by
Rachel Cummins
| Oct 21, 2011
Many technology companies have had a social media presence for a while. But where so many companies go wrong is that they fail to realise the importance of content in the realm of social media marketing. Content is at the heart of any good social media marketing and communications strategy. If you don’t have interesting content to share, then what do you plan to actually do with your social media channel? Social media may appear to be all about spontaneity, but in the real world good social media brand communication is normally very carefully planned, months in advance. In an ideal world, a content creation and distribution strategy would precede the set up of social media channels, but even if you’re a latecomer to the content marketing party and you’re all set up on social media, you should not delay the creation of a content strategy anymore!
Think about subject matter - what are your customers' pain points?
As ever, it’s your audience that you should ruminate upon when thinking about what to share via your social media channels. What are the things in their lives that you can positively affect? To give a simple example of what I mean: if you sell cameras, you might think about how you could help your customers become better photographers. Your product or service offering may be more complicated than my simple example, and you may sell to customers via a channel, but the point remains the same: think about what content relating to your product or service will help your customer (whether they are reseller or a consumer) succeed. It helps to get other people involved in this thought process, so try holding a brainstorm to come up with subjects that would help customers. Don’t worry about the type of content (white paper, podcast etc); just concentrate on the subject matter first. Once you have decided on the subjects, then you can think about what form it will take.
Choose formats that your audience can access easily
Content can take many forms. Here are some examples of content formats that you could deliver via social media:
- Blogs;
- White papers, How To guides, branded PDFs;
- Podcasts;
- Animation or video;
- Webinars or webcasts;
- Images;
- Slideshows / PowerPoints;
- eBooks or digital magazines;
- Visualised data such as infographics
- Website content
- Facebook and Twitter updates (with no link, the content is the post itself)
Again, consider your audience and what they are likely to utilise easily – don’t choose formats that will be a barrier between them and the content. For example a more techie audience may well go for less obvious formats like podcasts, as they are likely to own an MP3 player. However if yours is a more average audience that might not own such technology, you might prefer to play it safe and focus on formats that you know they are likely to access easily, like a blog.
Utilise existing marketing collateral
After you have thought about what content you would like to create for your audience to address their pain points in relation to what you offer, it’s time to think about anything you already have that might do this. Remember that presentation by the MD that you recorded last year? Well now it might come in handy! Or how about the presentation that you did explaining how to get the most out of your product? Could that be useful to your audience? Whether you have nothing at all and are starting afresh or have loads of content that could be utilised again in this new guise, once you create content from now on, remember to archive it so it can be utilised at a later date. Re-using content is a great way of getting return on investment from costs associated with content production.
Select social media channels appropriate to your audience
Now you have a list of subjects that you want to cover, you are clear on what format/s you want to the content to be in, so now you need to think about the delivery method! Which social media channels are most suitable for your audience? Don’t automatically assume that Facebook is the social media channel that will work hardest for you! Yes it has massive coverage, but say for example if yours is a B2B, quite serious, techie audience, then something more business-like might appeal to them more. Consider these mainstream options, there are lots more of course, but these are probably the most well-known go tos when creating a social strategy:
Linked In – great for a business audience
Twitter – perfect for a middle-class, creative or slightly older audience
Facebook – ideal for a youth or consumer target group – good for well-known brands
Google + – still quite tech savvy, lots of CEOs and figureheads are utilising this, good for tech forward audience
Vimeo – a good choice for video or animation showcasing to a more creative audience
YouTube – the main video channel for a wider audience
Slideshare – an excellent way to share PPTs, especially to a professional audience
Flickr – photo sharing for tech savvy audience, and keen photographers
Plan your content schedule - what to post and when
A content schedule is a good idea even if you are a small organisation. Planning your content ahead for the next few months, even though it will take time to do it, will save you time in the long run. You can consider dates in the diary that will be relevant to your business and prepare your content in advance. Also if one person is in control of social media communications and that person is on holiday or ill, then the content schedule comes in very useful for the cover.
Track links, encourage debate, reuse content – and don’t forget to converse as well as broadcast!
With a content schedule in place and your social media channels up and running, it’s important to remember some basic, but nonetheless key points. Firstly always track links so you can see what types of content are most popular and which not so much. Secondly, always post your content in such a way that encourages conversation and comments. You must be prepared to accept good and bad opinion, it’s all good in the social media mix, just ensure you respond appropriately. Once you see what content is working, make a note that it was successful and feel free to post it again, but at an opportune time. Leave a few months so the audience doesn’t feel cheated that you are posting old stuff too soon. Last but definitely not the least important is the golden rule: don’t just broadcast, have conversations too! Search for mentions of your brand or product, or a related keyword and get involved in the conversation. Try to do this in a helpful way; not in an obtrusive way. An example might be an individual talking about a product in a negative way, mentioning the brand name. If you are the brand marketer you should pick that up and respond helpfully. Small companies can do this too; simply modify the keywords that you are looking for to respond on subject rather than on product.
Summary:
- Devote some time and budget to developing content
- Organise a brainstorm to come up with subjects that could help your customers
- Consider the type of content that would be most suitable for your audience
- Utilise existing collateral
- Think about the social media channels
- Create a content calendar to diarise what you are sending out and when
- Include track-able links
- Encourage feedback and debate
- Re-post some content after a few months
- Don’t forget to converse as well as broadcast