Do you look at some business social media posts and wonder what the content has to do with the business sharing them? Do the posts look like a mish-mash of ideas?
To get your content aligned with your brand, thought needs to be given to your social media strategy.
The strategy will help you answer these questions:
- Why am I posting this?
- Does it align with our brand?
- Does it present value?
- What do I want my audience to do?
- Would I share it if I saw it in my feed?
Why people use social media?
To develop your strategy, you need to understand why people use social media. It’s different to traditional marketing because you are building a community. It’s a place where people come to be social – always bear this in mind when developing material to share.
Are you using social media to improve customer experience and hoping the community will answer some customer questions, to educate your audience, or for other reasons?
What does your audience want?
You need to know what your audience or tribe wants to see in your posts.
A good starting point is an audit of your posts, the topics and how much engagement they produce. If you don’t already have social media accounts set up, we recommend you do market research with your audience to find out which platforms they use, how they use them and what they engage with. You can then develop audience personas to understand the different preferences and needs of each.
What’s your story?
Being clear on what your organisation stands for and your voice will shape your content style and presentation, so it aligns with your brand. Do long posts fit the bill, colourful, fun images or is your organisation naturally all video? Does light-hearted or serious suit your brand?
How your organisation wants to use social media and what your audiences find engaging will shape the themes you focus on. Should your content educate or inspire or something else?
Developing your story means you are clear on the messages that help your community, the language to use and that your posts are consistently portraying your brand.
Time to prepare social media content
After you have done all this planning you can move on to preparing content. The planning will save you time. It will also make it easier for you to come up with ideas that resonate, provide value and give your audience an opportunity to become part of your online community.
It also means the audience can clearly see the connection between the content and your organisation, which reinforces your brand in their eyes.
You may also be seeking more information on communications strategy.