Social media can feel overwhelming. There are so many channels, and you know it’s an important tool, but how do you use it? How do you reach your people? How do you grow your audience? How do you build content that connects with them? First, take a deep breath. Social media is a great tool for promoting your business, and if you follow the three C’s you will do great.
Content Strategy
A good content strategy is the most important tool in your social media arsenal. Take the time to build this out, put it on paper, and follow it. A good content strategy should look at the following:
- Audience – Who do you want to connect with? Who is your business already connected with? A good content strategy will outline the key profiles of the people you want to reach. It should consider their age, preferred channels, what types of accounts they are already following and what types of content they would be most interested in.
- Competition – We all have those successful businesses that we watch and aspire to be like. Check out their channels and analyze what they are doing. Learn from it and integrate those learnings into your strategy.
- Channels – Social media channels are unlimited. So what channels should you put your valuable time and effort into growing? Hint: Your audience should point you in the right direction. If your audience is made up of retirees, TikTok may not be your go to channel. Rather than focusing on a lot of channels we recommended picking a couple that are heavily utilized by your audience. You can always add more channels later when trying to reach new markets.
- Content Type and Purpose – All social content should serve a purpose. That doesn’t mean that every post should be promoting a product — quite the contrary actually, we recommend that only ⅓ of your posts be direct product promotion — but every post you make should have a purpose. For example, you could highlight a cause your company believes in as a way to connect with other people supporting that cause. Or maybe your service is a complicated one, so you want to educate your audience about why it’s important. Janet Curry at Stillpoint Mindfulness does an excellent job of this by offering her instagram and Facebook followers a #MindfulMonday post every week to illustrate the benefits of mindful meditation. Spend some time thinking about what kind of content has a purpose on your feed.
Consistency
It is important to post consistently in order to keep your channel active and followers engaged. Often times we see businesses rotate through the same cycle:
- The business opens a channel and starts posting consistently 👩🏻💻
- It’s going great, the channel is growing 💃
- As time goes on they get busy and their posting consistency dies off 😰
- After a while they realize they have forgotten to post for a while – oh no! Their channel has stopped growing! 😱
- They panic and begin a flurry of posting. 🙏🏾
- Their audience – annoyed by the 15 posts in a 4 day period – unfollows them 🤦🏼♀️
- The business owner decides it isn’t worth their time and the channel sits dormant. 💀
One way to avoid this cycle is to use a post scheduling software. That way, you can work on content and schedule posts once a month and forget about it the rest of the time. No matter how you do it, it’s important to keep your posts consistent. Maybe try posting 4 times a week to start and stick to your schedule.
Creativity
The best social channels don’t just show a company’s products or services — they show the brand’s personality. When building content for your social media channels think out of the box. What information can you offer your audience that no one else could? What are you passionate about? It’s important to take some time to think about how to make your content exciting for your audience. A few best practices we recommend:
- Always use high quality imagery (no blurry photos!)
- When writing captions or post copy spend some time thinking about the story you are trying to tell.
- If you are sharing information that others have already shared, think about how you can put your own unique spin on it.
- Make sure your content is true to your brand guidelines (color, imagery use, writing voice, etc).
Does all of this still seem overwhelming? Contact Psyche Digital for a social media consultation. We can provide a strategy specific to your business or we can take all the stress out and manage your social media from start to finish.
