Content marketing has become extremely effective, and is a major component of a well-rounded marketing strategy. The method is particularly powerful on social media site like Facebook and Google+ due to the potential of great content going viral and helping amass followers and potential consumers of your brand and products very quickly.
But just posting content alone isn’t enough to harness the full power of social media. In order to gain followers, likes, and have your content and brand shared, your content must stand out and speak above all the other the noise the socially savvy online audience is surrounded by daily.
Here are some ways to make sure your content is worthy of a like or plus on social media.
Boast Your Brand
Social media is an excellent venue to saturate with your brand. Making sure that your company profiles and pages all have consistent brand names, logos, and design incorporated is a great way to obtain recognition of your market position and services. You can do this by using your branding or logo in the profile and cover photo fields of your profiles.
It’s also a great idea to make sure that your content always reflects your company missions, and any original content you’re creating and posting should have the same look and feel as your website and other marketing materials. This helps people more quickly recognize you, and if you’re spending the time to write and distribute excellent content, you want to make sure people associate it to your company.
Post Interesting, Interactive Content
Before you begin your content creation or procurement phase, take the time to do some research on the habits of your audience on social media. By learning and understanding what they’re interested in, liking, and sharing, you can customize your content to align with what they want and will consume hungrily.
Once you have a good understanding of what your ideal social consumer likes, create content around that desire. Take it up a level, and make sure it is compelling, interesting, and engaging. A great way to accomplish this is to make your content posts interactive by encouraging comments, and rewarding behavior you want to see such as post sharing or commenting.
Use Diverse Media
Text, images, and video are all options in posting on social media sites. Images stand out and capture audience attention. This is proven by the tremendous success of Pinterest for business with these impressive stats:
- 85% of Internet users on Pinterest are female
- 100 million users are on Pinterest
- 47% of Pinterest users purchased a product based on pins
- $58.95 is the average sales order value for visitors referred by Pinterest
- 67% Of Pinned Content Is From A Business Site
- 82% Of Pinterest users would rather follow a brand than a celebrity
Impressed? You should be.
Video is known to increase sales page conversions by 50%. There are more than 1 billion YouTube, which equates to 1/3 of all people on the Internet who watch hundreds of millions of hours on of video daily generating billions of views.
Video is key in any marketing plan, and in social media, it can be used to really entice and impress your target audience earning you those likes and shares that you need to propel your marketing campaign.
Make Sure You’re Present, And Active
Posting engaging and interactive content is vital to successful social media marketing, but alone, it isn’t quite enough. You need to be present on your page, posting often, and adding color and expertise in the comments as well. This creates a two-way dialogue with you and your followers, and shows them that you’re listening and care enough to respond.
Know When To Post
As you monitor your posts, and the attention each receives, pay attention to any trends or patterns in when your audience is most responsive and active on your page and posts. As you understand, better when people are online and most engaged with your posts, you could plan your future content during a time that most people will be likely to see it and have the chance to absorb it and take action.
Ask Questions
Asking a question along with your content you post will generate much more response, and you can use it to get a better read on what people think about what you’re posting, and adjust future content if needed. You can also be strategic in what you’re asking to subtly pitch your products or services. Think about the struggle or pain points your audience experiences, and ask a question that will generate a lot of commentary. After comments start coming in, you can position your offerings as the solution to the problem you posed in the form of a question.
By paying attention to these things, you can ensure that your content is like-worthy, and delight your consumers as well.
