A Successful Content Strategy for social media
A Successful Content Strategy for social media hinges on two things: good content and effective promotion.
While these two factors are equally important, what matters most at the end of the day is whether or not people are engaging with your content in the first place.
Here’s a simple guide to creating an effective content strategy that will help you not only engage more users but also increase your conversion rates and sales as well.
Content strategy—especially on social media—isn’t just what you say in your posts, but when you say it, where you say it, and how often you say it.
It’s important to have a solid content strategy so that your brand’s voice resonates well with its audience, but how do you create one? Follow this step-by-step content strategy template to set up your effective approach to social media.
A Successful Content Strategy for Social Media will keep your social media fresh and engaging over time, which means you won’t be posting the same thing over and over again and your followers will look forward to seeing what you share next.
But creating this strategy can be tricky, especially if you don’t have a lot of free time and are short on experience with social media marketing.
Follow these steps to create an effective content strategy for your social media accounts that will keep your audience coming back for more!
What is a content strategy?
A successful Content Strategy for Social Media is a plan for how you will create, curate, and share content on social media.
It should answer the following questions:
Who is your audience?
What kind of content will they engage with?
How often will you post?
What platforms will you use?
What tools will you need to execute the content strategy?
The next question to ask yourself is: what are my goals for this content strategy?
Do I want to increase traffic to my website or sell more products through Facebook ads?
Is my goal to increase engagement with my company’s profile or do I want to collect email addresses to build up a customer list (this would be known as lead generation)?
What I find most helpful about having a content strategy in place before diving into social media marketing is that it provides direction on what content should be posted where.
And then when something sparks your interest that doesn’t fall under any category outlined in your content strategy, at least you have an idea of what’s been successful so far!
Content isn’t all there is to consider though. After determining who your target audience is and deciding which content types work best for them, then you have to figure out the frequency at which you’ll be posting.
Will it be daily? Weekly? Daily but only 1-2 times per week? Should posts vary in length or consistency from one day to the next?
Next, comes the big decision: Which platform(s) will be best suited for executing this content strategy and reaching the desired audience(s)? What type of account do I need access to if I don’t already have one created beforehand?
Create a content calendar for Successful Content Strategy for Social Media
A content calendar is a great way to streamline your content strategy for social media. By creating a content calendar, you can map out what content you will post and when you will post it.
This can help you save time and ensure that your content is relevant and engaging. Plus, a content calendar can help you track your progress and measure your success.
Here’s an example of a content calendar –
Day 1: Example content (a blog post)
Day 2: What are the best apps? (a listicle)
Day 3: Instagram Marketing Case Study (an infographic)
Day 4: How I started my blog (a personal story)
You get the idea. It’s a good idea to update your content calendar at least once a week, especially if you have plans to change it up next week or in future months.
If you feel like you need more than one content calendar, that’s OK too! Content calendars don’t have to be overly complicated, and you can even do what many businesses do and just create a general content calendar that covers all of your social media platforms.
It’s better to have more planned posts than not enough so be sure to map out everything on paper before you start creating anything.
Social media management tools
A content strategy for social media can help you save time and ensure your posts are on brand.
Plus, a content strategy example can give you a roadmap to success.
Here are seven tips for creating a successful content strategy for social media – Determine who your audience is and what they want to see from you;
Create content based on this knowledge;
2. Develop an editorial calendar with topics or themes for each month;
3. Use hashtags (#) that are popular among followers of the same topic or industry to increase the reach of your content; – Use hashtags that might interest followers outside of your industry to increase engagement across networks;
4. Keep branding consistent throughout all platforms by using company colors, logo, fonts, etc.;
When updating an existing post include keywords that were relevant when it was originally published so it will come up higher in search results when people are looking for related information.
In addition, make sure to share your content on Facebook and Twitter as well as other channels like LinkedIn or Pinterest if it applies.
A content strategy example: To illustrate how a content strategy for social media can be implemented into a monthly schedule, here’s one I made for the blog based on my research about how often different social media channels should be updated.
Content strategy examples may vary depending on business size, needs, and industry-specific considerations, but here is a simple breakdown of scheduling ideas that may work for small-to-medium sized businesses.
The first column is where the content would be posted and the second column indicates whether you’re posting content there once per day (1x/day), once per week (1x/week), or some other frequency (Xx/x).
Content type refers to videos, images, links to articles or blog posts, links to webinars/webinars…
Automate your posting
Automating your posting can help you save time and ensure that your content is consistent.
Plus, it can help you track your results and analyze your audience’s engagement. Here are seven tips to get started:
1. Choose the right platform for your business.
2. Know your audience.
3. Set goals and KPIs.
4. Plan and create quality content.
5. Use a content calendar.
6. Promote, engage, and measure.
7. Rinse and repeat! The hardest part of social media marketing is consistency. The more posts you have scheduled, the less time spent managing your accounts each day.
To avoid neglecting any social media channels, consider having one post per day for each channel.
Learn from influencers
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to social media success, but you can learn a lot from those who have found it.
First, take a look at what successful influencers are doing. They’re constantly creating new content, engaging with their audience, and analyzing their results.
By understanding what works for them, you can adapt and improve upon it for your own business. You might find that they’re using visuals in their posts, including polls or quizzes, or posting behind-the-scenes videos of themselves working on a project.
Whatever they do that works for them could work well for you too! Start by studying their social media strategies so you know where to focus your efforts.
If you want to stay true to your brand identity, make sure the things you post match up with your company values and voice.
You should also use data analytics to measure the effectiveness of your posts. For example, see which types of photos get more likes than others or which type of headlines drive more clicks.
Once you’ve figured out what kind of content works best for you, be consistent with it so people will come back again and again!
Experimenting is great for figuring out what kind of content will work for you, but don’t forget to keep producing quality content once you figure it out.
Creating a basic plan – whether it’s just five minutes each day or something bigger – is key if you want to maintain an active presence online.
To make sure your strategy stays fresh and interesting over time, try changing up the kinds of posts you share every week – that way people won’t get bored seeing the same thing over and over again!
Create original content
Creating original content is one of the most important aspects of a successful social media strategy. Your content should be engaging, informative, and relevant to your target audience.
Posting frequently and consistently will help you build a following, and interacting with your followers will keep them coming back for more.
Keep an eye on your analytics to see what content is resonating with your audience, and make adjustments as needed. With a little effort, you can create a content strategy that will help you achieve your social media goals.
Use these steps to start building a successful strategy today!
Design is important
1. Keep it simple – don’t try to do too much at once.
2. Be consistent – post regularly and use the same voice/tone across all platforms.
3. Be engaging – write headlines that will make people want to click, and create share-worthy visuals.
4. Be timely – post about current events and hot topics in your industry.
5. Create a blog on your website where you can answer questions and provide valuable information.
6. Make sure there is always a call to action with links back to your website or social media page so visitors can take an action right away (like Download our whitepaper or Sign up for our newsletter).
7. If you’re going to be offline for a while, let followers know ahead of time so they aren’t surprised when they see no new posts coming through.
Video and Instagram stories
Your content strategy should start with a plan. What kind of content do you want to create? What platforms will you use? Who is your target audience?
Once you have a plan, you can start creating content. To get the most out of your videos and Instagram stories, there are several tips that you should keep in mind:
1. Make sure the sound quality is good.
2. Try not to move too much during filming as it will make it hard for viewers to watch.
3. Use graphics or visual effects if needed but only when necessary because they take up more time and space on social media.
4. You don’t need fancy equipment to make a video – just think about what your end goal is before filming!
5. Try not to talk over the video unless necessary so viewers can see what’s happening and hear any music in the background (if applicable). – Keep your camera level, which means not tilting it too high or low and keeping the horizon straight.
6. Remember to include any people who might be involved in the scene so their reaction isn’t missed by followers.
7. Stay focused on what you’re doing and how it relates to your brand – avoid posting anything irrelevant or distracting.
8. If possible, limit footage from other devices (phone, laptop) by getting someone else to film so that you don’t risk forgetting something important from behind the scenes.
9. If posting more than one video per day regularly, try mixing them up with different lengths and styles of content instead of making all posts the same length/style.
Engage, engage, engage
The most important thing you can do on social media is to engage with your audience.
Post interesting content, ask questions, and start conversations. The more you engage, the more likely your audience is to stick around—and to keep coming back for more.
But there’s a lot of other stuff you should be doing too:
The quickest way to make an impact on social media is by providing something that people want or need in their lives. So ask yourself: What does my audience want?
Is it entertainment? Information? A new perspective? A connection with others who share their values? Whatever it is, give them what they need!
Don’t worry about not being perfect at first; the point is to just get started. As you begin posting and interacting with your audience, you’ll develop a better sense of what works best for them.
Remember: It’s all about the conversation. And if you’re going to have one, might as well have it here.
