastic way to get your brand message to a wide audience. What better place to share this top content than the top video hosting site on the internet?
-Forums
Forums are another underappreciated content distribution platform. Like Reddit, many of these thrive off niche interests, meaning you can find just the right audience for your targetted content.
Like Yahoo Answers but moderated and turned to 11, Quora & ProProfs Discuss is a great way to attract followers to your content. This platform is especially useful if your content answers questions solve queries or provides tutorials.
The more detailed your responses are, the more followers you’ll attract and the wider your content will spread.
12 Top Content Distribution Tools
When you’ve sussed out where you want to distribute your content, that’s where content distribution tools come in; for every content creator looking for a distributor, there’s a distributor looking for great content. Some of these services run on paid subscriptions, others are free or freemium, but rest assured there are enough out there that you’ll soon find the perfect match for you and your individual style.
–HubSpot
One of the biggest players, HubSpot runs the gamut on marketing services, but here we’re looking particularly at the Social Inbox. This acts as mission control for all things publishing, from social media to email to landing pages.
By combining various strands of data, the Social Inbox gives you a big-picture perspective on the minutia of content distribution. This service is available in a variety of packages or different prices.
–AddThis
Ever looked at those floating social media blocks you see on every website and wonder where they’re from? AddThis is the answer. They specialize in helping users share your content and follow your socials but – and this is crucial – they keep the user on your page.
This keeps readers on your blog and minimizes your bounce rates, meaning you don’t have to sacrifice retention for distribution. And, best of all, it’s all free!
–HootSuite
One of the more well-known content distribution services, HootSuite is a comprehensive and dedicated platform that has been winning over content makers for years.
Much like HubSpot, this control panel allows you to monitor and publish to all major social media sources and integrates with other marketing services like MailChimp and Salesforce. The basic package is free, but they also offer paid packages with more features and customization.
–Tweriod
From the generalist to the specialist: this service is designed specifically for Twitter publishing. Tweriod accesses your Twitter account, analyses you and your follower’s tweets, and determines what optimum times you should be tweeting to get the maximum reach for your content.
Then you can schedule content for those peak times, all from the app. This simple free tool is a great way to start getting smart about content distribution.
–Buffer
Another scheduling app, and yet again something simple and sweet. Within minutes you can be scheduling posts for specific times across all the major social media platforms, or buffering them so they are automatically spread throughout the day. Buffer is available for free or with a Business paid subscription, with various plans.
–Content Blvd
Moving away from social media scheduling, this service is here to connect brands to publishers. Submit content to their Content Marketplace and Content Blvd connects it to a wide range of publishing platforms that have signed up, taking the leg-work out of getting your content published. Sign-up is free, though advertisers pay a subscription fee.
–Outbrain
Like Content Blvd, Outbrain can help connect your content to audiences through third-parties, this time through the links you’ll likely have seen alongside blog posts.
They offer this service for specific pieces or for your whole blog feed (provided via RSS), and their clients include publishing greats like Mashable and the New York Times. The service is pay-per-click, meaning it only costs if you know it’s working.
–Storify
The ouroboros of the content world, Storify lets you turn people talking about your content into new content. Use Storify to compile a series of social media posts into a blog post or interactive slide deck for a unique way of engaging with your users and spreading the good word about your brand. Storify comes in free or premium modes.
–StumbleUpon
This is another way to get your content out to a wide variety of audiences, just like Outbrain. The difference is users are presented with a rolling list of content and they can tailor their results by voting up or down. Charging a small cost-per-click, StumbleUpon can shuffle your content into the mix.
-ARC
Standing for Access, Reach, Connect, ARC is another distribution service specializing in multimedia content. For a negotiated fee, ARC will distribute your video or visual content to a wide variety of social networks, video hosting sites and media outlets. This is more in line with traditional PR content distribution, and costs vary on the content and service required.
–OneLoad
Like ARC, OneLoad can help you share video content across a wide range of platforms. Once it’s live, OneLoad provides live analytics to track how users are receiving your content. The analytic service comes in their paid packages, but they also offer a free version.
–PitchEngine
This service is perfect for jazzing up your content pitches. PitchEngine can revitalize dry, text-based pitches with vibrant images and videos, then tag the content for SEO and give you the option to add location stamps amongst other useful elements. Available in various free and paid packages.
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