How to use social media to improve your content marketing

Many people in the marketing industry view social media as a separate tool to content marketing, when in reality, it is an essential strategy that works with content marketing. Social media allows companies to engage directly with their customers and also improve their search engine ranking in a relatively cost and time effective way. The following tips will help you utilise social media platforms correctly to improve your content marketing and your audience base.

Tailor your content

There are many social media sites operating worldwide, each offering different ways to send the same message. Depending on what product you are selling, you can tailor your content to best suit the social media platform. For example, if you have a retail brand, sites like Instagram and Pinterest are a great way to share images of your product. Often the same product can also be marketed on Facebook and Twitter, which use a mix of classic text-based content, images and videos that link externally. It is a matter of putting yourself in your audience’s shoes and determining what works best for the platform you want to use. Take note of what your target audience’s online content is and what is important to them. This will allow you to tailor your content to ensure that it is of interest to them and that you are using your time, effort and money wisely.

The following infographic from Sprinkler is a helpful tool for determining the best way to reach your target audience by using content marketing through social media.

Remember to make your sites compatible with mobile devices. As many consumers operate social media using their tablets or smartphones, any links back to your site must be easily viewable!

Time your posts well

Content marketing enables you to promote your business around the world. It is therefore important when making use of social media, to consider the best time to post content online, taking into consideration time zones and peak use periods of various sites. Even content that has only domestic interest must be posted at suitable times, as time zones can vary considerably across countries like the United States and Australia.
Peak use periods can vary between social media sites. For example, a recent article on CoShedule noted that the best time to post on Facebook was between 1pm-4pm late in the week and on weekends, compared to Twitter, which has an optimal time from 12pm-3pm on weekdays. These may seem like trivial details, but by being cautious and making use of such information, your content marketing can have a greater reach with your audience.

Quality over quantity

A lot of companies assume that a heavy presence on social media platforms is beneficial to their content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, your audience is more likely to become irritated by a constant stream of content and unfollow your company, gaining little value for your business. It is therefore better to invest in fewer posts of a higher quality that entertain your audience and get shared and liked many times, rather than many posts that aren’t shared at all. At the same time, it is important to maintain regularity with your posts – don’t bombard the consumer, but ensure they’re aware of your presence.
A key consideration to keep in mind is that the content shared through social media platforms is a direct image of your company and the brand you are promoting. Consequently, it is necessary that you develop distinct standards on the character, content and design of the content being marketed as it will reflect your company’s brand.

Impact

Social media is all about engagement, so it is a vital tool to assist content marketing. Using social media to propagate your content marketing also enables you to assess its impact on your target audience. Remember, what appeals to a lot of consumers now can yield a subdued response in the future. There is no point investing lots of time and money in content marketing, unless its performance can be assessed and results produced.
Most social media sites allow users to show their approval for content by “liking”, “sharing”, “retweeting” etc, which offers a straightforward and simple measurement of how well received your content is. Only recently, Facebook unveiled its new “reaction” function, allowing users to be even more specific in their response to content posted, and brands to understand their audience response even better than before.
Another useful tool that can be used to assess impact on social media is the use of hashtags. Hashtags not only allow you to track the spread of your content, but are a functional way of encouraging engagement with your audience. Make sure that any content that is posted makes use of brand specific hashtags and remember to be consistent. By using the same hashtags as often as possible, they will trend better and make your brand more and more popular.
Assessment of your content marketing strategies through social media platforms must be a recurrent process, mindful of the internet’s changing and dynamic nature and the effects that has on how your content is viewed by consumers. Your content marketing on social media must therefore also be open and tolerant of change to attract and keep your target audience interested. Aside from the tools and analytics available on social media sites you can also use Google Analytics to assess the performance of your content marketing and determine what aspects are working and what could be improved. Be sure to also monitor the most successful content of your competitors at Buzzsumo.

Conclusion

As content marketing becomes more widespread, businesses must tailor their strategies to attract the attention of their audience online. By using social media effectively, your content marketing will be more easily shared, viewed and consumed by your target audience. Social media is an ever changing medium, so it’s important to remain on top of trends to ensure that your content marketing is being shared on the best and most suitable platform.