In 2018, content marketing placed its foot in the future more vividly with social media content. Digital marketing on social media is different in terms of its format and the platforms it uses to share the content.
Social media marketing uses platforms where the target audiences can interact and create a chain of influencers.
The content-format in social media is also precise, crisp and to the point. It’s mostly because the attention span of millennials is short and you need to capture their attention in that small time span.
Different content formats in social media
You see many brands and companies competing on numerous social media platforms. Hence it’s essential to engage yourself in various social media content formats to gain popularity and go viral.
1. Exciting quizzes
Interactive and exciting quizzes help to grab the attention of internet users. Statistics say that the top 5 quizzes of 2015 garnered 1.5 million+ shares on social media.
However, don’t deviate from the service or product your brand endorses while conducting such activities. Also, keep them short so that it takes less time to solve. Lengthy quizzes are unable to hold attention. The number of shares on lengthier quiz formats is also less.
Quiz is one form of social media content that gained huge popularity.
2. Videos
The best way to engage your target audiences on social media platforms is through videos. In 2018, we saw an upsurge in the popularity of pages that post fun, quirky and meaningful videos on their pages. Podcasts are also a useful tool to this effect.
So what do you need to do? Create videos that are relevant to your brand. However, keep the video length more or less around 2 minutes. However, the video length of podcasts will obviously be longer. Never forget to include your website link and a call to action in your videos.
If the viewers like what you post, most of them visit your page to watch other videos as well. Hence, videos help to increase your engagement. It’s a smart social media marketing approach.
3. Memes to tickle your readers’ funny bones
In 2018, we are increasingly seeing how memes are becoming a conversation-starter and a culture among millennials.
So tap on the potential powers of the memes to engage your readers through comments and shares on various digital platforms of social media.
If you don’t know what memes are, know it now. They are funny images that are mostly, well, funny, but they also manage to evoke your subconscious on sensitive topics. So create meme-worthy social media content that goes with your brand and ensures that your readers smile seeing it.
4. Combine images and contests
To engage your audiences’ attention with social media content, mix up some quirky pictures along with short quiz formats.
Ensure your images speak for the services you provide. Visual content acts as an excellent marketing strategy that increases your social media engagement.
Also, make sure you give away some of your free products or services to the contest winners. It is an effective tool as human minds are receptive to challenges, especially when there’s a free prize at stake.
Tactics to promote social media content
Now you know how to frame content on social media platforms that will go with your niche audience. But you also need to adopt specific strategies to make your content-format work better in achieving additional engagement among web users.
I. Content that promotes discussion
Every content marketing agency worth its penny will say quality and in-depth content is central to digit marketing strategies. However with social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, in-depth content doesn’t go very well with the audiences.
Conversely, if you post a one-liner question that goes with your brand, it can stir up discussions on social forums. Hence it is important to post content that can increase engagement on any social media. However, never forget to put a call to action at the end to entice your readers to come back.
II. Use POST methodology
The full form of POST is People, Objectives, Strategies, and Technology.
First, you need to identify your “people” for the brand. Then set your business objectives, and decide strategies on how you can bring your audiences and objectives together. For this, select the digital platform where your audiences hang out so that you can promote your goals to them.
Take the help of a content marketing agency to adopt the POST methodology.
III. Engage in live-streaming
The 2018 social media marketing strategy hugely follows the trend of live streaming with viewers. It prompts an instant engagement among the page visitors and also between the brand and its followers. Celebrities and various brands go live on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube daily. It has become a useful tool to promote a brand and establish its authenticity.
IV. Maintain content quality
Regardless of the mode, you use to promote your social media content; it’s vital to maintain the quality of your content. Ensure that you uphold your excellence through relevant, thought-provoking and valuable content. Even if you upload a one-liner post, it should go with your brand. That’s how you maintain quality.
If you fail to post engaging materials on social media platforms, it’ll negatively affect your audience engagement. It is something you surely don’t want!
However, many business pages suffered due to Facebook’s most recent algorithm updates. Try sticking to the tactics mentioned above of social media marketing if you’re one of them.
Hence if you want to ensure that your business or your brand remains at the top of every social media platform, ask for help. You can hire a professional content marketing agency to do all the work for you.
Role of content marketing agency
Content marketing agencies play an essential role in increasing engagement through your social media content. You can have a one-liner question post or a thought-provoking post on your social media profile. However, ensure all of them have quality content that goes with your brand. This is where content marketing agencies play a part. They guide you on how to frame content on social media platforms.
It is their role to ensure your posts engage audiences and increase your conversion rates.
A content marketing agency can help you juggle between your website posts and your social media posts. The latter are generally shorter versions of website posts, ranging from 2000 characters on LinkedIn to 160 characters on Twitter. The posts you promote on social media platforms should be significant to your followers and relatable to your brand.
The unconventional social media platforms
People are hooked on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter 24/7. Even though these are good for promoting your business, there are other platforms like LinkedIn or Pinterest as well.
You can use LinkedIn to build your brand and establish brand communication among your followers. Here’s how you can build your brand on any social media platform and maximise your social media content visibility.
1. Build your brand identity
Brand identity involves the whole packaging of your brand for social media marketing. It includes your social media icon, colour, font, writing style, etc.
You also have to frame your bio in tune with your brand’s aesthetics. LinkedIn fits 2000 characters in its bio. It is vital your bio catches the readers’ attention because that’s the first thing the professional world will know about you.
2. Class of your social media platform
One of the essential tasks of a content marketing agency is to help you identify your audiences on social media. Meaning, you have to recognise your target audiences hang out on which digital platform the most. Share your content accordingly.
Many of these websites overlap with each other. Hence you can post on one of these platforms and share it from there to other platforms as well.
For example, you can share your YouTube videos that have relevant content with your LinkedIn profile groups.
The secret ingredient to better promote social media content
In 2018, the key to increasing engagement in social media is through interactive content.
You can understand by its very name what interactive content is.
Interactive contents stimulate your brain cells and provokes you to interact with other web users on that particular topic. The interactive component of social media post writing helps to increase the participation of web users. They can also find some useful solutions or answers to their unique problems or queries through such activities.
Some significant changes on Facebook and Twitter from 2018
Social media like Facebook dropped some significant algorithm changes in the first few months of 2018. It was done to make the news feed content more relatable to friends and family. Twitter also faced significant criticism for spam accounts and comments online. To solve this problem, Twitter announced in July 2018 that it would not allow third-party users anymore. Marketers need to keep in mind these modifications during social media marketing to ensure maximum engagement among web users.
Look out for Instagram!
In 2019, Instagram is holding more than 53% of the world’s population which is more than 40% from 2018.
That’s huge!
It also collects around 7 billion dollars in revenues. That’s huge too!
Hence, a content marketing agency now needs to promote content for clients on Instagram more often than on other social media platforms. Ensure you engage in content trends that people are following.
You have to include trends like:
- Engaging your brand in Instagram videos.
- Mesmerize your audiences with images rather than writing long-format content.
- Use trending hashtags to get into the game.
- Learn to create GIFs which are appealing to your audiences.
Hence, digital marketing has taken a massive leap to social media platforms to promote brands and businesses. Growth in the number of LinkedIn profiles, YouTube channels, and Instagram pages are some of its prominent examples.
You too take a leap of faith and follow these rules to promote your social media content more effectively and efficiently.
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