For marketers, attracting eyeballs is a perennial challenge. You can create the best content in the world but if no one sees it, it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest. So much content is produced every day that it’s getting increasingly difficult to reach your target audience, much less generate leads. Word of mouth is the communication channel most trusted by B2B audiences, but for that to work you need to inspire people to share your content. How can you do that?

In an age when the average smartphone user reportedly has an attention span less than that of a goldfish, you might think that the shorter a piece of content is, the more likely it is to engage its intended audience. While there is definitely a case to be made for brevity, long-form content also deserves a place in your content mix. 

My colleague, Andrea, won Super Bowl tickets by participating in a contest on Twitter sponsored by the Bay Area Super Bowl host committee. I know, incredible luck, right? This got me thinking about how companies encourage user input to increase engagement.

The efficacy of traditional outbound marketing channels is in decline. As a result, savvy B2B marketers have turned to inbound tactics to provide customers with compelling, relevant, valuable content. But the question is: How do you know if your content is compelling?

Whether you're an expert on mindfulness, productivity, Cloud or Big Data, raising your online influence can help establish you as a thought leader and burnish your company's reputation. But if you go about it the wrong way, you can inadvertently alienate the very people you're trying to win over.