Content is driving the car but social is fueling its engine. Or as Jay Baer more eloquently says, “Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.”
Regardless of your metaphor choice, it’s imperative that your content marketing and social media efforts align. Today’s consumers and prospects appreciate simplicity, consistency and efficiency. Don’t clutter your audience’s mind with unorganized messages. Follow these four tips to sync up your content and social for optimal engagement, awareness and brand messaging.
1 – Integrate quarterly/yearly goals
Your business goals for the quarter or year – generating leads, building brand awareness, establishing thought leadership, retaining customers, etc. – will dictate the type of content and social media messaging you produce.
If you’re looking to boost lead gen for a quarter you can promote gated content like e-books or subscription newsletters through your social channels to attain names and e-mail addresses. If you’re trying to boost your authority you can interact with top players in the industry to share some of your blogs related to a trending topic.
These goals will also affect what social channels you target and how you address customers on each platform. If you’re focused on customer retention, it’s essential to promptly address any comments on social with an informative and thoughtful response.
2 – Build and follow an editorial calendar
Editorial calendars are crucial for managing content marketing efforts like blogs, newsletters, e-books and more. Although commenting on trending topics and sharing real-time news is the heart of social media, you should maintain an editorial calendar for social that supports your content calendar. Example: If you’re posting blogs about building a deck, they should be paired with relevant content on social allowing you to point the audience toward your related blog.
3 – See what sticks
Each social media network is different. LinkedIn is professional, Twitter is real-time news, Facebook is personal. You might have similar posts on each network and receive entirely different responses from your audience. Try new approaches and see what sticks. Perform A/B testing and analyze the results with predetermined goals such as click-through rates, new followers, likes and shares.
4 – Repurpose content
Too many businesses believe blogs or infographics have a one-week life span. This is far from the truth … so long as what you posted is well-done and informative. To go back to our example: Any time the topic of deck building arises, it’s appropriate to mention your old blog – if the information’s value hasn’t changed and it still provides the audience with utility.
If you want some more valuable insights on this topic, Lee Odden from Top Rank shared his tips on creatively repurposing content.
In the content marketing driver’s seat
Content needs to drive your content plan. But no matter how good a driver you are, you aren’t going anywhere without enough fuel – and that fuel is social media. From the personal to the professional, all relationships rely on communication. Syncing up your content marketing and social media efforts provides your audience with consistent messaging that relates directly to your goals … and gets you where you’re going.
Remember that Brandpoint has a team of content marketing and social media strategists and writers to help you craft editorial calendars, produce content and ultimately reach your goals.
