By this point, in 2016, most marketers know that they need to create rich media content to engage with their audience in a meaningful way. And most everyone understands that in order to actually get this content seen, it needs to get out on social media.
But that’s just the starting point. The reality is that the social media landscape is flooded with brands just like yours, and they are all trying to get the same people to watch their videos, opt-in to their offers, and buy their products. No longer is it enough to simply have a social media presence for your brand, post content to it, and wait for the people, and the dollars, to appear.
The first step is understanding where your audience is to determine where you want to focus your efforts.
With 1.55 billion active monthly users, the first stop for most is Facebook. But the game has dramatically changed for Facebook over the past several years. In the early days of Facebook, it was enough to simply open a brand page and attract people to like your page. When you posted content, your fans would see it. Simple!
However, as Facebook evolved and grew, they changed the rules for brands. A great post on this topic from Convince & Convert (which is now a few years old) visualizes the shift clearly and concisely. Basically, as organic reach for brand pages decreases, Facebook’s stock price increases.
So what does this mean for you? First and foremost, it means that more than ever, the updates that you put out on social needs to be high-quality, visually engaging content that is relevant to your audience.
One of the best ways to do this is to produce video content that tells your brand’s story, or tells about the successes of other customers and clients that have used your products. The numbers bear out that posting video to Facebook as opposed to text updates, links, or even photos can yield dramatically higher organic reach. A study from SocialBakers revealed that videos got 8.7% organic reach, compared to just 3.7% for photos.
Beyond simply creating the content, you also need to understand that in this day and age, you need to pay to play on social media – especially on Facebook. Luckily, you can start with small budgets, and even more luckily, you can use Facebook’s audiences tools to target your customers directly. That means never worrying about algorithms or tags – you can deliver your message directly to your customers.
If this all seems daunting and you need some help getting started with your content marketing strategy, don’t fret! We’re here to help you build a content marketing strategy from the ground up. Get in touch with us today to get started.
