People hunger for great content that is found online through innumerable social media channels. They do not want to eat stale bread. They hunger for fresh meat. It is the job of a successful social media marketer to provide that meat because hunger is never-ending.
Internet websites contain billions and billions of pages. 4.72 billion pages to be exact, with more being added daily. Images, infographics, radio, video, podcasts, and blogs. Not to mention Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and all the other usual and unusual suspects. What do they all have in common? Content. Tons and tons of content whose sole purpose is to magically attract traffic and sales. Social media marketing in its broadest sense is actually marketing through various means of content.
How are smaller companies able to compete with larger, well-established companies? Companies who have endless resources with what seems like an endless budget. They can produce expensive commercials for radio and television, create expensive brochures, participate in trade shows with huge intimidating booths, and support a colossal-sized army of a sales team. Content marketing through social media channels neutralizes the big budget of big business and gives the smaller fish a fighting chance to reach greater numbers of their target market.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Ease of engagement – The quality of the content you produce should corroborate the quality of your brand. Transparency happens through an honest assessment of both good and bad reviews. A good practice is to provide an immediate response to customer praise or complaint. Keep the lines of engagement open and alive.
Proficient aptitude – Are you the go-to person when people need to know and they need to know now? You can increase your influence by providing do-it-yourself content through videos, podcasts, and blog posts.
Enhanced brand familiarity – The more you share, the more you’re seen online, and the more familiar prospects and customers will become with your brand. Don’t get lost in a maze of lost opportunities. Update your content! Keep feeding the content monster. “Feed me, Seymour!”
Provide a global presence – Until social media marketing came along the reach of a business was dependent on budget. By nature, a local business will only have a local influence, a local audience, and a limited target market. Social media opens doors to greater expansion extending to the world abroad.
Content marketing is almost free – Highly creative business owners create their own content, though this can be a drawback because of the enormous amount of time social media requires to be successful. Anything from blog posts to video production is content and you can spend as much or as little as you are able. Most companies outsource their social media or hire a social media manager.
Content marketing variables – Any business, large or small can take advantage of content marketing for their benefit. If there is an existing customer base, you can produce engaging content, thereby extending your reach to prospects and customers.
Enriched access – As long as you maintain relevant and updated content, your online influence will grow. Your brand name will keep coming up in search rankings and people will find you. Do-it-yourself videos and podcasts if produced right are useful and are some of the more often searched-for things on the internet.
Comprehensive content – Social media marketers provide relevant content that helps people make informed decisions. Clear, concise, unique, original, and transparent content enables your target market to form trust and confidence in your brand. Even if your product or service is similar to another, content that is rich and current will keep you on the front lines.
Refresh your content – The dynamic of a successful website is not static. The world is changing faster than ever before (it seems like we are saying this every 10 years or so). Cultural trends change as quickly as a lightning strike. In order to remain relevant, refresh your content frequently. Remember to delete old versions of new pages so the Google spiders don’t penalize you for keyword stuffing.
Unique content – An article from the Moz blog posted on March 2016, cited something we have all suspected for a long time. Content saturation is creating an environment where it has become increasingly difficult to come up with fresh, original content. How many different ways can someone explain how to peel an onion without shedding any tears? If there is a musical instrument you want to learn how to play, you can take lessons from any number of available instructors found on YouTube. But what is the internal process of how someone selects an instructor? Or do you need to know 10 different ways to toast a pop tart? There is practically nothing you can’t discover or purchase through content marketing. But is there a way to separate your brand from the crowd? How does one create unique content like a shiny fishing lure attracting and enticing people to get hooked on your brand? Read Rand Fiskin’s Moz article to find out some unique ways to craft fresh content.
People take pleasure in devouring content. If you can say it or show it in a way that it hasn’t been said or shown before visitors will flock to your website. The contemporary cultural milieu affirms that people love the benefit of watching videos that teach and entertain. Currently, social media marketing is moving towards live video.
In particular, Facebook has successfully adopted this form of expression. Mari Smith, the world’s leading Facebook marketing expert, got over 10 times the response using the same content on Facebook Live as she did with marked-up screenshots.
“Mari shares how she recently did a post with marked-up screenshots, making a big announcement about Facebook Live. It got 3,500 reach. About 20 minutes later, Mari did a Facebook Live broadcast with the away camera, showing her Mac screen and narrating it. That got a reach of 38,000 even though it was the same content.”
You can spend thousands of dollars promoting your business through a newspaper or magazine advertisement that only a limited number of people will see. Or, with the ease of a click or a tap on your screen, content is quickly delivered to your selected social media channels.
Feeding the content monster is a full-time job. People’s thirst for more content is never satisfied.
Much success,
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