It doesn’t matter what business you’re in – if you aren’t using social media, you aren’t reaching the audience you could be and you’re missing out on a huge number of business contacts, leads, and customers.
I’d like to offer a perspective on this as someone who runs a successful copywriting company. At the end of the day, there are only two major components to content – visuals and words – and they rank in that order in importance. Both need to be well-presented and relevant to your target audience if they are going to be noticed and if they have a chance at being effective.
Do you want your band to dominate in its niche? Then you should probably keep reading. These are some of the strategies the pros use to continuously build their reputations through content.
1. Start by Creating Great Content
This is the foundation to every bit of success you will ever enjoy in social media. I tell people all the time: Don’t skimp on the visuals. Figure out if your audience is more into pictures or video, and then give them what they want. Once that’s established, it’s time to say something. The visuals should drive the words, not the other way around.
Think about it: If you follow a large number of pages on Twitter, your feed changes faster than you can blink sometimes. This is why visuals in your tweets are so important. Start with a relevant image then follow up with a tweet that is about 100 characters long. See the relationship between the two? Great images + powerful messages = killer content at its finest.
This principle translates to every other social media platform from Facebook to Instagram to Pinterest and everything in between. People will see you before they hear you. Get their attention with great visuals and build your posts around them.
Also, bear in mind that you have varying amounts of real estate to work with when it comes to how much you say on social media. Personally, I love that Twitter only allows a finite amount of space to get your message out. Ditto Instagram. This basically forces you to get right to the point. Facebook offers quite a bit more latitude, but it also has a different audience.
In any event, I always recommend a “less is more” approach to copy on social media. Think headlines for Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram and think “50 words or less … ALWAYS” for Facebook. Facebook ads should also be treated as headlines and limited to about 100 characters average. If you find it too confining to work within these parameters, hire a copywriter who does it for a living. It’s what they’re there for. You’ll be amazed at what’s possible when you don’t have to squeeze the ideas out of your own head.
2. Make Your Content 100% Shareable
I’m not going to get into the promotion aspect of this in this article. There are numerous resources you can refer to on how to successfully promote on social media. I’m going to assume you have a working strategy in place and now need to make your content shareable.
You make your content shareable by understanding why people share in the first place and building the content around that. So why do people share content on social media? Here are just a few reasons:
• They like your brand.
• They view you as an authority.
• They agree with your philosophies.
• The content makes them laugh.
• The content makes them think.
• The content lets them present an opinion.
• The content is persuasive.
• The content has a clear call to action either stated or implied.
• Sharing the content makes it look like they are the expert.
Each piece of content you create has to cater to one of the viewers’ core motivations. If you don’t offer readers a valid reason to share, they just won’t. It’s that simple. How you achieve any or all of these with your content has everything to do with what you’re selling, offering, or communicating in your posts. Look at some of your social media content and gauge it against the above list. Can you say definitively that it falls in line with any of those items?
3. Harness the Power of the Call to Action
People have a tendency to do what they’re told if they have a reason to do it and can do it enthusiastically. This is why your content has to hit the emotional triggers I mentioned above.
Now, when I say, “give them a call to action,” I don’t mean simply telling them to click on a link or share a picture. The best calls to action give the reader a valid reason for taking that action. It doesn’t have to be too complicated; it just has to get the reader excited about getting involved.
BAD CTA: “Share this post and help us reach 10,000 likes! – 10% off sale is on now!”
GOOD CTA: “We’re closing in on 10,000 likes! Tag someone you know who loves great footwear and wants 10% off their first order!”
Which of those do you think is most likely to get shared?
Pulling It All Together
So now, let’s put all three of these things together. You’ve got great content that’s optimized for your audience. You have inserted emotional triggers in both the visuals and the copy to promote sharing, and you have a solid CTA to either share your content or click through to a sales or landing page. Congratulations! You’re in the right position to dominate! Couple this strategy with the right promotional efforts, and you’ll be running with the real power players in no time.