Cartoon of the Week: Is Your Content Credible Enough to Share?

By Matt Zajechowski

There’s no denying that the internet is bloated with content today. One of the most difficult things to do is break through the clutter and noise that bombards us every day. Think about how many pieces of content (articles, videos, infographics, blog posts, etc…) you consume a day. Far too often, we immediately move to discredit a piece of content or look for a reason to discredit it. Since almost anyone can create a piece of content, it’s hard to convince others to read your content. What really helps your content break through the “clutter” is to have a recognizable name contribute to your content, or even create the content themselves. For example, let’s say you’re an SEO blogger and receive two infographics on the top ten content marketing strategies for 2014. One of them is from Tom Shearman, the other is from Rand Fishkin. Whose content do you think is going to get shared? Moz recently shared a great article about if your content is credible enough to share, and I think this does an outstanding job of highlighting the biggest struggle content marketers see. Anyone can create a great piece of content, but in order to be considered credible enough to share, you need to have expert contributors. It doesn’t need to be an individual; a company works as well. For example, a bank would be a great authority on information regarding savings accounts and the best interest rates. If they put that information into an infographic, it will be seen as a credible piece of content. When creating your next content piece, ask yourself if you think the content is credible enough to share. If the answer is yes, then you should feel confident with sending it to bloggers and webmasters. If you don’t, consider adding a few quotes or excerpts from an industry expert to add some credibility to your content.