In today’s digital marketing landscape, a growing number of social media platforms and channels are competing for a limited number of marketing resources. Many brands are realizing that they can’t have an active presence across every single platform, and that they need to be strategic in how they create content for different channels. That’s why you need a content marketing strategy for your blog and social media posts.
Create one unified brand identity
In the rush to create new content for social media, it’s easy to fall into the trap of just creating as much content as possible, and waiting to see what “pops.” The basic thinking here is that, if you create enough Facebook, Twitter and Instagram content, something is going to go viral sooner or later.
The problem here, though, is that you might be creating the wrong content for the wrong customer. Or, you might be spreading your resources so thin that you are no longer staying true to your overall brand identity.
Say, for example, you are a brand that prides itself on having a customer-centric focus and responding to all customer inquiries quickly and professionally. So what happens when you’re failing to check your Twitter feed, and a long string of customer requests are being left unanswered? That reflects negatively on your brand.
Stay on schedule
Creating a content marketing strategy can be as simple or as elaborate as you would like. For example, some brands actually come up with a content calendar, where they think several weeks ahead about the type of content that they would like to post. This helps to keep everybody on the team updated on what type of content will be appearing soon, and helps to ensure a smooth, integrated marketing strategy.
But you don’t need a formal calendar to make a content marketing strategy work. All you need is a basic framework about how often you are creating content. For example, 1 Facebook update per day, 2 tweets per day, and 1 Instagram photo every Friday. This makes it possible for different members of the team to handle social media responsibilities, without wondering: What in the world am I supposed to post today?
Boost your ROI
Yes, social media has an ROI, just like any other form of marketing. And that’s where a content marketing strategy can help you generate the highest possible return. As part of any content marketing strategy, you’ll determine certain basic metrics — such as the number of new followers or the level of engagement — you can track. Then, over time, you can see how much you are moving the needle on these metrics. If you are seeing your Facebook followers “stuck” at a certain number, which might be a real clue that either you’re not updating the page enough or you’re posting content that’s not resonating with customers.
By setting up a content marketing strategy, you’ll have real insights into the performance of your social media campaigns. And, best of all, you won’t wake up one morning to find out that one of your team members stayed up late last night, firing off a series of tweets that are completely off-brand.
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