Social media is the new black! Everyone thinks it’s cool and most businesses understand that its importance and influence is ever-growing. Social media is a fundamental cultural shift in the way we communicate and interact on a personal and business level. It is also a channel to reach your audience of customers and potential customers. It’s where individuals and communities congregate around subjects of common interest. It’s a place for us to find information that’s relevant, engaging, and interesting.
So what’s the point? The point is that, like in the ‘real world’, people buy people and they actively engage with people they know, like, and trust, They want to read, look at, and watch stuff that is genuinely relevant. If we’re bored talking to someone at an event or party, we move on and avoid them for the rest of the night! Why would it be any different on your website or on social pages? If what you serve up is dull and boring, why should anyone dwell longer than a few seconds? And, given that search engines increasingly take into account social ranking, potential customers may not even find your website and social pages in the first place if you don’t deliver compelling and useful content.
And relevance is generally driven by the subject you’re talking about. Clearly, if it’s the latest pop group to which you’re drawn or you like to follow the musings of a world-leading authority or a famous entrepreneur like Sir Richard Branson, you will find that thousands (even millions) of others will be doing the same as you. That often creates a community around a topic that interests and motivates conversation and inspires people to comment and participate.
Unfortunately, most business folk, especially in smaller businesses and in b2b marketing, don’t have the luxury of a large following and most operate in commoditized fields. They also either:
-
-
- Don’t spend time creating content
- Do it far too infrequently
- Churn out stuff that is not relevant
- Put out content that is wholly centered around the organization not the customer or subject of interest.
-
As a consequence, companies need to think carefully about what they choose to put on their website and share on social media and how frequently they do it. The content needs to be relevant and should showcase knowledge. But above all, it needs to educate, inform, communicate and/or entertain. Not everything you write and every piece of content you produce will do all of these things. Some content is about showing people how to do things. Some articles focus on fun stuff or things the staff is doing for charity. Others provide interesting insights or share your view on something topical. However, you choose to do it, think first about the audience for your content and what they’d like to know. Then, consider the following as potential ideas for areas upon which to create content.
-
-
- Events – piggyback on an event or exhibition and create some talking points
- Talk about or comment on new innovations or hot subjects in your market
- Create competitions and offers that stimulate others to contribute (user-generated content)
- Share knowledge and insight
- Create interesting videos that highlight areas of particular skill or relevance
- Take pictures and share those (especially if for example you’re in a business that’s visual)
- Undertake some research or conduct a market survey and share the results
- Write a white paper or thought piece (possibly based on your research)
- Do some industry analysis and encourage comments
- Share your newsletters
- Put together an infographic
- Ask your customers to contribute an article or comment
-
If you want more content ideas, take a look at this article on Forbes of 50 content marketing ideas.
The above is just a small sample of what you could do. If you want more examples or guidance, I’m sure you’ll also find all manner of articles and videos online (proof of the pudding!) if you Google ‘content ideas’. We’ve also produced a whole host of articles on the subject of social media that you can use for more inspiration.
However you do it, you need to do it. And, the more you can do the better.
If you’d like to know how GSA Business Development can help generate growth for your business through social media lead generation or telemarketing or you’d like to book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or use the form on this site.
