15 Ways To Energize Your Content Marketing With SlideShare

SlideShare has been called content’s marketing sleeping giant. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million page views, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world.  Owned by LinkedIn, it's the world’s largest professional content sharing community.  Surprisingly, given how the platform is optimized for social sharing, including the ability to embed presentations, SlideShare is often overlooked and underused by marketers. 

In today's article,  I am going to show you how to expand your content marketing by tapping into the power of SlideShare. The good news is that you don't even have to create original content to do this.  Simply find some content you have already written and get ready to breathe new life into it.

1. Craft Your Message

Before you start designing your slide-deck, take a moment to consider what you want people to know after they have viewed it.  Do you want to inspire, inform, or entertain your audience?  Keeping this goal in mind will help you choose the copy and design elements to craft a more compelling and memorable presentation. 

2. Re-purpose Your Content

Identify a piece of content that will convert easily to slides. Lists work really well, but with a little creativity you can also summarise and visualize key points from articles, podcasts, or infographics.   Simplify the content by writing short copy (one point per slide) to communicate your message quickly and clearly. 

Pro Tip! Each slide should pass the glance test: People should be able to comprehend your slide in 3 seconds.

3. Create A Compelling Headline

Writing a good headline is an important part of drawing readers to your content. A good headline should be compelling enough to make someone want to click to see more. 

Pro Tip!  There are several free tools available to help you analyse your headlines. Try this one from CoSchedule which analyses your title and produces a score based on character length, emotional resonance, and keyword strength. 

4. Design Impactful Slides

Boring slides don’t get many views. Choose a design style that will attract viewers to your content.   Pick a colour scheme to complement your message and your brand - choose colours that pop and attract the eye. Maintain consistency across your slides by using the same or related typography, colours and imagery. Don't crowd your slides with text; make good use of white space. Finally, make sure to optimise for mobile viewers with big, bold visuals and text that is readable on mobile devices. 

Pro Tip!  Avoid overused fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri) and try something new like Glode, Korolev, or Cantarell.

5. Create Visual Appeal

The best slidedecks are visually appealing.  Choose quality images to convey your message, but avoid overused stock images. Instead search the Creative Commons section of Flickr for a suitable image - try a tool like Compfight, a free Flickr search tool, to make image sourcing easier.  

Pro Tip!  Use a tool like Visual.ly to create your own graphic elements to add to a presentation.

6. Add Multi-Media

Did you know you can embed YouTube videos in your SlideShare decks? SlideShare also allows voice sync, so visitors can hear a narration of, as well as see, your presentation. 

7. Optimize Your Slides With Keywords

SlideShare presentations rank well in Google (about 70% of SlideShare traffic comes from search), so it makes sense to optimize your slides with keywords so that people can find you.  SlideShare automatically transcribes your presentation,  so wherever possible, add your keywords to the presentation content too (without obviously spamming the text).

Pro Tip!  Include keywords in your title, tags and description of your presentation, as well as your file name. 

8. Include A Call-To-Action 

Adding a call to action (CTA) to your deck directs readers to the next step you want them to take — visit your website, sign up for your email list, etc. You can create clickable CTAs through hyperlinking (here are some easy instructions to set them up).

Pro Tip!  SlideShare disables links in the first three slides of a presentation to discourage people from spamming the site with too many links. So if you’re going to add in clickable links, do so after the third slide.

9. Embed Presentations On Your Blog  

One of the easiest ways to promote your presentation is to embed the slides on your blog. You'll find an easy embed code on SlideShare. 

10. Share On Twitter 

Twitter now embeds SlideShares in tweets, so people can view your presentation without having to click through to SlideShare.

11. Post To LinkedIn

LinkedIn also allows you to embed your presentation on your profile or business page. You can also add your SlideShare content to your LinkedIn profile’s summary page. 

12. Scoop Your Presentations 

If you are on the content curation platform, Scoop.it you can upload your presentation or you can choose slides from other users to add to your curated content. 

13. Discover New Content

Use SlideShare to discover insights from others in your field and connect with thought-leaders and influencers. 

14. Analyze And Track Metrics

SlideShare allows you to gather detailed analytics including top referral sites, number of views and the top performing slides. This information is useful for planning your SlideShare strategy. 

15. Custom Brand Your Slides

It's important to maintain consistency across all your social media channels - this includes SlideShare. Use custom colors and add your logo and brand message to each presentation. 

Want to see how all this comes together? Check out my slide deck below.