Revised August 14, 2020
Revised July 9, 2019
Revised December 17, 2018
Creating awesome content won’t do your business any good if no one sees it. So how much time should you spend on content promotion versus content production?
Some sources recommend the 80/20 rule, others peg the ideal at closer to 50/50, and still others (such as the brilliant Heidi Cohen) note that “it depends.”
These 15 tools can help you distribute your content more broadly, share it socially, repurpose it for different audiences, and amplify it using paid channels.
Content Publishing Tools
1) LinkedIn Pulse
Google Review Count: 391
Publishing on LinkedIn is easy: go to your profile page, and in the “Posts” section near the top of the page, click “Write a new post.” Standing out from the mass of other content there is a different matter. But at the least, LinkedIn can extend the reach of your original or modified/repurposed content to a wider audience. Pulse is also a place to keep up with the content those you are connected with or follow on LinkedIn are publishing.
Sample review: “LinkedIn Pulse is a mobile app that pushes news feed of your selected topic to your device. Pulse keeps you up to speed in your industry in one news feed.” — Cent Muruganandam
Pricing: free
Showcase reviews: Cent Muruganandam
2) Medium
Google Review Count: 228
Medium (per Wikipedia) is an online publishing platform developed by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. It’s a great place to publish emotionally focused business content. A place to tell stories that happen to relate to business, as well as share ideas and concepts with emotional resonance. As with LinkedIn, it helps expose your content to a broader audience.
Sample review: “You can re-purpose some of your best content for Medium.com. Some of the most popular blogs online do the same. Including Buffer.com, James Alutcher, and JamesClear.com.” — BuzzBlogger
Pricing: free
Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger
3) issuu
Google Review Count: 141
issuu gives anyone with digitally bound content the ability to upload and distribute their publications worldwide, in just minutes. Each day, more than 20,000 publications are uploaded, including magazines, newspapers, portfolios, catalogs, corporate literature, DIY guides, amd community programs. A premium account provides analytics and wider exposure.
Sample review: “Use Issuu to create your own digital magazines or present PDFs in a new format (such as reports, whitepapers, guides, or ebooks).” — Online Marketing Institute
Pricing: free, $35 or $269 per month
Showcase reviews: Online Marketing Institute
Content Distribution Tools
1) SlideShare
Google Review Count: 377
Think of it as “YouTube for presentations.” SlideShare is a venue, primarily for B2B marketers and influencers, to share presentations, PDF documents, and infographics.
Sample review: “Slideshare was initially developed as a tool for sharing presentations but has since expanded out to videos, documents and much more. When you create your blog post it’s useful to consider where else you could promote this post. By changing your blog post into a presentation you could share it on Slideshare. This is very much a B2B platform so if you are targeting the business community Slideshare is ideal.” — {grow}
Pricing: free
Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, Cent Muruganandam, Express Writers, {grow}, Marketing Insider Group (Curation), SteamFeed
2) Paper.li
Google Review Count: 376
Collect and curate content from across your social networks; Paper.li automatically organizes the stories into a digital “newspaper” that can be socially shared or used on your website or in newsletters.
Sample review: “(Use) Paper.li (for) Twitter curation; it enables people to publish an online ‘newspaper’ based on topics of interest to them or the community they seek to influence.” — Maximize Social Business
Pricing: free or $9 per month
Showcase reviews: Express Writers, Maximize Social Business, Perception System, RazorSocial (Tools)
3) Tumblr
Google Review Count: 364
Tumblr hosts more than 330 million blogs. Create your own Tumblr blog, then post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos from your browser, phone, desktop, or email. You can customize everything, from colors to your theme’s HTML.
Sample review: “Tumblr is the best social network for finding, telling, or sharing visual stories.” — PR Daily
Pricing: free
Showcase reviews: PR Daily
4) Triberr
Google Review Count: 301
Join “tribes” of bloggers on similar topics. Share their stuff, they’ll share yours. It takes an investment of time, but can pay off in much greater exposure for your content if you focus on quality.
Sample review: “Triberr is a blog sharing platform. I join tribes who blog about my interests and I tweet a lot of posts I find on Triberr. In return my blog posts are shared by people in the tribes I’ve joined.” — Anders Orsander
Pricing: free or $9/$10/$35 per month
Showcase reviews: Anders Orsander, BuzzBlogger, Marketing Insider Group (Curation), RazorSocial (Tools)
5) Vimeo
Google Review Count: 215
Sample review: “Outside of YouTube, more B2B-focused video marketing resources include Vimeo.” — SnappApp
Pricing: free or $5/$17/$50 per month
Showcase reviews: SnapApp
6) Dlvr.it
Google Review Count: 201
A social media automation tool, dlvr.it provides bloggers, publishers and brands a way to instantly syndicate content and expand their reach on the social web. dlvr.it publishes your content to your social channels, ensuring your audience sees it instantly.
Sample review: “Sometimes keeping up with a voluminous feed of content from multiple sources can be overwhelming. dlvr.it helps publishers deliver their content to their Twitter and Facebook accounts from RSS feeds.” — Online Marketing Institute
Pricing: free or $5/$17/$50 per month
Showcase reviews: Online Marketing Institute, RazorSocial (Software), RazorSocial (Tools)
Content Amplification Tools
1) Zemanta
Google Review Count: 433
Zemanta is a demand-side platform (DSP) that gives agencies and brands direct access to 25+ social, native, mobile and discovery networks designed to deliver content to high-value audiences. It uses proprietary algorithms that automate bid management and budget allocation. Zemanta was acquired by Outbrain (see below) in July 2017.
Sample review: “Zemanta promotes your content through a variety of networks. Including nRelate, Kontera, Yahoo, Outbrain, and AdBlade. Promotes your content at scale.” — BuzzBlogger
Pricing: contact vendor for pricing
Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger
2) Outbrain
Google Review Count: 293
Get your content recommended on premium sites, including CNN, People and ESPN. Reach an engaged audience through Outbrain’s pay-per-click model and grow traffic to your articles, blog, and mobile-optimized or video content.
Sample review: “Outbrain is a content discovery platform which will share your content with premium sites for a small fee. If you want more traffic and are willing to pay a small fee then they are a good bet.” — Cent Muruganandam
Pricing: pay per click, $300 per month minimum budget
Showcase reviews: BuzzBlogger, Cent Muruganandam, SnapApp
3) Taboola
Google Review Count: 250
Taboola is a content discovery platform, serving 360 billion recommendations to over one billion unique visitors each month on popular publisher sites including NBC, USA Today, The Weather Channel, Tribune and Fox Sports. Target B2B or consumer audiences.
Sample review: “Taboola (is a) paid media resource for getting your content some screen time across the web, whether on social sites, or other popular publications and high-traffic areas.” — SnapApp
Pricing: contact vendor for pricing
Showcase reviews: SnapApp
4) inPowered
Google Review Count: 164
A programmatic content amplification platform that enables you to target and distribute your content (blog posts, videos, infographics, guides and tutorials, etc.) across native ad channels, social networks, native exchanges, and content recommendation widgets.
Sample review: “Inpwrd is a search tool for finding the most relevant content related to a content. Perform a search based on keywords and the content that is read and share out the most.” — RazorSocial (World)
Pricing: contact vendor for pricing
Showcase reviews: RazorSocial (World)
Social Sharing Tools
1) Flare
Google Review Count: 287
Once a popular, customizable social sharing widget that connected to Google Analytics account to provide detailed metrics on where your content was being shared, Flare has been shut down by its parent company, Filament.
2) Start A Fire
Google Review Count: 138
Originally a tool to drive website traffic by adding a branded badge that promotes your own content within any link you share, Start a Fire is no longer active.
Per their website, “While we have achieved this goal and encouraged tens of thousands of brands, bloggers, influencers and other individuals to share and distribute great content with millions of people, from a business perspective Start A Fire did not reach a point where it is sustainable as an independent product…Therefore, we are sorry, but we’ve decided to discontinue Start A Fire.”
More Tools
Backly
Google Review Count: 112
Like Start a Fire (above), Backly helps drive more traffic to your website (or affiliate offers) by including a message and link in every social post you share. Alternatively, you can use the message to grow your email list by collecting addresses directly using opt-in forms; grow your Facebook following by adding a Like button; or add a remarketing tracking pixel.
Pricing: four levels from $9 to $199 per month
PRNEWS.io
Google Review Count: 88
A fixed-price, online marketplace for buying placement for sponsored posts/articles, news releases, “brand voice” type articles, or any other type of native advertising. Just create an account, upload your content, choose a publication, and place your order. Get your branded thought-leadership content published on sites like the Sunday Post, Rolling Stone, Investing.com, and more.
Pricing: varies widely by publication; see site for details
Linkiro
Google Review Count: 10
Pricing: $12/$49/$99 per month
Showcase Reviews
Anders Orsander
BuzzBlogger
Cent Muruganandam
Express Writers
{grow}
Hunter & Bard
Marketing Insider Group (Curation)
Marketing Insider Group (Startup)
Maximize Social Business
Online Marketing Institute
Perception System
PR Daily
RazorSocial (Software)
RazorSocial (Tools)
RazorSocial (World)
SnapApp
SteamFeed
StoreYa Blog
This was the 35th post in the Best Online Business Tools series.
#1: Best Online Business Tools Series Kicks Off Today
#2: The 12 Best Competitive Intelligence and Benchmarking Tools
#3: The Nine Best Facebook Marketing Tools
#4: The 14 Best Content Planning and Research Tools
#5: The 23 Best Content Ideation Tools
#6: The 24 Best Online Writing Tools and Apps
#7: The Six Best Google+ Marketing Tools
#8: The Four Best Online Education Tools For Business Pros
#9: The 14 Best Marketing Automation Tools
#10: The 17 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO and SEM
#11: The Seven Best File Sharing Tools
#12: The Five Best Infographic Creation Tools and Services
#13: The 28 Best Influencer Marketing Tools
#14: The Five Best Pinterest and Instagram Marketing Tools
#15: The 24 Best Visual Content Creation Tools
#16: The Six Best Online HR, Payroll, and Employee Scheduling Tools
#17: The 20 Best SEO Rank Tracker Tools
#18: The Six Best Screen Capture Tools
#19: The 15 Best Special-Purpose SEO Tools
#20: The Four Best Online Survey Tools
#21: The 26 Best All-in-One SEO Tool Suites
#22: The 32 Best Twitter Marketing Tools
#23: The 29 Best Web Analytics Tools
#24: The 24 Best Email Marketing Tools
#25: The 28 Best Web Design Tools
#26: The 29 Best Social Media Monitoring Tools
#27: The 17 Best Project Management Tools
#28: The 21 Best Content Curation Tools
#29: The 26 Best WordPress Plugins
#30: The 14 Best Personal Productivity Tools
#31: The 11 Best Social Media Campaign Builders and Ad Monitoring Tools
#32: The 12 Best Landing Page and Form Builders for Conversion Rate Optimization
#33: The 17 Best Photo Editing Tools
#34: The Six Best Accounting and Finance Tools for Small Business
#35: The 15 Best Content Distribution and Amplification Tools