Social Media has opened up communication across the world. It allows people to reach out, showing the world what they can do. It is an excellent, though sometimes fickle, tool that can be used to market your business, help create your brand and spread it to the edges of the earth. There are many ways to use social media to increase flow to your site or business and many ways to market using any of the various social media platforms, like FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter. All three of these social media markets can be absolutely vital tools if used correctly.
The key point to look at is your content. The content you put out is both informational and often times entertaining for your customers and followers. It is what keeps people interested in what you do and what you offer. Not only that, it is a consistent and nearly fail-proof way to establish your brand. The content you put out regularly constructs a name and image for you. That is a pretty big deal and is the reason why it is so important to have a social media content development plan.
When creating social media content, there are several things to consider.
- Think about who you are creating the content for. Figure out who your audience is so that you can create content that will draw them in.
- How will your content be unique? Think of how you can establish your brand and set yourself apart so you can be seen amongst the sea of advertisements and other business markets.
- Decide what format you will be using. Choose the one that will best suit what you have to offer and the social media platform you will be using, whether it be Ebook, infographics, videos, blogs, or a guide.
- Where will you be published? This is where you get to research and choose the best social media platform for your content. It is often a good idea to start out using 2 or 3 different ones. In the beginning, put about the same amount of effort into each one and see which one gives you the best response. Then you can proceed to put more energy into the one that is giving back the most.
- How will you manage and schedule your work? By completing your social media content planning, you should be at a point in which your plan is in place and you have a system for managing your work, updating your content, and keeping your schedule up to date.
Organic vs. Paid
The social media market is changing. Organic social media marketing is not as highly sought out as it once was. Paid marketing campaigns have proven to be very consistent and effective. This begs the question: which one should I use?
Organic marketing is beautiful in its basic form. Simply start a page, put some great content on it, spread the word and watch it go viral. In theory, there is no reason this could not work, and in fact still does for some things. However, with so much content out there, your keyword research would need to be very thorough and specific in order to target the audience you want and get results.
Paid marketing offers ease in the form of paying a fee and letting the algorithms of the social media sites take care of the rest. They take care of getting your ad in the right place at the right time to the right audience. This can be very worth it especially for someone who is starting their business with extra capital on their hands.
So, whichever one you choose organic or paid, be sure to first and foremost work on your social media content development plan. This is the first step to success in social media marketing.
