Did you know that around three-quarters of the world's population is on social media? In New Zealand, we have social media penetration of 82%.
If you're ready to build stronger relationships with your target audience by creating meaningful content, it's essential to have the right strategy. This will help you understand what types of content will add the most value to your customers' experience.
It can be challenging to know what types of social media content will be most effective for your business. To help you out, we've created a beginners' guide full of need-to-know information on social media marketing. Read on!
Turn Your Ideal Customer Into a Client
Regardless of how long you've been in business, you must get to know your target customer—intimately. Many people think it's easy to define their target customers based on their demographics, location, and age. But they're mistaken.
You'll need to go deeper if you want to offer your audience an experience that they'll enjoy and return to your social media channels and website in the future. This is why you should try to see the world from the eyes of your ideal clients.
Ask yourself questions like, "What do they think about when researching a product?" It's also helpful to understand what questions they're asking before they choose to make purchases.
Once you understand what's going through your ideal clients' minds, it will be easier for you to create content that they're interested in consuming. You'll also know what it will take to build trust with them.
If you need help understanding your ideal client, consider hiring a virtual marketer to help you work through who you want to target and how best to connect with them.
Develop a Strategy and Choose the Right Social Networks
Don't try to target every social media network. By doing this, you'll waste valuable time and energy.
Instead, you should research the social networks your target customer is most active on. To do this, focus on network demographics and reciprocity across platforms.
With more than 600 million users, if you’re a B2B business or want to engage with business, industry or government, LinkedIn can be a useful platform to share your knowledge and expertise. We love to help our clients learn how to get the most out of LinkedIn, and build their personal and company brand using LinkedIn.
Facebook has almost two billion users, making it one of the most popular places for businesses to conduct social media marketing. This platform is most popular with GenXers and Millennials. If your goal is to increase brand awareness in these consumer categories, you need to be active on Facebook.
The best type of content to share on Facebook are giveaways, native and live videos, and inspirational quotes and images.
Instagram launched in 2010 and quickly became one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide with 1 billion users. Some of the platform's most popular features are Instagram stories and, more recently, reels.
Many successful businesses use these features to post short clips highlighting their products and services.
TikTok
Even though TikTok has only been around for a couple of years, it already has more than a billion users. Gen Z is highly active on the platform, but it is also popular with millennials.
If you want to create short-form videos, TikTok is a great platform to be active on. It's also a good platform for building communities. Many successful influencers have built followings in the millions by using the platform.
YouTube
YouTube is the world's second most visited website with 1.7 billion unique monthly visitors. If you have long-form video content to share, you should consider using this social media platform to connect with your ideal customer. It's also popular for those who are looking for educational content, and 54% of YouTube users identify as male.
Create the Right Metrics and KPIs
If you want to develop a thriving business, you need to decide what types of content to create, and be informed by the data. You need to pay attention to critical social media metrics.
Focus first on how many people your content reaches. Then, find out how many unique visitors engage with your posts. Finally, if you want to find out what your ideal client is most interested in, research what they're clicking on.
This will help you know what kind of content is most likely to make them want to make purchases.
Best Content for Social Media: What Works for Your Business
There are many types of content that your business can create. Choose content types that your ideal customer would love to engage with, helping your business stand out from your competitors.
Blog Posts, Articles, and Guides
If you want to showcase your business' knowledge and expertise, consider creating written content such as blog posts and articles. Once you have a volume of written posts published on your website, you'll begin to build credibility with the Google algorithm.
The best way to get started is by looking for content that people are searching for relating to what your business is selling.
eBooks
eBooks are similar to blog posts and articles, but they are longer. Unfortunately, few businesses take the time to create eBooks because the process can be time-consuming.
If you want to create an eBook, consider compiling some of your blog posts as chapters. Of course, you need to ensure the posts you include are related to the overall theme of your eBook.
Live Videos
If you want to engage with your audience directly, consider creating live videos. Many influencers have gained hundreds of thousands of followers by posting daily live videos. Live videos don’t have to be long and scripted, short and off the cuff video can work really well as it comes across as more authentic.
Master Social Media Marketing Today
Are you struggling to figure out what kinds of social media content your business should create? First, it's essential to understand who your ideal client. Then, you can select the social media platforms they're active on and decide on your content.
If you're looking for help with digital and social media marketing, data analytics and insights, or brand and UX expertise, we're here to support you.
Contact us today to find out more.
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