With more than 4.6 billion users worldwide, social media are so much more than places to meet friends online. These platforms are quickly becoming ideal places for brands that aim to expand their reach and increase awareness– from big corporates to freshly-new startups.
Today, nearly 97% of all Fortune 500 enterprises use at least one social media platform to promote their brands. That said, using social media for marketing doesn’t mean that you bombarded social media users with hard-selling, marketing pitches. No one on the platforms wants to be sold to in every step of their experience.
That’s where content marketing fits into the picture. It’s not all about making users buy your product or services right after they land on your profile. It’s more about engaging them and making them stick around.
We’ll dive into some best practices to leverage social media for promoting your content marketing campaign.
Why Social Media for Content Marketing?
We’ve talked about how social media platforms become an ideal place for brands as it’s crowded– billions of active users scrolling through their feeds every day. It means more eyeballs for your content. That’s not the only reason, though.
Whether you’re a new startup or even a blockchain game company, social media can be such an ideal channel for marketing content. Here’s why:
Paid Ads Features
Social media provide paid and organic ways to reach your target audience. If you want to go straight for the kill, paid social media ads are there for you. These platforms offer vast targeting options that help you zero in on your ideal customers. By all means, they help you share content that resonates with the right audiences at the right time and place.
Collect Users’ Data
Social media platforms offer a treasure trove of data that you can use to improve your content strategy. You can learn about the type of content that gets the most engagement, the time when your audience is most active, and what kind of tone they prefer from you– all of which can help you create better content.
Instant Feedback
You understand quickly whether your content is a hit or miss with social media users. The comments, shares, and likes give you valuable feedback that helps you understand what works and what doesn’t– so you can course-correct quickly.
Build a Customer Base
Through social media groups or forums, you can create a community of like-minded individuals around your brand. This is valuable as you’ll have direct access to people who are interested in what you do and are more likely to convert into customers or fans of your brand.
8 Ways to Leverage Social Media for Content Marketing Campaign
Now that we understand why social media can be such a valuable asset for promoting your content marketing campaign, let’s take a look at some ways to make the most out of it.
#1. Choose the Right Platform
Not all social media platforms are created equal. While you might be present on every single one of them, that doesn’t mean that you should give each of them the same attention. Blasting out your content on all social media platforms will not only drain you of resources but will also water down your message.
Remember that each social media platform has its own demographics and users’ preferences. So, it’s always better to think about where your target audience hangs out the most and focus your energy on those platforms. It’s important to choose the right platform for your business. It helps you to come up with the right content format and well-tailored message.
If you’re a B2B company, there’s no better social media platform for your content than LinkedIn. Meanwhile, if you’re targeting teenagers, Snapchat or TikTok might be worth considering.
Distributing your content on the right social media platforms can also help you tailor your message and tone to fit the platform. For example, Instagram is a great place to show off your brand’s personality, while Twitter is perfect for newsjacking or live-tweeting events.
#2. Create Snackable Content
It’s a battle for eyeballs on social media platforms out there. Everyone can create content, but not everyone can make them stand out and gain attention. If you want your content more visible, you need to make sure that it’s snackable.
Your audience has a short attention span, and they’re constantly bombarded with content from all sides. It’s crucial to make sure that your content is easy to consume and digest.
Snackable content can come in many forms, such as images, videos, infographics, or even just short blog posts. The key is to make sure that your content is easy to consume quickly on a small screen. This means avoiding large blocks of text, using simple language, and using visuals to break up the text.
It’s also important to make sure that your headlines are attention-grabbing and clickable. After all, your headline is what will determine whether users will stop to read your content or keep scrolling.
#3. Tell Stories
You might already notice that every viral social media post has its own story behind it. That’s because stories are one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience on an emotional level.
Take a look at the classic example from Always through their story-driven social media campaign #LikeAGirl:
Embed video: Always #LikeAGirl
People love stories because they can easily relate to them. When you tell a story, you’re not just sharing information– you’re making a connection with your audience.
The story can be about anything, such as how your product or service has helped someone, an interesting behind-the-scenes look at your company, or even just a fun story about your brand.
Don’t just focus on convincing social media users to buy from you– focus on evoking their emotions in the first place, so they’re more likely to remember you when they need your product or service.
#4. Provide Diverse Content
When it comes to content marketing, there’s more to consider than just blog posts and articles. In fact, some of the most successful content marketing campaigns provide a wide range of content types.
This diversity not only keeps things fresh for your audience but also helps you reach a wider range of people. Different people consume different types of content, so it’s important to provide a mix of content types to make sure that everyone can find something they enjoy.
Some of the most popular content types on social media include:
- Videos
- GIFs
- Infographics
- Images
#5. Repurpose Your Content
You don’t have to create new, freshly-produced content to build a solid social media content strategy.
In fact, some of the most successful social media campaigns are based on repurposing existing content. Well, just because you’ve already published a blog post doesn’t mean that its life is over.
This also doesn’t mean that you should just post the same thing over and over again– that would quickly get old for your audience. Instead, try to find new ways to share your existing content. For example, you can turn a blog post into a video, or an infographic into a series of tweets.
Here’s how HubSpot post a mini infographic to their Instagram from their whole 2020 Remote Work Report:
Not only is this a great way to save time and resources, but it also helps you get more mileage out of your existing content. And who doesn’t want that?
#6. Make Use of User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is any type of content that’s created by your users, instead of your brand. This can include anything from product reviews to social media posts.
When we talk about UGC, one of the best examples would be the Starbucks Red Cup campaign. Every holiday season, the company releases red cups and encourages their customers to get creative with them by drawing and posting their art on social media.
One of the great things about UGC is that it helps build trust and credibility with your audience. After all, if other people are happy with your product, then your potential customers are more likely to be as well.
And, of course, UGC is also a great way to save time and resources on content creation. After all, why create new content when you can just curate the best of what your users have already created?
#7. Utilize Trendy Features
Social media platforms have some features that gain a lot of attraction and popularity. For example, Instagram has “Reels” while many TikTok users are attached to the “For You” page.
As a content marketer, you can use these features to your advantage to help your content reach a wider audience. For example, if you create a video for Instagram Reels, then it has the potential to be seen by millions of people– not just your existing followers.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should use every single trendy feature out there. That would quickly become overwhelming, and it’s not necessary to achieve success. Just pick one or two that make sense for your brand, and focus on creating great content for those platforms.
#8. Use Social Media Management Tools
Managing social media content can be such a backbreaking job, especially when you’re a small business with limited resources. That’s where social media management tools come in handy.
These tools help you automate some of the more tedious tasks, like scheduling posts and analyzing your analytics. This frees up your time so that you can focus on creating great content, instead of spending hours on menial tasks.
Plus, many social media management tools like HootSuite and Buffer come with built-in features that make it easier to create and share great content.
Wrapping Up
Leveraging social media for content marketing campaigns is a great way to reach a wider audience and build trust with your potential customers. Those actionable and handy practices mentioned above would definitely help you get started.
One thing to bear in mind here, though, is that the key to content marketing success on social media is consistency. You need to show up regularly and post high-quality content if you want to build a following and get results.
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