Social media marketing seems easy, right? Post a few comments, whip up a blog, launch a quick Facebook page. But as with any good marketing it’s not just about being seen, but where, when and in what light.
Most importantly it’s about keeping people coming back for more real insights into what you do and what you offer. And make no mistake, the key to keeping your audience engaged will always be great content. Most importantly it’s about keeping people coming back for more real insights into what you do and what you offer. And make no mistake, the key to keeping your audience engaged will always be great content. In this post I thought I would share some tips on finding, sharing and creating great content for social media.
Know your brand
Social media marketing is about knowing your brand and where you should be seen, heard and actively contributing. It also means having your game face on regardless of where that story’s being told. The first port of call on this voyage of social sharing is to hone your brand story to ensure it’s consistent across platforms. Similar to your company boilerplate, this brand story is a brief of what your business stands for and what it does, along with a recognisable logo and contact information.
Telling your story
Great social media marketing involves the constant revelation of your story and what’s going on in your business. Essential to any modern PR strategy, it involves sharing what’s new, what’s timely and simply what’s happening in your business, including events, awards, innovations and commentary. Topics to keep your social media content fresh include responding to current news, using relevant dates in the year like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, and answering the most important questions your clients ask. Importantly, it also involves telling the ‘why’ behind your brand. This is the point of difference between you and everybody else in your game. And what you’re looking to share is often right there, within your average day.
Content ideas:
Today’s paper – What’s making the news today? Topical blogs, posts and commentary are great a great opportunity to respond to an issue, comment on it or use your authority to weigh into the debate. These opportunities help build your brand as a credible source that’s up to speed with the latest events of the world.
What are you planning – Is there something happening within your business? An event, change of premises, new staff member, fresh product line or expansion? These plans you’re making could be the basis of your next post when the time is right.
What are you telling your clients – The story you tell your clients is often social media material, you just haven’t framed it that way yet. From a well written blog to a quick Facebook keeping people up to date and providing advice is great content that’s tailored to your audience, providing them with essential information in a more casual and personal way. Your newsletter – Similarly, your newsletter often reveals interesting and new facts or stories about your business. So how about sharing on a social level in snippets, full posts or tweets?
Your competitors – It’s just good business sense to keep a watchful eye on your competitors and the same goes for what they’re talking about in social media. You can gain great inspiration from watching the way they respond to everyday issues or the information they’re releasing.
What’s trending? What are your staff members talking about? – Gossip, whether online or in the break room, is prime fodder for social media. Why is something piquing people’s interest so much? Ideally it’s the word on everyone’s lips that pertains to your industry, but sometimes broader topics provide the opportunity to comment as well. So ride the trending wave.
The questions your clients are asking – As PR is all about communication, sometimes the questions your clients ask reveals a whole lot about what people want to hear. So why not answer them through posts, via infographics or images, or through a quick informative tweet?
Education and engagement
The best thing about social media is that, unlike the traditional press, it’s a two-way street. That means you have the opportunity to engage with your audience and to roll with topics based on feedback and trends. It’s a conversation where you have the opportunity to educate your market, and this potential goes beyond just the occasional blog. It can include tips, advice, how-to videos, activities for your clientele, and more.
Use your content You’ve created it, now use it. Effectively handling social media is about posting regular and informative content, but that doesn’t mean hours labouring away at a desk. Content is 20 per cent creation, and 80 per cent how, when and where you share it. That means repurposing your content across channels and reposting it again when necessary. You can highlight slightly different angles for different media, but don’t forget to back link to other relevant posts.
Choose your media You can’t be everywhere at once, and you can blow some great opportunities by trying. Instead, start with the mediums you understand best and are most relevant to you. Get a good handle on them, whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. Only when you’re entirely comfortable using that channel proficiently should you move on to the next media, adding to your presence one channel at a time. There are some great resources that will help you understand where your audience is looking for information, so find out where you market is and target that channel next.
Own your real estate If you’re taking on social media, own it by acquiring the right user names for all your relevant channels. That way it’s searchable, locatable and yours to tell your story to the world.
Tools to help you:
Image Creation:
Canva: Great for setting up your branded images on both desktop and the phone
Easil: Is a the DIY design secret weapon with easy to use brand tools will ensure your designs are used in the right way by your team, every time.
Wordswag: WordSwag is that app you see us use to create a lot of the memes you see in the group. It allows us to create beautiful custom text layouts with im
ages that would normally take minutes – or even hours – with just a tap.
Photofy: Like to make your photos pretty? We do! Photofy is how we add text overlays stickers and filters to our Instagram pics!
Video Creation:
Lumen5: Take that Blog post and promote it on Social Media using text and video using Lumen5
Animoto: Animoto have amazing Social Media friendly Square Templates that you can use to with your own images or their stock library.
Wevideo: Brand and edit your own video in the cloud to create amazing videos
Headliner App: If you are podcaster you are going to love this app. Take snippets of your episodes to promote
Automation and Planning:
Later: Spend less time posting to Instagram and more time growing your business. Intuitive and easy to use, you can start scheduling Instagram posts in minutes. No notifications required! Auto Publish is available for Instagram business profiles
MeetEdgar: MeetEdgar makes it easy to schedule and automate your content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn! From writing posts for you (seriously) to re-posting evergreen content, Edgar has you covered!
Some of the links in this post are to our affiliate partners and we like the product so much we partnered with them. It does not affect my recommendation of the tool all views in the post are my own and genuine.
