If your business is online, chances are you are engaged in some kind of content production or content marketing. But more importantly, you are also engaged in the consumption of content. You understand just how competitive the social media playing field is, with endless streams of content vying for your attention. The fact is, in our social media dominated world, strong content is0 highly important, yet difficult to implement. Otherwise it just becomes an afterthought, swept under the rug that is social media.
There are a few simple things to consider when producing content. Here are tips and tricks for producing strong content to help you get on the right track.
Have a Strategy
As noted above, You probably are engaged in some sort of content production if your business is online. But chances of any pay off are slim without a documented strategy. This means defining your goals. What are you or your business trying to achieve through a content strategy? Are you simply trying to increase engagement and shares? Or are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Answering this question is key and should a priority.
That being said, your goals may change over time. Social media is an ever evolving machine and your business needs to be able to adapt. You might find that what you initially set out to do isn’t pertinent,or that you’re not using effective social media marketing techniques to actualize your goals. Experimentation is a must. Repetitive content, unless it’s producing massive results, will likely grow stale overtime, and your audience will notice.
Think Like Your Audience
When you’re just about to publish your content, ask yourself: Would I care about this? Is this relevant? Does this resonate with me on any level at all? If not, then your audience won’t care either. Simple rule: If you are simply publishing content for the sake of publishing content, then don’t do it. Your audience, more than likely, are an intelligent group of people, and they can easily see right through a farce. As Blogger Brian Solis noted, “Social Media at its very core is not about technology, it’s about people.” If you don’t engage on a personal, human level then your rewards will be limited. A lot of big name franchises are making this very mistake right now, losing more and more ground every time they do so, but we won’t go into that. You don’t want to be like them, now do you?
Be Patient
This part is difficult but, ironically, requires little work on your part. First off, you need to understand the difference between content and advertising: An effective advertisement will have a quick return on investment, whereas strong content might not necessarily yield the same results; Ads almost always require a monetary investment while the content production is mostly free.
I know this part can be frustrating but, the fact is, social media is about cultivating relationships which, over time, will generate interest among your potential customers. Then, hopefully, they’ll buy from you! This, of course, won’t happen overnight. But—as mentioned above— if you have concrete strategy and defined goals, you and your business are much more likely to see some pay off.
Need some help? Here is our starting Process.
