In a world where 93% of buying decisions are influenced by social media*, it’s vital to make sure that not only are you getting your brand message out there, but you are getting the right brand message out there. This is where the journey from content to consumer comes in.
All too often companies use social media to put out regular content, but if little thought goes into posting, then key messaging won’t resonate with audiences.
As content creators, we’ve given a basic overview of content, what it is, and how we ensure that we are producing quality media that reaches and engages the consumer.
Content is King
Social media content can be summarised as visual data shared across online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to name a few. The visual data can be anything from text and images, to GIFs and videos, and it can be shared organically or as sponsored content.
The first point to consider when designing content is the purpose. Are you aiming to engage, entertain or educate your audience? Once that has been determined you can then move to the next point: defining the content type.
To ensure we get the best results for our clients, we always consider the ‘content pyramid’ when creating posts for social media output.
The pyramid is built up of three elements:
Bottom tier:
Pillar content – large pieces of content such as blogs, interviews, web copy and videos.
Middle tier:
Infographics – infographics create a visual representation of information or data which is the most socially shared form of content**.
Top tier:
Micro content – small pieces of content such as GIFs, quotes and images, often extracted from pillar content.
The content pyramid helps to ensure social feeds are optimised for consumer engagement and the three tiers allow categorisation of quality content types that can be produced regularly, whilst avoiding repetition of content that could be considered off-putting to consumers. While the messaging is often the same, there are hundreds of ways to rework content, to reach different audience types.
Distribution
It’s so important to understand which platforms will be the most effective for your chosen content type and audience, so once content has been defined, the next stage is to pinpoint which social media platforms to distribute media.
On average, 95million photos are uploaded daily on Instagram, Facebook has on average 1.6billion daily active users and Twitter users are posting 140million tweets daily***, so it is important to consider what your consumers want and if the platform is right for the demographic you are trying to reach, for example; it is no good posting bulk text on LinkedIn if you know that your consumer engages more with images on Instagram.
Monitoring progress
After publishing any content, it is important to track progress. Using social media monitoring sites and built-in platform tools, you can track and analyse content to find and report on what is working best.
Monitoring the statistics and data will reveal how consumers are responding to certain content, allowing the content creator to understand what works and doesn’t. If something isn’t working well, it’s vital to go back to the creative drawing board and rethink your approach using the content pyramid.
Harnessing social media should be a key part of any businesses marketing strategy, as it’s such an effective way to raise brand awareness, simply by posting content regularly. It also allows consumers to interact and engage with customers in an instant with the click of a button.
If you want to find out more about how to make the most of your social media, get in touch with Jennie Holland PR on 0115 998 3048.