How Content Marketing and Social Media Work Together
While social media and content marketing might appear to be two different things however, they actually complement each other. Brands can increase the impact of a large piece of content such as a white paper or blog post by sharing small snippets on their social media channels.
A strategy can help you focus and optimize your efforts so that you can make the most each piece of content. It also helps you avoid wasting time on vanity metrics and determine what matters to your company, such as brand awareness or website traffic.
1. Identify Your Audience
Social media marketing can be an effective tool to create relationships with potential customers. Before you can create the best content for your followers, you must first understand the people they are. This will enable you to create a strategy more likely to reach your goals and increase your bottom line.
The best place to start is to track who follows your company on social media and also who interacts with your posts. What are their interests? What information do they seek and why? This information will help you target similar people on other social media platforms.
You can also learn a lot about your audience if you study the content of the companies in your industry. What kind of posts are they making and sharing? What kind of content is generating results for them? This will give you an information on how you can create your own content.
You can also reach out to your followers via social media to find out what they want to know about you. ModCloth, for example often asks its customers to send photos of them wearing its products. It then features these images on its social media channels. This helps the brand feel closer to its followers which can increase engagement.
It's time to create and share content after you've identified and defined your target audience. Monitor your metrics, but only those that relate to your SMART goals and KPIs you defined in Step 1. Keep in mind that not all of your content will be successful in the first few days If you're consistent and stick with your plan, you'll eventually get the results you're after.
2. Create a Strategy
In order to see growth from social media, you must have a strategy. You will not gain new followers, persuade them to come back or convert to your website by simply posting content without a plan or strategy. Instead, you should create a written strategy for your content that you and your team can follow. This will help you to create SMART goals and develop and share regular content.
Start by creating your social media marketing plan by defining your buyer personas (or fictional representations) of your ideal customers. Then, consider the types of content they enjoy and the formats that resonate best on each platform. Instagram and TikTok for instance are great platforms for visual content such as photos and short videos. Twitter, on the other hand, is better for posts that are text-based or linked.
Think about how you can utilize each platform in a unique way to showcase your brand. For instance, Instagram is a great platform for fashion brands to highlight their unique designs and products. Stumptown Coffee Roasters also uses their Facebook page for highlighting events and locations across the country.
Another great way to drive engagement on your social media profiles is to invite your followers to engage with you by incorporating calls-to-actions in your posts. For example, if you have an announcement or giveaway, ask your followers to leave comments or tag their friends or share the post.
Remember that social media is an excellent platform to display customer testimonials and feedback. They are extremely effective in building trust that your customers have in you, especially when they are from other social media users who are recommending or using your product or service.
3. Create Content
You need to create content that is relevant to your intended audience to effectively promote your company on social media. This can be accomplished using a variety methods that include blogging, video infographics, podcasts, and many more. It is also crucial to consider the type of content that your customers will want to see and share. For article marketing tools , research shows that personal and plain fun content is a great fit for social media, whereas information and promotions score lower.
Once you have an understanding of your audience and goals for marketing, you can begin planning out the types of content you want to create. It is recommended to mix promotional posts with interesting, entertaining, or educational posts. This will allow your audience to get involved with your business and increase the chances of turning them into customers.
One of the most popular methods for creating content is to interview the top experts in your industry. This is a great way to learn about the latest trends and strategies within your particular field. You can also promote your business through sharing the article on social networks of individuals.
Other common types of content include tips, tricks, and hacks as well as industry news updates and other interesting information that will add value to your readers. Think about adding visual content to your posts. This has been proven to be more effective in attracting attention and boosting engagement.
Finally, it's also important to keep track of your content performance and make necessary changes. For instance, if one format of content is performing poorly it may be necessary to change the subject or the direction from which it's being distributed.
4. Share Your Content
It's crucial to share your strategy and relevant content on social media. This is an excellent way to increase your reach and gain new customers. Keep your updates brief and make sure you include appealing headlines. Don't forget to vary the type of content you post video, images texts, and links are all good options.
It's also a good idea to try to generate interest in your content by putting it up on various platforms at different times of the day. This will ensure that your content reaches the most people.
You may also want to look into partnering with influencers or even running an event. This could be an excellent way to drive traffic and generate buzz for your business.
Once your audience begins to perceive you as a reliable source of information, they'll be more likely to engage with your content and eventually become customers. It is important to place more emphasis on quality rather than quantity when it is time to implement content marketing.
Another thing to remember is that if you're using a pillar content marketing strategy it's recommended to share links to your long-form content on social media. This will give your followers an idea of what to anticipate and help them click to read the whole article or blog.
It's not always clear why specific content is shared more often than others. It's nevertheless worth looking into the psychology of sharing to find out the factors that drive people to share certain pieces of content. This will help you create the best strategy for marketing content in the future.
5. Track Your Results
After you have created and shared your content, it's crucial to track your outcomes. You will be able to determine if your strategy worked or if it is necessary to tweak it. For instance, you might observe that one type of content performs better than another or that certain platforms have more engagement than other platforms. You can use tools like Mention and Hootsuite to track your social media reach and determine how your content is performing.
It is also helpful to keep in mind that just because your content is performing well doesn't necessarily mean that you should continue sharing it on every platform. It is crucial to tailor each platform's content to its audience and best practices. You can avoid irritating your audience by not overdoing it.
When analyzing your results, make sure to look at all of the metrics that are important to you and your team. Select metrics that are aligned with your SMART objectives and KPIs. Be sure to differentiate these metrics for each of the social media platforms you utilize.
With the proper strategy and tactics, you can effectively combine social media and content marketing to boost brand recognition, increase traffic to your website, increase leads, increase sales, establish authority, and much more. Take a look at this free guide from DemandJump for more details on how you can implement a an effective strategy for content marketing. It contains strategies, case studies, and more from companies similar to yours that have beaten the algorithms and have won in content marketing. Sign up to get your copy today!