Good and especially relevant content should be at the centre of any social media strategy. Great content should reflect your brand’s persona and give people a reason to stay engaged.
That’s why it’s critical to build a content strategy into your social media campaign. Without a framework for what you say and a plan for how and when you say it, you risk leaving your audiences confused. Or worse, they’ll ignore you. Who wants that?
These five content strategy techniques will build better relationships with your networking friends and earn your brand better results on the good ol’ interwebs.
1. Social media strategy: Know Your Brand Voice
Everything you say, or write, on social media should “sound” like your brand. Tone is important here. For Brand Candy, we want to sound like candy in word form (yup, that’s us!). We use this in our writing of each and every piece of our personal social media. We add in our own spunk, flamboyance and colour. Why? Because it’s who we are. Read more about writing tone, here.
2. Social media strategy: Timing is everything
Create a calendar that spells out what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say it. Make sure it’s relevant to special seasons, holidays and people’s current situations. Nobody cares about Santa Claus in the middle of a dismal January, but people care about what’s happening right now. Plan ahead for this.
3. Social media strategy: Know Your Audience
Do you know why somebody follows you and why they like you on any given social page? It’s because your brand offers them something! Make sure you bring to the table what they expect. Talk to them about their lives, their interests and even their problems. This brings us on to the next tip.
4. Social media strategy: Be a Problem-solver
Give your social media fans or supporters the tools to help themselves, and make sure your social media team has the right information to share. By making things easier for others, we build trust and trust is what strengthens our relationship. Remember to always be friendly when helping with queries, complaints or compliments.
5. Social media strategy: Be Authentic
Good content doesn’t make promises that it can’t keep. It needs to tap into the humanity and honesty we are all looking for. It should have a personality and a point of view. It’s intrinsically social. That’s why it engages us. That’s why we follow or like a brand.
Your audiences will sniff it out if you’re faking it. But if you’re fun, honest and relevant, they’re going to recommend you to their friends, and their friends’ friends. Bring on the Facebook likes!
