In our last blog post we shared strategies to grow your small business organically on social media. Whether or not you choose to utilize organic or paid advertising to increase your following and scale your business, there is one important strategy that will cause your business to grow or fail on social media.
Most of us are familiar with the popular quote, “content is king” that’s right! This quote is often associated with Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It simply means that strong, unique, compelling, high quality, and relevant content, be it text, video, images or any combination significantly contribute to the growth and success of your business on social media and the internet as a whole.
Creating winning content should be a great part of your social media marketing strategy, but it requires a great deal of time, planning, effort, and most importantly skill and creativity.
Research shows that 50% of content received eight shares or less. This statistic reveals the shocking reality of the very low level of content engagement on social media.
There are 2.8 billion monthly active users globally on Facebook alone. But you are still not generating leads or making sales, most likely it’s not your social media marketing strategy that isn’t working, the findings could simply mean that you are producing poor content which is not strategic or engaging.
The truth is, even businesses that are producing great content are being affected by the high demands of the digital media environment and the expectations of social media consumers over the last few years.
Like any other competition, digital marketing platforms are highly competitive, with myriads of businesses trying to maintain their customer base, create brand awareness, and target new business in order to maximize their expected return on investment (RIO). Hence, there is just so much of the same content on social media networks.
Staying ahead of the competition is by no means an easy task for business owners who are adamant about growing their businesses on social media.
This requires a multi-prong approach since you can produce compelling content but still do not reach your target audience.
In order not to waste time and resources producing great content without any return on investment (RIO), additional strategies must be employed for your business to be truly successful on social media.
Research – Although there is a lot of pressure to prepare fresh content on a consistent basis in order to keep up with market competition and algorithm changes, you can succeed at the research stage even though it is a strategy that is often ignored.
Before you craft the first line of your message it is of paramount importance to know your target audience, where to find them, the content they like, will engage with and share. No matter how great your content is if it doesn’t reach your target audience or people do not have an interest in that message it is work in futility.
You are a winner and a trend setter if your messaging or content answers the question your audience is asking or solve a problem they have. A great way to achieve this is to research what successful businesses in your field are doing and the type of content that is gaining traction for them. If this skill is not available among your employees consider hiring a social media or content marketing strategist to provide this import expertize to help you succeed in this highly competitive digital marketing landscape.
Monitoring
One of the greatest failures that businesses face is the lack of tracking trends and simply monitoring the performance of their content. Information moves rapidly on social media and so does social sharing, as a result a hot topic could go viral instantly through sharing but fades after a brief period of time. Therefore, if you keep abreast of social media trends and audience engagement you will be able to produce and publish relevant content that will gain traction in a timely manner. Hence, careful thought must be given to the scheduling of social media posts for a later time which could become irrelevant as audience members continue to engage with current trends, stories and information.
Analyzing
Social media create value by bringing people and businesses together in one space. Hence, social media networks are the largest vehicles of content promotion and engagement. For example, Facebook is the biggest leader, driving an overwhelming 59% of traffic on the internet.
As a result, it is important to understand and utilize social media analytics and reporting tools (some of which are free). This will enable you to know if or how your content will reach your target audience, in addition to learning about the most important marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you can produce great content and publish them strategically in order to achieve your social media marketing goals.
In our next blog we will look at types of content that are winning in 2021.
For more information on how to grow your small business on social media please leave comments below or tell us which topics you would like to learn more about.
Caren Waugh is the CEO of CW Media Consultants, a proven communications and social media strategist, blogger, and print media contributor who helps small businesses to create brand awareness, strengthen customer relations, and shape their online marketing endeavors with winning social media strategies.