It’s no secret that social media has become a must-have for businesses looking to build a strong online presence and connect with their audience. But, let’s be honest: consistently creating social media content can be a real challenge. It’s not just about sharing information; it’s about capturing attention, delivering true value and engaging with others.
Whether you’re a small business owner or a multitasking digital marketer with a million things on your plate, there are practical considerations and strategies you can use as guidelines to craft engaging social media content without overwhelming yourself, spending too much time, or compromising on best practices. Let’s walk them through together:
1. Know your audience
Understanding your audience is a crucial initial step when it comes to planning social media content that truly resonates. To engage effectively with your audience, you need to deliver content that is relevant to them. But, what exactly defines a “target audience”?
According to Hubspot, “A social media target audience is a group of people that you’ve identified that you want to appeal to. This can be based on demographics such as age, job title, income level, education, location, or behaviour. Your social media target audience consists of the people who are most likely to be interested in your product.”
The process of defining your audience is similar to building a buyer persona profile. Social media platforms can make this process easy as they provide high-level data about your followers.
A full understanding of your audience won’t happen overnight. But the more data you gather and the more you know about their behaviour and interests, the more relevant content you can create for them.
2. Choose your platforms strategically
A common mistake businesses often make is thinking they have to be on every single social media channel. This is not necessarily the case. As we mentioned before, your audience has to be the heart of your strategy. That means you should be only present on platforms where your audience is likely to be participating.
For example, if your target audience consists of older generations, you’ll find them hanging out more on Facebook. But if you need to approach younger generations, they are heavily into platforms like Instagram and TiKTok.
So, instead of trying to be everywhere, prioritise the channels that match with your target audience. It’s all about being strategic and investing your efforts where they matter the most.
3. Design eye-catching visuals
The visual side of your content plays a big role in captivating your audience – It has the power to grab people’s attention and reinforce your brand identity and recognition.
Sometimes incorporating appealing visual elements like colours, typography, graphics, can take a simple image or video to the next level.
When it comes to photos, we strongly recommend taking your own instead of relying on stock images. Authenticity helps to differentiate your business and connect with your audience by sharing a genuine presence on social media. Grab a camera or phone and start capturing moments that truly represent your business!
4. Use storytelling
Incorporating storytelling into your social media can be a game-changer for your content strategy. When brands tell stories, they can evoke emotions with their audience and create deeper connections.
If your social media is filled with engaging stories rather than just dry, informational posts about your products or services, you will captivate your audience in a more meaningful way.
Stories help brands to inspire and to open conversations within your followers. If you don’t know where to start, you can begin with telling the story of your own business. You could share how your business started, why you do what you do, the challenges you overcame, highlight your team members, etc. Sharing your own story invites your audience to look further into your world, have a better sense of your mission and build trust.
And, do you want to know what’s the best part of storytelling? If you nailed this content, people are going to keep returning to your channels for more.
5. Share Educational Content
Educational content is another powerful way to engage with your audience by providing value to them. This can come in different formats like infographics, videos, text-based posts, and images.
Creating educational content not only helps position your brand as an industry expert and trusted source, but also cultivates long lasting relationships with your followers.
By teaching something new or sharing valuable insights, you can build trust and credibility. Users tend to appreciate the value you provide and it’s likely they engage with your content, explore your products/services and eventually become customers.
6. Produce short-video content
According to HubSpot, short-form video is the top trend that marketers are leveraging this year. Platforms like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are on the rise, making short-video content the primary focus of social media channels and users alike.
Source: The Hubspot Blog’s 2021 Social Media Trends Report.
So, why should you consider incorporating short videos into your content strategy? Here are some reasons why:
- Users are bombarded daily with an overwhelming amount of content, making it a challenge for brands to hold their attention for long periods of time. Short videos provide a perfect solution by effectively communicating concise and quick ideas that your followers can consume within 15 seconds.
- People love to share content they find interesting or entertaining, and short videos fit perfectly into this category. By creating engaging short videos, you increase the chances of users sharing your content, which in turn helps you reach a wider audience.
- Money is not a limit anymore. Gone are the days when you needed a big budget to create high-quality video content. All you need is your trusty phone and a sprinkle of creativity to generate something amazing.
7. Use user-generated content (UGC)
You don’t always have to be the sole creator of content. Get your followers involved! Encourage your audience to generate content related to your product or service and share it across your channels. Whether it’s unboxing videos of your product, or photos highlighting the use of your product or service, user-generated content (UGC) adds an authenticity and builds a sense of community around your brand. By reposting UGC, you not only engage your existing followers but also it helps to earn trust in your business.
Source: Hubspot Blog 2023 Social Media Trends Report
At Pixeld, we are advocates of the Hubspot inbound philosophy, and social media content plays a crucial role in today’s digital marketing world. If you’re searching for a team of experts who can develop a long term content strategy tailored to your audience and business goals, simply fill out the form below.
