by 
As I’ve previously written about, social media sites like LinkedIn have been fairly tame in terms of creativity. While scrolling banner ads and direct, PayPerClick (PPC) ads are their advertising mainstay, LinkedIn has remained a purely text-driven social media site. That’s about to change the social media landscape with their purchase of Slideshare.net.
Consider the last PowerPoint presentation you created. The software is designed to create an attractive yet professional means of creating your content. Cross fades, multiple font choices, sizes, etc. give the user a huge amount of creative control. It’s no wonder that some people dread making a PPT presentation (even more than the public speaking that accompanies them).
But what if you could take that PPT show and put it online? And what if it was automatically connected to your company’s LinkedIn account? The social media tie-ins and possibilities become endless.
You can create long or short content, visually-driven, or text heavy. Whatever you can imagine can be turned into a Slideshare presentation. And here are the basics on putting one together.
5 steps to creating a Slideshare presentation
There are probably more than 5 steps, but this is meant to get you started. There are tons of other features and benefits you can explore on your own.
Step 1) Create your content
Preferably based upon a content marketing plan of some sort. If you plan on creating a series, (which is a good social media tactic) then start with a plan. Content should remain fresh and you should update at least twice a month. This is why creating a bunch of articles all at once can save on future problems.
While at ColdAd, I’ve been taking blog posts and creating teasers. Check out an example of my work.
First, I did a search on their site for other examples of presentations in my niche market. I suggest you do the same. Check to see the tone of their work as it pertains to their brand. Is it the same as yours?
Step 2) Use PowerPoint
Take your content and decide what key pieces of info you would like to include. Keep in mind that you can always link out of your Slideshare project to your main website, so you can choose how much info to put here based upon your customer’s tastes.
Step 3) Customization
If you want customized fonts, consider converting your PPT file into a PDF. You may encounter problems keeping hyperlinks alive, but if you use Adobe Acrobat Pro (for example), you can re-insert them.
Also, be aware of the source of your images. All photos need to be either your own personal ones, or paid for on appropriate sites such as 123rf.com.
Step 4) Upload to create you SlideShare
Upload your PPT or PDF to the site. Make sure you put in relevant information and appropriate tags for your niche. It will help your audience find you and will tell search engines what you’re doing as well.
Step 5) Do not forget the backlink
Link your Slideshare account with your LinkedIn account and start sharing on all your social media portals. Then analyze which links seems to gain the most views. And then build new content based upon what appears to be the trend in your niche.
What works and what doesn’t: social media audiences
While my first attempt has garnered around 500 views, my second, more personal and amusing attempt only received 132 views. So despite the theory that social media marketing depends upon the amount of cats you have in your ads, it’s not necessarily true.
So I discovered that other businesses in my niche market weren’t interested in my ironic point of view on inbound marketing. Regardless, I’m leaving it there cause I still find it amusing and think it speaks to another brand, apart from ColdAd.
Go create a project right now. Then tell me what results you’ve found. And tell me what problems you encounter (if any) while using the Slideshare site. For me, I had a few issues when they converted some of my pages. I lost a few text box background fills, for example. But their help centre contacted me directly and quickly to give me advice. So I’m basically happy with my results.
What’s great, of course, is that we can now offer our clients something they didn’t have before, and for very little money: social media advertising that is visual and pleasing to their audiences.
Leave a Reply