You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Content is king.” Well, as user tendencies and content consumption have evolved with internet behavior over the last 20 years, social media content may have elevated its status to the king of kings. And while it’s imperative to position your brand in front of the correct audience, it’s crucial that the content mirrors the context of each social channel. Each channel is different and has its own nuances & subtleties very worth paying attention to.
If your goals are to establish scalable and lucrative connections, as well as grow sales with loyal and prospective customers, this article will teach you how to develop channel-specific social media content marketing strategy.
No double dipping! Get your own!
The first step to crafting and executing a context-driven social strategy is to stop using the same/similar content and copy across every social channel. It’s an outdated strategy that may have found success to a certain extent during the earlier days of social media but it’s a tactic who’s best days are behind them.
Many times, you’ll see brands, and agencies alike, using software to push the same post to multiple platforms. You could argue that software makes this process more efficient & cost effective but it’s also quite lazy. Sometimes there simply isn’t enough capacity to develop a contextual strategy and/or perform from a place of quality rather than quantity. Whatever the case may be, publishing the exact same posts on every social channel is missing the bigger picture and may work against your strategy’s objectives. Breaking this habit is the key to more engaging content and better results.
We buy with our eyes so visual content wins
Social media users are visual creatures. Eye-catching content demands immediate attention, and can translate complex, lengthy ideas into images our brains can comprehend in a fraction of a second. This can be accomplished using anything from illustrations, mini-graphics and images, to charts, diagrams, GIFs, factoids and quotes. Adding trust signals can really push your visually stimulating content over the top. Since shoppers are such visual creatures, added trust marks to key content can sometimes act as that little nudge your strategy needs to convince browsers to take desired action.
Because visual content concisely conveys macro subject matter, it allows room in post copy for additional ideas, content and opportunities for engagement. You’ll find that the quicker it is for your users to digest your content, the more likely they are to share. When in doubt, keep your messaging simple.
Copy matters more than you think
The text attached to your graphic has the potential to support or, unfortunately, hurt your post’s conversion potential. Your copy should fall into one of three categories: education, enlightenment or entertainment, ultimately to gain the “fourth e” – engagement.
The style and tone of copy you choose to use should reflect what resonates best with your audience(s). This knowledge can and should be obtained through rigorous testing. If your target users appreciate humor, a witty remark in the middle of a learning experience can go a long way. It comes off like a friendly, less daunting approach and is generally appreciated by the reader. However, an overwhelming amount of humorous analogies can mask the entire purpose of the post and consequently cause friction for the reader, whose objective was to learn instead of being bombarded with your standup routine. If that’s the case, you certainly missed the mark. Your brand needs to rethink how the tone & messaging in your campaigns can more effectively convince your target users to perform the action(s) you want them to take.
Influencers have become the gatekeepers for meaningful exposure
As consumer behavior has shifted away from expert reviews and more towards favoring UGC (user generated content) reviews, social proof has been brought to the forefront of the buying experience. We’ve even seen that adding trust signals help verify the legitimacy of the reviews and can cement the trust felt between buyer and seller in valuable ways that was lacking previously. Many potential customers are seeking honest reviews from people they can connect with. Your loyal customers reveal themselves by commenting on their experience or love for your brand outside of a “review” section. It’s important to encourage “experience sharing” by asking open-ended questions in response to their comments.
We recommend brands follow your customers on the same social platform, even mention them when appropriate and become involved in the conversation they initiated. You’ll find that small steps like those will lead to big results over time. And before you know it, you’ll have brand evangelists that love spreading your brand message far and wide. You may eventually have an influencer who not only took a chance on your product or service, but who loved it enough to write about it voluntarily. This strategy proves to be cost effective while potentially reaching millions.
Let’s talk context for specific platforms
By now, I think we all understand that compelling content is ineffective if it’s not displayed on the right platforms. Understanding your target audience is the first step to reaching them. Understand what demographic you are targeting. What are their interests, cultural values or level of disposable income? The answer to these questions is key to revealing which platforms your audience should optimize the most, and how to leverage your posts accordingly. While there’s a multitude of social platforms—with many still on the rise and changing over time—the following platforms have proven to be arguably the most effective in the world of social media.
Facebook (Meta)
Currently, Facebook is the most notable social channel simply because it has a vast database of users and an impermeable, community-based format for building relationships. Keep in mind, the average user’s age range is from 25 to 54. This means your content needs to speak to a variety of interests, rather than ages, and hone in on brand loyalty. Build your brand on Facebook by including privatization tactics and highlighting mission statements, community outreach and showing camaraderie amongst like-minded organizations.
Some of the most effective ways your brand can increase engagement on the platform are:
- Asking questions. Start conversations with your audience by simply asking questions.
- Giving users a sneak behind-the-scenes
- Discussing trending topics
- Publishing branded graphics
- Telling stories
- Videos
- Product photos
- Infographics
- Blog posts
- Industry tips
- Contests & giveaways
- Discounts & sales
Instagram is a very curated, visual social platform. With 200 million active users viewing and sharing images on Instagram, it is easy for your business to get lost in the fray. This social platform is a universe of impulsive posting and sharing and isn’t suited for expecting to gain loyalty from your customers. Retail, art, food, entertainment and beauty thrive on this platform and if you can find a way to incorporate any of these industries into an impactful, edited image, you can be a part of the visual conversation. What will set you apart is your angle and personalizing your social media content strategy. Choose a tone for your brand and personalize your call-to-action approach. This automatically omits the typical “Purchase here!” message and replaces it with “I really needed this break today.”
This is the optimal platform for social listening, community involvement and trending conversation. Although this platform may feel like it’s constantly changing since Elon Musk has taken over, one could argue that engagement with the platform has never been higher. Therein lies a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the influx of attention. Depending on your target audience(s), your brand’s Twitter account may opt to be witty or serious, sarcastic or entertaining. Maybe all of the above. No matter what personality your brand chooses to showcase, being factual and efficient in responding in a timely manner to all interactions should always be the goal. Unfortunately, many businesses upload ads on their Twitter feed and miss valuable opportunities to start, end and/or be a part of conversations that matter to their customers.
Although many people have considered LinkedIn to be a mildly interactive resume builder, it is, in fact, one of the most untapped, powerful social channels for new business development and consumer sales. There is an art to offering your brand to consumers on LinkedIn and it is much simpler than one would think—direct all of your product/services to LinkedIn’s main users: professionals. Think micro when positioning your content, and speak directly to the professionals who work in industries you want to excel in.
In fact, over the last couple of years we are seeing companies extend their brand reach by encouraging employees to post about the inner workings of their day to day work routines. It serves two purposes: 1 – Businesses gain more reach and can potentially entice top talent to look in their direction. 2 – The natural evolution of influencers has infiltrated this platform as well. Not only do influencers want to capture your attention with slick visuals to push product sales, LinkedIn influencers want to raise their stock in the professional/corporate arena by being viewed as thought leaders in their respective space. All of this creates a tremendously powerful marketing loop that puts brands front and center on LinkedIn users’ feeds.
YouTube
As the largest video-sharing website on the internet, YouTube also doubles as one the largest video search engines in the world. If your business has a product to market, adding an informative and entertaining video to YouTube can quickly get your brand and its products in front of hundreds of millions of potential customers. If the company has a service to offer, you can use YouTube as a place to speak about the service, establish yourself and the company as an expert and provide ways for potential clients to contact you. In addition, YouTube’s integration of Google Adsense advertising allows you to market through more traditional pay-per-click advertising.
YouTube also provides an array of channels for businesses to communicate with customers and prospects. In addition to directly communicating through posted videos, you can interact with customers using YouTube’s comment functionality. After watching your videos, customers engage with your content and often leave comments asking questions or seeking advice. A reply comment provides an opportunity to promote the business or provide highly visible customer service. YouTube also offers a private messaging function that allows you to communicate directly with individual customers.
Again, using YouTube to reach your target audience(s) depends on where your users are and how they like to consume content. As video platforms evolve, competition for user attention keeps getting split while also becoming shorter and shorter. For instance, TikTok has upended what we previously thought we knew about video engagement.
TikTok
TikTok has been around for a few years already but it’s still viewed as the new kid on the block. Lots of individuals and companies still don’t totally understand how to use the platform or the best ways to execute campaigns but we’re learning together in real time.
- Keep your videos short and sweet. Though TikTok videos can now be up to three minutes long, videos under 30 seconds are more likely to wind up on the FYP (for you page). It’s also more likely someone would rewatch something that’s fast-and-furious a second or third time. This is how loops carry momentum and get views up quickly.
- Trending sound effects. Hashtags aren’t the only element of TikTok that has its own trend cycle. TikTok Sounds also tend to go through waves of popularity. Keep your eyes (well, ears — the eyes of the auditory system, if you will!) peeled for recurring sound clips that you might be able to riff on, too.
- How-to videos excel. Educational content does really well on TikTok, so get into know-it-all mode and share your wisdom with the world. How-to videos are particularly popular, but even answering a frequently asked question or shedding light on a surprising element of your industry, job or product can be a delightful break from never-ending dance clips that still reign supreme.
Closing thoughts
The possibilities are endless with social media, as long as you know how to use each platform to its best ability within the nuanced frameworks of how users expect to consume content. Finding success in your social media strategy is an exciting journey, not always an easy one, however. It’s one that sharpens the blurred lines of your brand and helps you unravel what your audience is looking for.
It can be tricky for brands to cut through the noise sometimes. Often times lots of content out there looks and sounds like other content. But if you want your content to really stand out and resonate best with your audience, you need to add social proof and trust signals to truly elevate your strategy. Building deep trust with your target users cannot be replicated. You either have it or you don’t. You can certainly work in it for all time but visual cues are proven to shorten the time it takes for users to trust your brand.
