There’s a lot of noise on social media. Hundreds of thousands of posts are added every single second. In a world of constant and instantaneous updates, it can often feel overwhelming trying to come up with ways to stand out and create effective social media content for platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
In order to cut through the clutter and engage your target audience, you need a strategy that works.
And the most important aspect of an effective social media strategy boils down to one thing: creating quality content.
Before we dive into some actionable tips to amp up your social media game, let’s take a minute to understand why focusing on quality content is absolutely essential to your success.
Why quality social content matters for your business
In 2020, having profiles on a few popular social media channels simply won’t cut it anymore.
If you want to increase brand visibility, connect with your audience, and build a community of loyal customers, you can’t just create a Facebook account and schedule a few automated posts.
A successful social media presence requires commitment, strategy, and above all else, high-quality, value-based content.
How to create value-based content
While factors like trends and algorithms are constantly evolving in the world of social media, one rule that never changes is give your audience value.
And the easiest way to provide genuine value to your customers is through the content you post.
But what exactly makes value-based content, well, valuable?
Value-based content is centered around your customer’s needs – not your business. When you focus on customer-centric content, you’ll start attracting the right audience and ultimately propel the growth of your business.
Quality content builds relationships and trust, and trust will eventually lead to conversions. Best of all, if you’re providing valuable content, there’s a good chance it’ll also be engaging, shareable, and “thumb-stopping” – AKA the holy trinity of effective social media content.
6 tips to create effective social media content
Most business owners know that stellar social media content can make or break their marketing efforts. The problem is that the rules (and those pesky algorithms) are constantly changing, and it’s no easy feat trying to stay up to date.
There’s no magic formula for creating engaging content for social media, but there are a few specific strategies that are crucial to your success.
Regardless of the platform, your industry, or your target audience, here are six surefire ways to create content your customers will love.
- Know your audience.
- Focus on helping rather than selling.
- Load your content with emotional appeal.
- When in doubt, choose visual.
- Be innovative.
- Create a strategy and set measurable goals.
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these tips on creating content for social media.
1. Know your audience
You can’t create content that resonates with your audience if you don’t know who your audience is.
Now that might sound painfully obvious, but many business owners are focused on creating content that’s relevant to their niche rather than what their customers actually want to see.
If you want to avoid falling into this trap, take some time to really think about who you’re trying to target.
Create detailed personas for your ideal audience, try to understand what their biggest challenges are, and then figure out how you can help solve them. Start a conversation with your customers and listen to their feedback.
Once you’ve determined your target audience, start creating content that matters to them.
2. Focus on helping rather than selling
The quickest way to turn off your audience? Flood their feeds with advertisements for your products or services.
Your social media content should be all about what you can do for your customers, not what they should be buying from you.
In other words, your audience doesn’t care about you – they care about what you can do for them.
Post interesting content that will provoke a reaction from your audience. Ask them questions. Put selling on the back burner and use your social platforms as a place to build and nurture your relationship with your customers.
When we discuss social media content ideas for businesses, we advise our clients to follow the 80/20 rule: 80% (or more) of your content should be relevant to your audience, while 20% or less can be specific about your business, products, or services.
3. Load your content with emotional appeal
At the end of the day, social media is a form of entertainment for consumers. Audiences want to be engaged, and one of the best ways to do this is with emotional content.
Social media posts that evoke emotional reactions — particularly laughter, joy, awe, or amusement — are most likely to resonate with your customers.
Not only does this equate to increased brand awareness and more leads, but it can also positively impact your bottom line.
One of the most effective ways to convey emotive content is through storytelling. Stories are so powerful because they help to humanize your brand and establish a genuine connection with your audience.
So, start including stories into your social media strategy ASAP. Tell the story of how your company started, give your audience a peek at what goes on behind the scenes of your business, or share anecdotes about outstanding customer experiences.
4. When in doubt, choose visual
Regardless of which platform you’re using, photo and video content are dominating the social media landscape right now. In fact, visual content is 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.
Try experimenting with ways to incorporate more visuals into your social media posts, whether it’s Q&A videos, live streaming, animated graphics, or webinars.
Producing visually appealing content is a great way to increase your exposure and engagement.
5. Be innovative
If you want to stand out on social media, you can’t post the same content as everyone else.
In short, you need to create.
Whether you’re trying to build a reputation as an expert in your field or you simply want to differentiate yourself from your competitors, original content is exactly how you can make it happen.
Eye-catching photos, a funny video series, an infographic loaded with mind-boggling statistics — whichever medium you choose, you should strive to post content that forces your followers to stop dead in their tracks. (Or rather, their scrolling.)
6. Create a strategy and set measurable goals
If you’re making an effort to build your brand on social media, it’s important that you understand why you’re doing it.
Without a strategy and clearly defined goals in place, you won’t see any return from social media marketing.
Are you hoping to generate new leads, boost revenue, or increase brand awareness? Consider how social media can help you achieve your marketing goals and tailor your efforts to align with those goals.
As we mentioned earlier, there’s no catch-all solution when it comes to creating engaging social media content.
That said, the tips, strategies, and principles outlined in this post are guaranteed to get more people talking about your content and your business.
At Giant Shoe Creative, we’ve helped a number of brands – both big and small – bring their creative visions to life. Contact us today to see how we can help you take your content marketing strategy to the next level.
