You are proud to call yourself a “creative mind”. You like copywriting, you have no problem creating new posts and stories for your brand’s social media. But every now and then you have these lingering thoughts: “How do I boost engagement on Instagram?”; “How can one fanpage acquire thousands of fans in a few days, while ours merely gathers a hundred in a matter of months?”; “What content should we publish on our brand’s Facebook, and what should we publish onLinkedIn?”
The short answer is you need a cohesive content strategy that will serve as the basis for all your future actions. The field of social media marketing is very vast, and we could write pages and pages of meaningful insights; however, we know your time is valuable, so we have decided to summarize it in five easy steps:
STEP #1: SET A CLEAR GOAL
Publishing content just for the sake of it won’t work. Every time you sit down to prepare a schedule for the upcoming month, you face the same problem: “What should this post be about?” The solution is deceptively simple: set a clear goal for your content. Here are a few suggestions:
- Building awareness: spreading a message about your brand, product and services
- Generating conversions: aiming to make new sales, drive traffic to your website or gather leads
- Customer education: sharing your knowledge and insights about meaningful topics
No matter what you choose, it’s crucial to remember that your content should be engaging. Publishing yet another generic post only for it to disappear into the void without a single reaction, comment or share is hardly an ideal scenario.
STEP #2: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
You probably know who your brand’s audience is in real-life, but do you know who actually follows you on social media? Let’s have a look at some data.
- According to NapoleonCat, a social media management tool and website, the most active Polish audience on Facebook are people aged 25 – 34 (26.8%). And yet, if you look at the demographics for Instagram in the same country, the dominant age group shifts to 18 – 24 (35.3%)!
These two groups of users are vastly different in terms of behaviour, thought process and decision making, not to mention that they need completely different content as well. Publishing a post for the wrong audience is likely to result in fewer (if not zero) interactions, which would be a pity since you worked so hard on your content!
If you want to dig deeper, we recommend using tools such as Facebook or Instagram’s Audience Insights, Buffer, HootSuite or SoTrender. Understanding your target demographic can only help you produce even better content.
Remember, you are not creating content for yourself or a brand; you are creating it for your audience. Ignoring this simple fact can be very harmful.
STEP #3: CHOOSE THE RIGHT CHANNEL
We’ve just learned that getting acquainted with your audience is essential. The next step is to pick the right social media platform for communicating your message. Each channel can vary in terms of its
- dominant audience,
- trends,
- navigation
- and category of popular content.
Perhaps your future clients are more likely to find about your artisanal furniture shop on Instagram? Or maybe they follow a similar news magazine to yours on Twitter? The choice is yours to make and there is not necessarily a wrong one.
NOTE: Whenever you hear about a “revolutionary and stunning new social media platform”, don’t just run off and create an account for your brand without giving it some thought first. The most common mistake brands make with social media is creating a profile and then just abandoning it for months or even years, simply because they have no strategy in place or content to publish.
STEP #4: ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE & TEST VARIOUS FORMATS
So, we now know that content should always be engaging, but how do you make sure it is?
One way is to test a variety of available formats. Of course, posting a square photo on Instagram is a very popular choice, but have you tried adding a 60-second or longer video and then directing traffic to your Instagram TV (IGTV)? Or, how about using Facebook polls withGIFs and asking fans to vote on what they want to purchase in the future?
If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, maybe you should experiment with some other formats, such as:
- Static and video carousels,
- Different interactive stickers on Story: Polls, Slide polls, Countdowns, AMAs, Quizzes, etc.,
- Various ratios like 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3 and so on!
The technical aspect of creativity is essential, but another thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is appropriate copy with a tone that matches your brand. Remember to stay coherent on social media. If you have a more “posh and sophisticated” target group in offline channels, then don’t overuse heart and star emojis in each post; it could actually backfire and scare your audience away.
Don’t be afraid to encourage people to engage with your content by having a clear call-to-action (CTA) (“Leave a comment”, “Click the button below”, “Check out our bio”, etc.). A call-to-action is highly advisable; otherwise, your audience will most likely see your content, read it and then just…keep scrolling
STEP #5: SUPPORT YOUR ORGANIC CONTENT
To maximize your reach and engagement, don’t forget about the power of performance marketing. If you publish a new post that links to an insightful article, why not create a Traffic Campaign and direct your audience to it via your other content? If you want to start a conversation, why not boost the selected post with an Engagement Campaign? Creating a synergy between your organic and paid social is key for success in social media.
These five steps are all you need to get your content strategy started, but if you still feel like you’re struggling with it, we’re more than happy to help! Contact us at [email protected] and we’ll tackle this problem together!
