BUS502: Strategic Marketing

Social media and content go hand-in-hand. The purpose of creating social media websites was to provide users a platform where they can interact with each other and share information. Being a marketer, you can't ignore the value of content. Hence it goes without saying that you need a content marketing strategy for social platforms.

Many companies post content on social websites without a documented strategy to back their actions. A well-documented strategy and plan streamlines actions and guides you in the right direction. It helps you stay on track towards long-term and short-term goals and get heard.

To create an effective content strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are my goals?
• Who should I post content for?
• Which platforms would work best?
• What type of content is preferred by my audience?
• How often should I post content?
• Which KPIs should I use for measuring performance?

Creating Your "Voice"

Brand voice is the distinct personality of your business that sets you apart from the competition. It creates an image or perception in customers' minds. If you promote a positive message through a captivating brand voice, then it won't be difficult for you to achieve social media marketing goals through your unique brand voice.

On social media, you can attract the audience through storytelling. Your stories should portray a consistent image to build credibility. For instance, if you are an optimistic person in real life, you notice the positive aspect of every event and don't linger in the negativity. Similarly, if you intend to portray your brand as adventurous, energetic, inspiring, or trustworthy, you should choose a tone that portrays this image and be consistent.

Customers consider the brand image of a business before they interact with them or make buying decisions. If your brand voice is intimidating or you often post controversial content, then you may end up losing them to more stable and friendly competitors.

Where to Find the Right Content?

Creating fresh content takes time and effort. If you engage with your audience on multiple social websites, it won't be easy to generate unique content for every platform especially when you need to post content on a regular basis. Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, getting new ideas and creating unique content has become even more difficult. This is when content repurposing comes into the picture.

It's a good idea to look at content generated by other social media users. You can get to know about the latest trends and get ideas for your business. An example is that you can work on some DIY projects and record the procedure via a time-lapse video to engage the audience.

You may have created some evergreen content in the past. Go check your social profiles and locate posts that can be reused. For example, you may find images posted on Pinterest or Instagram from previous vacations. You can create blog posts about your experiences around those images and post them on your blog. However, when repurposing the content, make sure it goes well with your brand voice and the general language of the specific social website.

You should also consider creating content around the products your business offers. You can create whitepapers to share detailed information about the product or process. It's also a good idea to complement it with a how-to article or video to educate customers.

Content repurposing works great when you understand your weaknesses and strengthens. If you aren't good at talking in front of a camera, then creating videos for social media may not be your best bet. Stammering out of nervousness portrays a negative image. You should rather choose platforms that go well with your personality and can help you promote your entrepreneurial venture.

Now that the world is moving towards online business, e-conferencing has become a norm. You can conduct business meetings as well as events via Zoom or other digital platforms. You should consider recording such online events and posting them on social media.

How to Create the Right Content?

As a marketer, you can learn from social media trends popular among other business people. Event marketing has become quite popular these days where professionals meet and communicate with each other about topics of mutual interest. These events provide you an opportunity to create engaging content for your social media audience.

You should consider recording these events and posting them on social media for the followers. You can record videos via any device, but you may wonder whether it's better to share live and unprocessed videos or should you process them first before posting on social media. I would say both tactics can work in your favor.

In the case of live events, social media users expect to enjoy live coverage of the event. If you don't want them to miss those golden moments, you should live broadcast the event on your social media pages. Facebook Live feature comes in handy for this purpose.

Back in the day, it was believed that brands may suffer if they share unprocessed video content with the audience as they are less attractive to viewers. But this isn't the case anymore. People don't mind this approach because they are aware you may not always have professional equipment at hand when attending a business event. Moreover, people today are more interested in authentic brands. Overly processed content leads to question marks on authenticity, which is why live videos should be added to your social media content strategy.

It's also important to remember that posting live videos doesn't mean processed and professional quality videos aren't important. You can share the event live and process captured images and videos for later use. With this professional content, you can promote the brand, product, or event on an on-going basis. So, we can say that a combination of raw/live videos and processed videos works best for many businesses.

What Tools Do You Need?

Social media content creation may seem a difficult task but it's no rocket science. You don't need to invest a huge sum in buying equipment and tools to create the right content.

Many marketers avoid generating video content for social media because they don't own professional equipment. However, you don't need highly professional cameras to record videos. It's perfectly fine to use a smartphone camera, digital cam, or GoPro for capturing events. But it's recommended to get a portable tripod to ensure captured videos are stable and clear.

In the indoor environment, you may need to arrange lighting equipment. However, outdoor events can save you from this trouble too. Also, don't forget to get a microphone to record audio along with the video content.

If you intend to share it live, you need not process it to enhance quality, but it's important to edit and process them for professionally posting them on LinkedIn and other platforms.

There are many video editing software available that you can learn to use. However, it is a complex process that is best left to professionals. To find qualified professionals, you should visit Freelancer.com and Upwork websites. These are popular freelancing platforms where you can hire professionals on a project basis or an on-going as per your needs.

The Caption Game?

Posting images and videos on Instagram and other websites isn't enough; you should complement it with captivating captions to increase engagement. Its length can vary, but Insta supports captions of up to 2,200 words. The shorter the text, the more effective it will be.

For your persona profile, you may add a quote that comes to your mind. But business branding shouldn't be done this way. You should write a concise caption that represents the brand personality and resonates with your followers.

Writing long-form captions can work for brands as long as they aren't boring. If you want to adopt this method, always remember to mention important phrases or words at the beginning. This way, when the post is truncated, users will still be able to get the information at a glance.

Aside from the descriptive text, you should also add the most appropriate hashtags to increase visibility.

What's the Hashtag?

A hashtag is a combination of letters or numbers that represent a specific topic. It's helpful for users because it helps them organize content and view posts based on their interests or the latest trends. You can follow hashtags that attract you the most so as to easily access information about that topic.

These hashtags are widely used on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and many other popular websites. As a marketer, you should up your game and master the art of creating and using the right hashtags to better promote your brand and products online.

You can use an existing hashtag or create a new one around your business or business event. On TikTok, brands often create viral challenges and come up with suitable hashtags for these challenge videos. You can follow in their footsteps and create a challenge of your own to get customer attention.

You can brainstorm to come up with innovative hashtags for business marketing, but hashtag tools can simplify this task for you. It's recommended to explore Hashtagify, RiteTag, Trendsmap, and AutoHash to master the art of hashtagging.

Ask Your 8-Year-Old

Social media strategy gives the desired results when it's focused on the needs of target customers. So, brands that create content that attracts their followers tend to get more views and can maintain a good conversion rate.

The population on social media is constantly increasing and more and more youngsters are creating profiles on social media. Therefore, the best way to understand what kind of content these people need is to get the opinion of kids and teenagers.

These youngsters are well-equipped with modern technology and understand how to use almost any platform. They can guide you about the content that attracts this young generation and even give you unique ideas to make your content more engaging.

With the help of these insights, you can develop a plan to increase the engagement rate and convince the audience to take action.

Is that Wrong? The Ethical Question in Social Media

Remember when Adidas faced a backlash by tweeting the following message to participants who completed the Boston annual race in 2018, due to its reference to painful Boston bombings at the 2013 event?

"Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!"

Or when the skincare company, Nivea, posted a social media ad emphasizing that "White is Purity"?

Many businesses grab the headlines from time to time due to a simple mistake on social media or due to their inappropriate posts. It's a growing concern among social media users and can bring negative publicity to businesses.

Before you post content on social media, make sure it's free of profanities, culturally inappropriate language, racism, or other negative aspects that can cause controversy. You need to respect everyone regardless of their beliefs, ethnic background, financial status, or sexual orientation, and create content that doesn't harm anyone's feelings. With an ethical approach, you can effectively promote your brand and build a positive brand image.

Am I Famous Yet?

Social media marketing is a cost-efficient yet effective way to promote your products and reach out to the audience. A common mistake made by some marketers is that they post content and ads on social media for a few days and opt out of social marketing if the posts go unnoticed.

There is no doubt that social media websites have become the leading platforms for marketing purposes. However, it doesn't mean that your brand will suddenly become popular in a few days.

Nowadays, a majority of businesses rely on social media marketing. Under such circumstances, you can't expect to become the market leader within a week.

What you need to do is to be consistent with your effort. During the initial few weeks, your social marketing campaigns may not do that great. However, you should follow the marketing strategy without losing hope. Furthermore, monitoring the performance of the campaign is also essential. It can guide you about what you are doing right and which areas of your social marketing need to be changed.

With this approach, your social marketing efforts will bring results in time and can become the customer choice through constant efforts.

Source: Cheryl Lawson, https://open.library.okstate.edu/introtosocialmedia/chapter/content-speaks/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.