There is so much inspirational information on the internet at the moment. Influencers are fighting for attention and looking through to read their articles to inspire, motivate and share knowledge that they have gathered along their path. Small, medium, large and startups are fighting for that same limelight. SEO is getting tougher by the day (Thankfully, I found some hidden PDF file by Google for my previous article). Social media marketing is not as easy as it was before thanks to Facebook‘s ever-changing algorithms too.
But sometimes digging through countless recommended articles is time-consuming and they do not get to the point quick enough to be effective. You may assume that YouTube or Vimeo are even better platforms but I would say MAYBE. Each platform serves a different kind of audience.
SlideShare cuts through the noise. Enabling you to get insights from thought leaders, in a fraction of the time. It is a social media platform powered by LinkedIn where you can upload your presentations and show them to the world.
Yes, SlideShare is not only a great tool for SEO and organic reach even in 2017. But, it will still be a highly relevant tool in the years to come especially for professional niches to learn, share and obtain generally high-quality content.
Here are 4 reasons/benefits for you to start using Slideshare if you are mainly in the B2B marketing, literature, coaching, book/magazine publishing or professional niche:
-
Integrated interactive visual and audio guiding which helps generate leads
It is always about giving back to your audience if you want good SEO. Slideshare provides your audience with an excellent visual guidance especially when it to comes to the niches that I have mentioned. You can include concise messages with graphs, images (including gif), audio narration and URL links.
You can easily add a call to action on your SlideShare by adding a URL link on one of your slides. It works like how a Microsoft presentation would work. You can create SlideShare with Microsoft Presentations or online software like Piktograph or Canva easily.
Another benefit to Slideshare is that you can embed your SlideShare to your websites or blogs! Slideshare provides you with analytics on your presentation too. You can track every share, like, and embedment link.
My personal experience and opinion are that videos are great to watch the first time. However, I can’t keep rewatching a 20 minutes long video. As a professional who used to work in Forbes Top 100 companies, I personally enjoy downloading a well-compiled slideshow from Slideshare for me to refer to every time I need it or a PDF file that I can highlight relevant points. They save me time and provide me useful insights.
Note to self when creating a slideshow: Information needs to be accurate, concise, updated, reliable, well reference and interesting. You need to have the want to read it before you publish it.
-
Interact with the community and creates personal branding
LinkedIn bought over SlideShare in 2012. That makes SlideShare the strongest tool for you to use to maximize your presence on LinkedIn. You can share your slides into the professional network of LinkedIn users. There is less noise on LinkedIn rather than Facebook.
Slideshare allows comments and shows your slides statistics just like how YouTube does it. In other words, you can reply to your audience’s inquiries and feedbacks.
Feedbacks are amazing for us (SlideShare creators) to learn especially in a professional community. If your slideshow manages to capture the attention of directors, CEOs and COOs, success is coming your way.
Imagine getting a feedback from an influencer or a share. You can boast about the positive feedback on all of your social media or even website. If you receive a negative feedback, you can always learn to improve yourself at the same time get yourself an amazing mentor.
If you are a coach, you might even get a chance to be invited to present your ideas in front of a company! Having to say so, there are more spam comments on SlideShare these days so this is a 50/50. Still a good shot!
-
Find high quality and curated information
Today, I had an interesting conversation with an online entrepreneur and fellow writer that I have known for a couple of years. He mentioned that you can be a great writer and Google will not notice you for the first 1 or 2 years at least. You will need a huge fan base, really good networking skills or some serious cash to advertise your content to get noticed.
What has this got to do with the quality of information? Well, it means that good quality information may be hidden somewhere far far away. If you are not a savvy Google search user, you will most probably just end up with some old, not updated article with super high views. Popular articles do not always provide you with the best content.
On a side note, here’s a tip to do a quick search for updated information:
Google Search quick tip to updated information: Click Tools > Search in the time frame that you want.
The search engine on SlideShare is more transparent. The latest updated option search is not hidden like Google but it is shown up front. Click on uploaded anytime, all file types and all languages to suit your needs.You will immediately get the latest/most updated and relevant information here.
Most information that you can find on SlideShare is made by highly trained professionals or major companies who are very serious about their business and not just some Tom, Dick and Harry who tries to act like a professional. In other words, you will need to be on the top of your game on your slides to get the right attention on SlideShare.
-
Highly targeted audience/ Market yourself
As mentioned above, you will have a highly targeted audience especially people who are into coaching, presentations, professionals and marketers. It is a great place to focus on your niche and grow further with global businesses.
SlideShare has been commonly agreed among online marketers that it is great for SEO. There is a simple logic behind this belief. Just like every other social media platform, SlideShare is a platform where anyone can share information on anything. You can use new keywords for your presentation or infographic through websites like Google trends or ahref.
Conclusion
In order to be on par with these professionals, you will need a certain degree of knowledge too. However, you can learn how to make proper SlideShares, ask for honest feedback from the professionals on your LinkedIn and learn to improve. Practice is indeed the best way to succeed.
If you intend to search for high-quality content, SlideShare will be a great place to search for it. Plus, you can always learn the best presentation creating styles from SlideShare as most of the content there are made by professionals.