We recently wrote an article on how to tell if your social media marketing efforts are working. And now you know what to look for to measure its success, it’s time to ask yourself if you’re posting the right things.
You won’t benefit as much from social media marketing if you’re doing it as a separate entity and not incorporating it into your bigger marketing or business goals. So below, we take a look at some example content to post depending on the goal you’ve set.
Increase brand awareness
If you want to grow your brand awareness, you need to share content that resonates with your audience and truly reflects your brand and your values. If you just re-share viral content or post popular memes, your name might get out there, but nobody will know who you are or what you’re offering.
Try sharing content that features or complements your company culture, your company values, solves some of your ideal customer’s problems, or offer relevant advice. But above all, be consistent. The more consistent you are, the more people will know what to expect and the more relevant followers you’ll attract.
Improve customer service
If you’re receiving complaints from disappointed customers, then you may want to look at sharing content that can help manage expectations. Everything we portray and what we say builds expectations, we do it on purpose. But if we’re not careful, those expectations can be higher than what we can realistically deliver so if you’ve found yourself in this situation, start sharing content that help manage those expectations. It can range from opening hours to waiting times to lifespan of a product.
If your product or service is a little complicated and takes some time to get used to, then try sharing FAQs, common troubleshooting help, or even how to guides. Help your customers to use your product or service and get the most out of it in the quickest and easiest way possible. Frustrated customers are likely to leave negative reviews.
Increase authority in a chosen area
If you still have the old mindset that you shouldn’t give away any knowledge for free, then you’re missing a trick, especially if you want to establish yourself as an expert. Use social media as part of your wider content marketing strategy for optimum results.
Concentrate on writing evergreen blog posts that offer value to your readers — something that will be relevant in five years’ time as it is today. Then, you can share this via your social media channels and repurpose it in different ways. For example, quote one key point on a visual, turn it into a video, or even turn it into an infographic. If repurposed as rich media, it’s more likely to be picked up by others and shared.
Position yourself as an expert
If you’re regularly contacted about the same problems, try sharing regular FAQs and advice. This not only shows that you’re an expert about your own product, but if you share information about lateral topics, it will only strengthen your position. For example, if you sell running shoes, try sharing knowledge about nutrition and running from all aspects, not just about the shoes that you sell.
Does your product or service solve a problem? Or make somebody’s life easier in one way, shape or form? If the answer is yes, you can probably tap into ‘how to’ guides. Like we mentioned above, think lateral. If you sell boilers for example, you could write guides on how to recognise when your boiler needs replacing, how to minimise the risk of carbon monoxide, how to reduce energy costs etc. If you can think of a ‘how to’ related in some way to your product or service, you can pretty much guarantee somebody’s looking for it.
Are you bursting with ideas but the knowledge you have is just a bit too long for a blog post? Or do you need the help of design to lay out your information in a more user-friendly way? That’s where e-books can help. And as an added bonus, you can put them behind a paywall and ask for email addresses to boost your email list.
Increase in sales
When somebody follows you on social media, they are unlikely to be at the ready to purchase stage. It’s most likely that they’ll be at the top of the sales funnel, in other words, in the research stage. They’re likely following you because they’ve seen your content and find it entertaining or useful, or they’re hoping to find out more about you.
The longer somebody follows you, the further down the sales funnel you are trying to push them so that eventually, they’re ready to buy. Therefore, it’s important you share a variety of different content relevant to each funnel.
If you’re finding social media marketing overwhelming, or you just don’t have the knowledge, time, or resources, then you don’t have to go it alone.
If you want a marketing partner that is passionate about helping you grow your business then get in touch. It’s what we’re best at.
