The good, the bad and the busy: gaining third-party credibility takes effort when it comes to your content creation strategy, and it takes time. It also turns your content into a mighty force for gaining new leads and building customer trust.

Today it’s not enough to write consistently high-quality content for your audience and hope for the best in terms of search rankings. It’s not enough to post some blogs or whitepapers and believe you’ve got content marketing down. Moving boldly toward getting  your content reblogged, reposted, published again or shared across social media by leaders in your business niche is the cream of the crop for your content marketing efforts.

Called third-party credibility, gaining the respect that equates to getting shared or republished by industry leaders means your content is powerful, effective and targeted toward results. Aside from quality writing that adds value, location is everything when it comes to gaining third-party credibility.

How do you know where to add your content to achieve third-party credibility?
– Find the sources online where your customers go. This may include the professional groups or organizations they are in, or the publications or magazines they read online.
– Move beyond immediate customers and think about vendor areas they may go or trade-related industry sites they may utilize.
– See if these organizations or publications are looking for submitted content, such as blogs or articles.
– Talk to people who are leaders in your field which places they go for great content, and check there for ways to send your message.

As for topics, make your content useful. Gaining third-party credibility is a more natural occurrence when the information you’re offering is related to changes in your field, new technology or useful tips related to solving a challenge. Don’t forget to shake up your content mix with tools like video, tagged photos and slideshows.

Why is this work so important? Getting reposted and republished from industry leaders means you have a better chance of being associated with quality accreditations, quotes, news articles or other invaluable clues that tell your audience how amazing you are when they search for information in your field – and the more ways you can do that, the better.