What are some content creation strategies for social media platforms?

Many businesses post on social media without getting really clear on the objective, style, tone, and audience. It's like shooting without aim. Different social media platforms serve different purposes. For example, if your goal is sales/lead generation through live virtual events then you would want to utilize LinkedIn or Facebook Live for your strategy. If your goal is to acquire job applications for your business than you would use LinkedIn. If your goals are to drive traffic to your retail website, Facebook and Instagram would be beneficial. Get clear on your general tone and style, as it can slightly differ for each platform. Put yourself in the point of view of your target audience to create engaging and impactful content for them.

💡 each social media platform has its own best practices and audience demographics. Tailor your content strategy to suit the specific platform you're using, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, or others. Adapt and refine your strategy based on the platform's unique features and your audience's behavior.

In my opinion, knowing goals helps in purposeful engagement and measurable progress. 1. Purposeful Engagement: It ensures that your content resonates with your target demographic, increasing the likelihood of building a loyal and engaged following. 2. Measurable Progress: They allow you to track your performance and adjust your strategy as needed.

Once you know your goals, use tools and data to better understand the audience/s they apply to! Consider using some of the following software suggestions for: 1. social listening (to help understand your community) 2. automation (for maximum efficiency) 3. analytics (using data to compare and optimize your marketing strategies) Software for social listening, automation, and analytics include: 1. Zapier 2. Buffer 3. Later 4. Mention 5. Sprout 6. Hootsuite 7. Sprinklr 8. Brand24 9. BuzzSumo

The key to setting good goals for social media is deciding the right success metrics. Expecting every single post to give you a specific number of likes, shares, and comments can be unrealistic. Instead, focus on who you're trying to reach, and what action do you want them to perform. For instance, if you want readers to move to your website to read an article, you can track link clicks and shares. This also means that you include links and copy that help readers move out of the given platform. However, if you want to start a conversation on a specific topic, then measuring likes and comments is the way forward. Instead of expecting every type of content asset to go viral, understand the purpose you want them to serve and plan your goals.

I once posted an Instagram stories design (1080*1920) on my ig feed (1080*1350), and I noticed that some part of the design was cropped off. Knowing the right post format will save you the stress of working on a post and later finding out that you can’t post it unless a part is removed. Imagine posting a reel video of 80 seconds on YouTube Shorts which only accepts 60 seconds short content. Of course, the video will be cut off immediately at 60 seconds. This shows how important knowing the recommended post length of a platform is.

Selecting the appropriate content format and length is critical for effective social media strategies. Consider the platform, your goals, and audience preferences when deciding on video, image, text, or other formats and the ideal content length.

Format is important, along with esthetic and identity. This should be adapted to differnt formats if possible. Differnt platforms serve differnt purposes, but it doesn't mean everything posted is 100% polished and perfect. For example look at the evolution of instagram feeds, esthetically pleasing feeds are dead and the newer generation is viewed as a content now all the time raw approach vs. Carefully curated posts. There is a balance and then something new comes along and changes the game :)

Platform-specific content is crucial for engagement. Here's how to approach it: 1. Tailor content format to each platform's preferences. 2. Consider aspect ratio, resolution, and duration for visuals. 3. Be concise within Twitter's 280-character limit. 4. Showcase expertise with long-form content on LinkedIn. 5. Prioritize high-quality videos on YouTube. By adapting your content to each platform, you maximize its effectiveness.

Above all, stay "platform authentic". What I mean is not only the aspect ratio and the length, but moreover, making sure that a certain piece of content is something that is desired on the given platform. TV content does not live very well on YouTube, YouTube (long form) will not live very well on short form platform such as TikTok and so on. Be aware of content trends, have a feel for the given platform (the only way to do that is to spend a lot of time on it) and create content accordingly.

A must advise if you deal with a lot of inconsistency in showing up and also in your messaging. Build a content calendar for each platform and you can just duplicate the content calendar of one platform for another. Then make a bit of changes especially if you use more than one platform.

Start with figuring out how you’re gonna take your audience from where they’re at to where they want to be. What content could help them at what stage? And where is the best place to reach them in each stage? Based on this you can work out concepts for series of content and start scheduling. Working this way can also dramatically lower your content production costs: in stead of producing posts one by one, you can now work way more efficiently and shoot entire series in one go.

Craft compelling stories that connect with your audience emotionally. Share behind-the-scenes content to humanize your brand. Create a content calendar to schedule posts consistently. Plan ahead for holidays, special events, and relevant trends.

Designing a content calendar is pivotal for organized and consistent social media management. Plan and schedule content in advance, aligning it with your goals, audience insights, and the best posting times for each platform.

Building a content calendar helps us stay on track and grow our audience. It also helps us create more creative content since we have the time to plan ahead and as such prepare content of greater value and quality. Going ad hoc may harm your image and results in stress and unprofessional work

The best advice I've come across is to create once, distribute forever. What this means in practice is finding new ways to say the same thing so that your message sticks. Try listing out different angles you can take to present your content to start out. Then based on what you come up with, figure out which angles align best with which platform or format. Don't be afraid to play around with it either! Social media is a great testing ground to see what resonates with your audience. Once you discover a format that works, try repeating it with your other angles to keep the momentum going.

Consider all of the possible uses for the content before creating it. One possible path: 1. develop macro-content (video is great) that can be cached or gate-kept for premium members of exclusive members 2. break that macro-content in different formats

Less than 12% of your audience sees your content (and some platforms are less than 4%), so don't be afraid to share the same thing in a slightly different way. Here's some ways to do that: 1. Take a new tone (ex. switch it from positive to negative, always do this to never to that) 2. Divide up longer posts (ex. a list of top five tips can be 5 individual tips) 3. Share it in a new way (ex. read it aloud as a video or include a cool new graphic) 4. Tie it to a current event or trend (ex. relate it to a Taylor Swift lyric or tie into the rise of AI)

My biggest hack for repurposing content has been my podcast! From my podcast I have been able to create Blogs, Social Media videos, and LinkedIn posts. This is all quality content that represents my brand perfectly that I wouldn't have if not for a podcast. Recycling content is working smarter instead of harder, and I definitely recommend!

Phew! The hardest of the bunch repurpose. Because you have to change one content in different ways. However, it is a full-time job to repurpose content but when done properly can work the magic you need for growth on your social media pages.

Don't post and ghost!! Take the time to respond to every comment and DM. Actively engage the social media accounts of your partners, employees, and clients to strengthen their loyalty and advocacy. Also, be sure to engage the accounts of your ideal clients, partners, media allies, etc. In fact, consider making content with them using "content-based networking" strategies that give before asking. Content is not king. Relationships are. Content is just one powerful tool.

Always engage! Why not respond to something? Anything? Even if your just wishing good luck or great job. Engaging with followers and people you follow creates the relationship you want to have. They will know you. They will (hopefully) like you. And maybe just maybe they say hey I know a guy/girl! We all want to be the person someone refers but why would I refer you? Do you comment on my posting have you reached out for conversation? I know I do. I reach out even to say thanks for the connection it's important, we are all strangers until we are not.

Don’t just engage on those who actively engage with your content, or your clients and coworkers. The real difference is made when you start engaging with the content of others on relevant topics. You will start noticing the forming of a community of people engaging with each others content on a subject. This community will bring you valuable connections and push the reach of your content.

A lot of brands simply lose a big piece of their growth just because they ignore their following. Marketing is not just about showcasing your brand, its values, or products, but it is about building a solid connections with your target audience so as to not only make them buyers but also promoters for your brand.

For some Brands, it isn't necessary to engage with all of the social media's audiences. It depends on your Brand Identity, maybe you don't want to engage with all people and choose from them for each conversation.

Your strategy must combine reactive and proactive shares and responses. One you can schedule, the other you really can't. Without carefully balancing proactive and reactive shares, you're missing the opportunity to include customer experience in your social media campaigns. If you're too busy looking for the next algorithm buster or the next meme that will go viral, you'll likely forget to share pertinent content relating to your customer's ongoing experience with your company and solution. While scheduling can be useful and save you time, you can't schedule interaction with your customers and prospects. Balancing reactive and proactive content sharing is the best way to create and maintain balanced social media content.

Craft compelling stories that connect with your audience emotionally. Share behind-the-scenes content to humanize your brand. Use high-quality visuals and eye-catching graphics. Maintain a consistent visual style and color scheme to reinforce your brand identity. Respond promptly to comments and messages. Encourage discussions and user-generated content.

Highlighting your most engaged community members or partners with user-generated content (UGC) across your social platforms has several benefits: 1. people-first brand positioning 2. evergreen content marketing material 3. "content-based networking" opportunities

Social media is a whole bunch of experiencing, exploring and exploding. Experiencing is the way out to understand what works for you. This brings in the concept of understanding your audience, building your tone and voice. Exploring is much needed. Do not stop from engaging with negative comments. Negative comments bring in a different perspective on your table. Add perspectives to all post in your topics, in your feeds. Exploding is the way of using trends, your knowledge, making use of your research, making distribution the way to go. Do not shy away from regularly posting, nor shy away from sharing your posts in dms.

Some businesses opt out of responding to negative comments entirely. This should not always be the case. While it's important to rid your page of spam, bots, and social media "trolls" it's also imperative to listen to both positive and negative feedback. People will buy from people who take accountability for mistakes and make them right. The truth is, we will all make mistakes on social media. There may be content that some people don't like as well. That's okay. It's important to respond to negative comments so users will know that your brand hears them. Caring about people on social media goes a long way!