Approximately 223 million people are on social media in the US as of 2021. That accounts for 82% of the population, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the numbers continue to rise.
All businesses can benefit from having an active social media presence. It’s a great way to build your brand, connect with customers, and encourage brand loyalty. But, it can be a little overwhelming if you’re just getting started in the social media world.
Content on social media gets consumed and replaced at a rapid rate. If you want your content to reach a large audience and genuinely resonate with them, then you’ll need a proper social media content strategy.
Related: What Are Google SERPs?
Your Social Media Content Strategy
Developing a social media content strategy is essential for ensuring your business’s success. We’ll give you a complete, in-depth guide on how to use social media content to extend the reach of your business and enhance its performance.
Step 1: Set Your Goals
The first step with any new venture is to set practical goals for what you hope to achieve. Setting goals for your social media content strategy is essential because it will help you determine which platform(s) you want to be active on, the type of content you need to produce, and how often you need to post.
Here are some common goals you might want to set for your social media content strategy:
- Increase your brand’s visibility
- Increase traffic to your website
- Increase your revenue
- Generate new leads
- Boost engagement with customers/potential customers
- Convert more potential customers into paying customers
- Increase brand loyalty
These examples can apply to most businesses. Each goal will need to be backed by a different type of content. For example, increasing traffic to your website requires content with a call to action and a link to your website.
Increasing brand loyalty can involve content that shows- not tells- why your brand is better than the competitors. Boosting engagement can be done with posts that end in a question and generates a conversation between your brand and customers.
Your goals will also help determine which platform(s) you should utilize. Once you’ve set your goals, you can move on to the next step!
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Step 2: Define & Research Your Target Audience
You can’t sell yourself to everyone, so it’s essential to narrow down who you want to reach with your content. This is entirely dependent on your business. An eco-friendly cleaning products brand will target a very different audience than an auto parts brand.
You can determine your target audience by asking yourself a few simple questions, such as:
- Who are your products made for?
- Who has bought your products or used your services in the past?
- Who is following your competitors on social media?
After you’ve narrowed down your target audience, it’s time to do a little digging. Look into the types of content that get the highest levels of engagement with your target audience. You can check competitors’ content to get an idea of the types of posts that resonate with your target audience.
After doing plenty of research on your target audience and your competition, you’ll have a feel for what your audience is looking for and the type of content that tends to draw them in, which brings us to our next step.
Related: How the Facebook Algorithm Works
Step 3: Choose The Best Social Media Platform
Some businesses make the mistake of throwing themselves into every social media platform, which isn’t the best practice. You’ll spread yourself too thin, and different platforms will perform better for your content than others.
The biggest social media platforms you should consider posting content on are:
Each of these platforms has massive amounts of users and excellent user engagement. You should start with one or two, and once you have a solid audience built up, you can expand to other platforms if you wish.
Choosing your platform will depend on the type of products or services you offer. LinkedIn is great for nearly any business, but someone starting their own skin care product line might have better luck on Instagram and Pinterest.
A great way to determine which platform you should focus on is by seeing where your target audience spends most of their time. You can do this by researching competing companies on each platform and seeing where they’re most active and where they receive the most engagement.
Step 4: Create Your Content On A Schedule
Before you even start creating content, it’s vital to have a solid schedule planned out. Many brands try to post daily, but is that reasonable for your brand? Or would you be better off posting 2-3x a week? Make sure the schedule you create is practical.
We can’t emphasize enough how vital consistency is. When you’re trying to build up an audience and convince them to buy your products or services, then you need to show them you’re reliable. Promising your audience three posts a week means sticking to that!
After you have a schedule planned out, it’s time for the fun part- creating content! This can include written content, link-based content, photos, gifs, videos, and more!
The content you need to produce will depend on your brand, goals, and target audience. Stick to your schedule and ensure every piece of content you put out reflects positively on your brand, advances your goals, and engages your audiences.
Related: 20 Key Social Media Advertising Statistics
Step 5: Measure Your Performance and Adjust As Needed
This last step is crucial for anyone’s social media content strategy. You can’t just send posts out into the ether and never think about them again. Most social media platforms have analytics to see how your content is performing.
Notice which posts do well and receive plenty of engagement and which miss the mark. Track when you have an increase in traffic or sales and how it correlates to your social media content.
You can adjust your content strategy based on your analytics and how your content works to achieve your goals. One of the most important aspects of social media content to remember is this: content gets consumed quickly, and it’s easy for a winning post to get buried.
Don’t be afraid to cannibalize old content for new posts if you feel they didn’t perform as well as they should have. Continue adjusting your strategy as needed, and soon you’ll be a master content creator!
Final Thoughts
Social media content is perhaps one of the most powerful tools a brand/business has these days. It’s the perfect place to expand your audience, build up your brand image and brand loyalty, and increase the overall performance of your business. Follow our detailed guide to create a cohesive and effective social media content strategy!
Sometimes businesses need to outsource their content creation, or just need some help getting started. If you’re looking for knowledgeable, reliable, and top qualities writers, then check out ContentDog!
Last Updated on July 28, 2022 by Hilda Wong