It is easy to get lost in the noise of social media. Which platforms to post on, how often to post and what type of content to post are all questions marketers need to answer in order to adequately market their brand to the appropriate audience. Understanding each platform and how it benefits your business is crucial to developing a social media plan that is effective. Once you have identified the platforms that best suit your business, the next step is to decide on the relevant content to post on each site. Not all social media platforms are the same, and differentiating between the necessary communication strategies to best reach and retain customers on each platform will greatly benefit your company in the long run. Once this is established, the type of content that needs to be created is clear.
So, what type of content should small businesses post on social media?
Interactive Content
One of the toughest struggles with social media is attracting and engaging your key audience with the type of content your business is creating. Engagement is one of the most important metrics for your social media strategy, because platforms factor this into how often your content populates on feeds. This, in return, garners more attention from prospective consumers. Interactive content is a great way to solve the issue of engaging your consumers. Polls, quizzes and multiple choice posts are fun and creative ways to reach out to your community and get them active. Ultimately, this leads to better customer retention.
Videos
Video performs very well across all social media platforms, and with 72% of internet users opting to watch a video, rather than read about the same content, small businesses could miss out on a valuable marketing vehicle by not using video to their advantage. Concise, digestible video clips capitalize on creating content that captivates but is also shareable - building brand awareness. When using video content on social media, it is important to capture your audience's attention within the first couple of seconds. It is also worthwhile to keep in mind most viewers watch videos with the sound off. Incorporating captions into your videos is a good way to overcome this hurdle. Posting video content is a great opportunity for small businesses to increase engagement on their posts and stay fresh in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a treasure trove of content for small businesses. 55 percent of consumers trust UGC above other marketing tactics. Featuring this type of content establishes a level of credibility to your brand. Another incentive to implement UGC into your social media plan is, it is free. For small businesses with a limited marketing budget utilizing free content is a no-brainer. The benefits don’t stop there. UGC allows your business to gain data insights into your target customers. From the type of content they want to see, to the pros and cons they experience while using your product, this type of earned media will serve to help you enhance the way your business operates.
Each business and its customers are unique and so should be the individual social media plan. Above all else, test the tactics and evaluate the analytics to determine the type of content that excels for your brand.
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