Whether your target audience is on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or even Linkedin, one of the most challenging but fun parts of putting together a marketing strategy is coming up with fresh and exciting content for your social channels that can help to grow your business’ exposure and brand image. However, there’s more to just sourcing content and posting online. In fact, MBP has learnt that in order to get the best feedback from audiences for our clients, we have to understand what is required in terms of styling, colours, and visual styles to create appropriate content for the chosen social platforms that will appeal to the target demographic. If you’re curious as to how we put together different content strategies for all our clients, keep reading for some of our best content tips for your social marketing.
Plan your content
Unless you’re using existing content online (which frankly, you shouldn’t be!), your brand should have assets, made in-house or sourced externally, that’s been specially created by you for your audience. From choosing which products or services to feature, to planning concept and sourcing props, a lot of work goes into creating content. Well-produced, consistent, high-quality content needs to be thoroughly planned with everyone involved, including the client, stylist and photographer, so that everyone is on the same page and knows what needs to happen in order to ensure a positive outcome.
Get educational and informative
Not all the content you share online has to be beautiful, ‘grammable’ images with short, attention-grabbing captions. Instead, taking the time to create meaningful content that is personal to you and informing or educating your audience in your captions with useful ideas, tips or advice actually allows people to stop and take the time to read and absorb your content in an easy to digest format. Not only can people be inspired by what your informative content may be saying, but it lets your audience know that you’re a reliable source for information about your industry, your products, or otherworldly issues.
Make your content actionable
It’s great to have amazing and stand out content to share on social media, but the content you publish should also act as a catalyst for action in your audience – especially where your business is concerned. After all, the point of sharing this content is to convert your audience into customers. If you’re offering products, then your content should be desirable for your audience to want to own. Or if you’re offering services like food, your content should be appealing enough that audiences feel like they want to check out your page to order. Content should always be shared in a way where people will want to move from Point A (being the shared content) to Point B (being your page, your contact details or your website).
Hold competitions or giveaways
Everyone loves free things and especially so when it’s from a business or brand that they follow. Contests are a great way to engage your audience while you increase your brand’s exposure online. It’s been reported by Tailwind that Instagram accounts that run contests on a regular basis grow their database about 70% times faster than accounts that don’t. Competitions also give businesses a chance to explore how far they can go with their creative ideas for content and gives audiences the opportunity to create User-Generated Content (UGC) that can be re-used both as audience reviews and free, bespoke content.