Content marketing is something no savvy marketer can ignore in today’s competitive online space. Thanks to disruptive digital technologies and high mobile penetration, people are able to access all the information they need in real time. It is only with the help of content marketing that brand marketers are able to inform and educate users about their product and services.
There are two challenges that content marketers have to overcome while using content marketing; first, they have to create engaging and shareable content, and second, they have to get people to read them. And how do you do that? By using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to name a few.
Integrating social media and content marketing is, however, not as easy as you may think. Marketers have to create value for their users at every stage of the conversion funnel. Before plunging into combining these two cogs of your marketing mix, you need to answer the following questions:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- What value are you offering them?
- What is the right mix of platforms?
- How will you track engagement?
The primary objective of looping in social media in content marketing is to build authority, trust and likeability. Creating and sharing quality content on a consistent basis creates value for your target audience on social media and garners their support for your brand. But that’s not all about using social media and content marketing together. Here’s how to get the best out of the integration:
Create content for each platform
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, you name any social network and you think about so many different types of content. Each platform has its own specifications when it comes to the kind of content they publish. For example, Twitter is best-suited for short posts of 240 characters, Instagram works best for image content and YouTube is perfect for video marketing. You should optimise your content for each platform in order to leverage the strengths of each platform and boost your brand’s presence on social networks.
Choose the right timing
Posting content at a time when your users are not online would be an utter waste because nobody would see it. Your content will get lost in the clutter, thus reaping you no concrete results whatsoever. This is why you need to post your content at a time when your users open their social media applications. There’s no one-size-fits-all method of finding the right time, but you can choose a time when interactions on your page are maximum. You can use different social media automation tools for scheduling posts and for distributing content on social accounts in a consistent manner.
Use influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is not a new concept, but it has certainly become a popular marketing tactic after the advent of social media marketing. You can leverage the power of influencers, who are people with a huge fan-following on social media. These can be anybody who is not only famous but also connects your brand. You can ask them to share your content on their page and influence their fans to check your brand out. Influencers become your brand ambassadors, who are capable of cracking huge deals, reaching out to prospects, reducing sales cycles and boosting your revenue.
Focus on personalization
Personalization is the key to success in content marketing. Content that strikes an emotional chord with the audience will be more engaging and relevant. The only way to do so is by adding a personal touch to your content. Create content that encourages your users to comment on your post. Ask them questions or post a survey that would push them to comment and not just lurk around your page. More the comments, greater is the reach and engagement of the post. You can even use location-based marketing to target users with content based on their geographic location.
Track your performance
Last but certainly not the least, you need to measure your performance against pre-determined key performance indicators (KPIs). No social media and content marketing would be effective without having a proper analytical system in place. As a marketer, you have to understand where you stand in the social space. The only way to do so is by measuring different social KPIs such as the reach, engagement, shares, tweets and re-tweets and so on. You can use this data to know the kind of posts that work best for you. It can be a tedious task, but it’s also crucial to do so for improving your campaigns.
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