Social media usage is continuing to skyrocket. People are spending more time online and on social media than ever before, and as a result, our feeds are saturated with content.
This barrage of content is making it harder than ever to stand out online, and this holds especially true for small businesses. Whether your small business is a family-owned pizza shop or a luxury watch boutique, you need to make sure customers see you.
Interested in context marketing? Check out this article.
And if social media is an important part of your marketing strategy, you should be using popular social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as finding new channels such as Instagram and TikTok, which may be the next hot thing.
This article will share how to create content to make you stand out on social media.
Sections
- What is social media?
- What is content marketing?
- Why do you need to integrate your social media and content marketing strategies?
- How to integrate your social media and content marketing strategies
What is social media?
Social media is a collective term that refers to websites and applications designed to allow people to communicate, share content, collaborate, and interact efficiently in real time.
Most Popular Social Networks Worldwide as of January 2021, by number of active users (Source: Statista)
As of January 2021, Facebook became the market leader and was the first social network to surpass a billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than 2.6 billion monthly active users.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that creates and distributes relevant, meaningful, and consistent content to attract and retain your audience. The ultimate goal is to encourage profitable customer action.
The Success Rate of Content Marketing in the last 12 months from July 2020 (Source: Content Marketing Institute)
Why integrate your social media and content marketing strategies?
Content is what you need to market on social media. Your valuable content includes:
- The posts you create
- The images you share
- Everything you write and publish
In short, without content, there’s no social media marketing.
So, content is the essential base that you must have. However, having good quality content alone is not enough, as you need something to drive it. This is where social media comes into the picture. Social media serves its purpose for content marketing as a powerful distribution channel.
It doesn’t make sense to approach them as separate initiatives unless you want to fail, which you don’t.
Organic Content Distribution Channels B2B Marketers Used in the last 12 months from July 2020 (Source: Content Marketing Institute)
The top three organic content distribution channels that B2B marketers used in the last 12 months from July 2020 are:
- Social media platforms
- Their organization’s website/blog
This shows that social media platforms are the preferred method as an effective distribution channel.
Simply put, there’s a need to seamlessly merge the two to ensure that your brand voice is heard and your reputation is consistent across all communication channels.
How to integrate your social media and content marketing strategies
Here are 7 ways to integrate your social media and content marketing strategies:
- Have a content timetable
- Use social media share buttons
- Create content on trending social media topics
- Optimize images
- Optimize descriptions
- Use infographics
- Optimize keywords for Google
Have a content timetable
The biggest challenge is to produce a steady stream of content that is consistently fresh and interesting. On social media, you need to know how to strike a healthy balance between keeping your feed new and spamming your readers.
Keeping a content timetable/calendar helps with this. Having a content calendar allows you to better plan and structure your content release while having a clear overall picture of your content marketing efforts in place.
This way, you won’t have duplication. Also, you can better plan for holidays, sales, and special events. In short, your social media marketing can be executed more effectively and efficiently. There are tools available that can help you map out your social content strategy in advance.
Use social media share buttons
You have good quality content ready and you want more people to read your posts. Next, you need to add social share buttons to your blog so that it’s easier for your readers to share your posts. Ultimately, you want to leverage your readers and their existing networks.
Adding social share buttons are all good but bear in mind to never clutter your blog. Readers may end up being confused, so just choose a few of the more popular social media sites that your audience uses the most.
Create content on trending social media topics
Although you’ll usually use social media to share and spread your content, social media can also be used to help inspire your next content creation. Monitor closely and keep up to date on any trending social media conversations. This can serve as a useful platform to get new ideas for all types of content.
This not only makes your life easier by giving you new ideas for your content, but it also allows you to create content that resonates with your audience. For example, you can consider using their native trend suggestion tool to see what people are currently talking about for Twitter. Then build your content strategy around them.
There are social listening tools that give you insights into the trends that are defining your market. Sometimes, you can even identify your competitors that are already in the game too.
Additionally, you can do a content gap analysis to improve your brand online. Remember, a successful content strategy addresses customer’s needs at all stages of the buyer’s journey.
Optimize images
In social media, visuals tend to attract more attention than chunks of text. After all, humans are typically visual. This is why images are a crucial aspect of your content strategy.
You can usually get around two times more engagement when you have images in your Facebook posts. This applies to Twitter too. So, remember to include visuals to keep your readers engaged.
As for featured images, if you don’t have them, it’s time you do. Featured images serve as thumbnails for your links when you share them on social media. This helps to capture your audience’s attention and drive clicks. So, ensure that they’re engaging and relevant to the topic at hand.
There are many online design tools that you can use to design your original images, or you can use some of the available free templates and customize them with your photos and graphic elements.
Optimize descriptions
Ensure that your meta descriptions are well optimized, not only for SEO but also for social media. This is because they show up as descriptions whenever your post is shared. Therefore, it is good practice to write catchy phrases which include relevant context about your post to encourage people to click and read more.
Use infographics
Infographics are a great and effective way of speaking to your audience. Have you heard of the phrase “a picture speaks a thousand words?” Infographics typically exemplify this phrase well, as it is a visual representation of information in the form of a collection of imagery, charts with minimal text that helps give an easy-to-understand overview of the topic at hand.
Infographics fit seamlessly into your content and social media marketing strategy as it enables you to share useful information in a bite-sized, visual format. This not only diversifies your content but also gives readers a break from text-heavy posts.
Additionally, you can share snippets of the infographic on social media as teasers and drive traffic to your site.
Optimize keywords for Google
Are you trending high or low in terms of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)? Even though you may trend high one day, it doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax and call it a day as you may not be the next day.
You’ll need to consistently put in the effort and find the keywords bringing you traffic and conversions. There are tools to help you with this. You’ll be able to find out which keywords a particular URL appears in Google. They can also show you how far from the top of Google your site is for a specific keyword.
Once you have found your keywords, you’ll need to source for more similar keywords. Focus on those related to the area that brought you the most conversions. Then, create more content using keywords related to that. This is because such keywords mirror your audience’s search behavior the most.
You’ll then need to check your competition in the SERPs. Narrow down the keywords for your future content that will help you rank higher in Google. Also, fashion your content in social media using those keywords as well. This can help boost your SEO.
Also, don’t forget to optimize user experience metrics; enhancing website performance, content stability, and interactivity can help boost organic rankings and increase brand awareness and sales.
Tweak, rinse & repeat
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to marketing initiatives. You’ve got to get with the times and be flexible to change as needed. If something doesn't work, don't hesitate. Simply change it and try again.
This is how you’ll improve because, when done right, social platforms can be a key connective medium between you and your audience.
Final thoughts
As you can see, merging both social media and content marketing requires a long-term commitment. It is a marriage that is meant to last and not a one-night stand. You’ve got to invest, work at this relationship and give it time to build. You cannot expect to build an engaged, profitable online community overnight.
That said, you have to start somewhere. Although establishing an effective and beneficial social media presence for your business takes time and effort, once you’ve got it right you can expect rewarding results while solidifying your online reputation.
Social media and content marketing FAQs
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that creates and distributes relevant, meaningful, and consistent content to attract and retain your audience. The ultimate goal is to encourage profitable customer action.
Do I need to integrate my social media and content marketing strategies?
Social media and content marketing really go hand in hand. If you have separate teams working on social media and content marketing, it is imperative that they are working together. This ensures that your brand voice is heard and your reputation is consistent across all communication channels.
How can I integrate social media and content marketing?
Here are 7 ways to integrate your social media and content marketing strategies. Have a content timetable. Use social media share buttons. Create content on trending social media topics. Optimize images. Optimize descriptions. Use infographics. Optimize keywords for Google.
