If you are like most small and mid-sized business owners or marketing managers, the hardest part about social media marketing is coming up with quality content and doing it consistently. For some, the difficulty is with finding the time to create content for others, even just figuring out what to post on their company’s social media pages on a day-to-day basis is a struggle.
In this article, we will look at 4 great ideas to get you started while you build out your next social media content calendar.
Answer critical questions that your target audience may have.
This one is very simple and yet, extremely powerful. The most ignored fact by most marketers and customer service representatives is that each customer you come into contact with represents an entire segment of others that are just like them. By paying keen attention to their concerns and observations, you get a fairly accurate insight into what your target market might be thinking.
It is from these interactions that powerful content like FAQ pages, customer manuals, brochures, and of course, social media content can come from.
Showcase your employees, colleagues, or partners
One of the most overlooked objectives of social media marketing is to put a face on your brand and what better way to do it than with the faces of the actual people that make your company what it is? Remember that people actually do business with other people, not companies.
PHOTO CREDIT: Kampala Hospital staff members striking a pose during a corporate photoshoot carried out by SMAT Marketing
It is therefore a great idea for your company to use social media to introduce new employees and profile existing ones in order to make a more human connection beyond the great graphics design and illustrations.
Feature your happiest customers
If people know, trust and talk about you positively, chances are high that the people they know will gravitate towards your brand as well. One of the best ways to make sure of this is by featuring the happiest customers in your portfolio. You can do this with a video, which would definitely be the most powerful way but only if your clients are comfortable with being filmed, let alone featured on your social media channels.
If your customers aren’t comfortable with you posting a video of them, even a well-designed testimonial poster or promo video can do the trick.
Offer some thought leadership
Thought leadership is a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions in the minds of your target audience on a particular topic. Thought Leadership means you provide the best and deepest answers, to your customers’ biggest questions, in the formats your audience likes to consume. Going by today’s content marketing trends, that format would be video.
In the video above, the Q-Sourcing Servtec Group CEO shares critical tips that make sense for anyone who holds a job irrespective of which company they work for. In fact, in this 3-part series, he goes on to touch on other tips for employers as well.
NOTE THOUGH: While you create those thought-leadership videos, articles, or posts, remember that your audience doesn’t really need your content to be differentiated all of the time. They just want the best answers to their deepest questions. You should therefore differentiate with your point of view, your visual design, and most importantly, your consistency. That is how you will become an authority.
There you have it!
Four easy-to-find, easy-to-implement ideas on what to post on your company pages but before you dive into it, here are 2 tips to consider upfront.
Never start without a plan
As a growing business that wants to use social media marketing with a REAL Return On Investment, you cannot just show up on every platform and update your audience whenever you have the time or feel like it. Always start with strategy. You can only stand out and clearly head towards impact if you identify specific goals, create valuable posts that align with those goals, and distribute content on the right platforms.
Whatever is worth doing, is worth measuring—including content
Pay attention to which content works well and what your audience engages with the most. The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to create great content. This is as simple as filling out a monthly report based on the insights on your company page.
Have you been thinking about kicking off serious social media marketing for your brand? Do you need ideas, guides, or even full, hands-on help? Our team at SMAT Marketing has been doing this since 2014. We have experience working with brands across multiple industries on different social media channels and we are ready to help.
CLICK HERE to learn more about our Social media marketing services.