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Every day 45% of the human population is on social media. To put that into perspective, that’s 3.5 billion active users using social media channels. The pandemic is another reason that more people turned to social media with Tik Tok having a great piece of the pie.

People spend around 3 hours a day on social media on average.

Facebook is the market leader in this race with Youtube and WhatsApp being relatively close.

As you may understand, marketers focus a lot of their time on these platforms and spend a lot of resources to make sure that they are up to date with every little change. Not having a social media marketing plan as a brand jeopardizes your company’s longevity nowadays.

But how do you even start with social media and content marketing?

To start with we will try to understand why you need a content marketing strategy and then we will explore some actionable social media content marketing tips that can get you ahead of the competition.

What is content marketing in 2020?

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase your brand’s awareness and at the end of the day your revenue. When a company spends huge amounts of money on marketing they want to see the return on investment.

The problem is that as the internet evolves, more and more content is online, and social media platforms become saturated. This creates the illusion that your content is not good or that content marketing is wrong for your company.

In fact, the answer is that content marketing is extremely competitive in 2020 and as a marketer, you will have to invest a lot more energy into creating pieces of content that stand out in social media.

Fun fact: A lot of people think that paid advertising for example is more effective than SEO, blogging, email marketing or social media marketing. This makes paid advertising the most overrated marketing tactic.

Although there are many strategies out there that can help a business grow, whether you are a shoe company, a toy manufacturer, there is a content marketing strategy that can improve your ROI.

So, how do we get rid of all the noise out there?

Here comes the action part so let’s start with tips about social media marketing.

7 Ways to Dominate Content Marketing with Social Media

The photo below shows the optimal journey that people do when engaging with your content. The truth is that this is the simple version of the situation which exists in a perfect world.

So, to close the gap between the perfect and the real world, let’s see what we can do from our standpoint.

1. Set Goals and Objectives

A strong campaign needs clear goals and objectives. It is essential that the marketing team should spend some time on what they want to achieve.

Goals are there when you want to determine if your tactics are working or not, so having a plan from the beginning is vital.

I know that goal setting is probably not a new tip for your team but you have to understand what I mean.

Every goal you set as a team needs to be extremely specific. Instead of saying “ we will increase engagement” you should manifest “we will increase engagement by 5% in 2 months”.

This attention to detail and organization is what will set you apart from other marketing teams. Write them down and refer to them regularly. Recent research showed that you could increase your campaigns’ chances of success by 30% by documenting your goals.

Yes, I am thinking the same. Let’s create some more goals, please!

2. Find Your Ideal Audience and Connect

Targeting the right audience is not always easy. Many marketing teams fail in this task because they lack essential data.

Having in mind your buyer persona can drastically improve the success of your social media marketing campaigns.

Learn about your audience’s pain points, behaviors, and interests and structure your campaigns based on this information.

So, how can you better understand your audience?

I got you covered on this.

• Survey your customers using emails, questionnaires, and quizzes.
• Find your target audience on forums and take part in conversations.
• Engage with your customers on your social media channels through the comments section.
• Take a look at demographics.

Once you have all the information for your target audience, start creating content to help them.

Also, try to engage with them consistently to make adjustments to your strategies. Probably, the most effective ways to engage with your audience are the following:

• Take advantage of the Retweet on Twitter.
• Find similar target audiences on Facebook Groups and engage.
• Use your Facebook business page and reply to the comments.
• Share content from users that tagged your brand

3. Focus on Producing Valuable Content

Creating great content doesn’t sound like a great tip but I am here to give you some ideas to improve your next posts.

Content is the key element of every social media marketing campaign.

As a brand, you need to ensure that you offer to your potential customers as much value as possible.

But, there is a catch. Every social media channel has different characteristics and thus your audience is seeking different kinds of content.

Copying and pasting the same piece of content across all channels will not get you far. Your team has to dive deep into what content works best in each platform, analyze the competition and THEN create.

Add visual interest to your content with interesting photos, fonts, infographics, or even videos.

Many companies are exploring the power of creating courses that are a massive bonus in providing valuable content.

Focus on these kinds of content and see what suits your brand best and how your audience engages with each type. Analyze the results and then pivot to your most successful pieces.

4. Leverage Social Media Trends.

Social media trends come and go and have the power to skyrocket your campaigns. Learning how to find and follow trending topics is a must. Take advantage of them, and create engaging pieces of content by including top hashtags.

With trends you have to become part of a group that is fully engaged with the theme just like going to a party. You will have to understand what topics you should post about and overall what to create.

There are a lot of trends that are completely different from each other. Some of these hashtags are #motivationalMonday, #icebucketchallenge ,or #pinkoctober. As a brand, you don’t have to follow every single one of them but you have to make sure that you leverage the trends that are valuable for the culture of your brand.

High-performing hashtags like those have the power to increase your social media and brand visibility, so take advantage of them.

5. Live Videos are crucial for growth

Video content is an effective way to share your brand’s story with your audience and build a relationship with them.

People love stories, behind the scenes and for that reason video content marketing is the way to go. Open your favorite platform and upload on a video your values while also portray a “behind the scenes” experience at your company.

The potential is even higher when it comes to live video. Instant feedback and opportunities for interaction create a more engaging product that help viewers have a closer connection with your brand.

Another great advantage of live video is the sense of community that your viewers are feeling when participating in your brand’s videos.

A great way to improve the customer experience while also creating strong bonds that ultimately help to increase conversions in the long run.

Live videos don’t have to scare you. There is a diversity of approaches you can go for such as:

• go behind-the-scenes of your production process
• portray workplace culture and collaboration procedures
• company events

Live video can create a lot of possibilities for your brand, so don’t waste more time and implement this strategy in your arsenal, TODAY.

6. Create Facebook Groups

We covered a lot until now but all these tips are ineffective unless they reach the right audience.

Groups can help you foster a community sense and build a better relationship with your audience. Facebook Groups can create new networking opportunities and expand the reach of your company.

You can engage in Facebook Groups by sharing customer testimonials, answering questions, and organizing webinars or Facebook events to improve customer interaction with your brand.

Here are some additional benefits of Facebook Groups:

• Promoting new content to a targeted audience.
• Growing your email list.
• Understand your audience’s needs better.
• Increasing your website’s traffic.

7. Use Promotions and Retargeting Ads

As we mentioned earlier, great content can have a massive impact on your brand awareness—but if your audience isn’t there to engage, you will not see great results.

That’s where advertisement comes into play.

Promoting your content is crucial if you are a brand. The marketing world is saturated and advertisements are there to give you some extra push.

Facebook Ads Manager is an excellent tool for that reason. It enables to target users based on interests, behaviors, demographics and more.

Run one or two Facebook ad campaigns, and try to analyze the results to see whether your ad works. For more advanced users, make sure to set up the Facebook Pixel to gather more data about your campaigns.

Facebook Pixel is a great way to start maximizing the impact of your ad budget. But how can you do that?

The pixel gathers information when someone clicks on your ads and gives you feedback that can help you create your ideal buyer persona.

Campaign after campaign you have all the information you need to create more targeted content while also having the ideal audience which is interested in your product or service.

Keep in mind that a great campaign should have great visuals and a strong call-to-action to make the users take action.

Many companies are sharing testimonials as part of their promotional campaigns as it creates the necessary social proof to help potential customers convert.

At the beginning don’t go all-in with the promotional campaigns. Start small and work your way up when you are comfortable with the platform and have a better understanding of your audience.

The takeaway

Social media marketing is becoming more and more sophisticated and there are not as many opportunities as it used to be. In this dynamic landscape, brands have to make sure that they follow the best strategies to get ahead of the game.

With the right content marketing strategy, you can meet your objectives and benefit from a more engaged audience.

Keep in mind that changes need to be applied gradually. Avoid implementing all the tips at once. Instead take your time to analyze the best tips that should work for your company and add one after the other in your arsenal.

This is part of understanding which of these content marketing tips is helping you achieve your goals, and which don’t work for your brand.

Keep in mind that social media is about consistency and patience, so test and pivot towards the tactics that work for you and your brand.

Let me know in the comment section, which of these tips will you try first? Until the next one…

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Creator, Alex is a content writer at Moosend,
Find out more on LinkedIn.