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Getting the Mix Right with Your Business Social Content
18 Mar 2021, 09:06
Everyone knows that the content for their business social media posts needs to be ‘balanced’. But what exactly does that mean? And how do you put that into practice without wasting hours on posting to your social media platforms each week.
Creating great content for social media is a bit like baking a cake – you need to start with quality ingredients (content), ensure your quantities are accurate (that’s the balance part) and then bake it for the right time. Overdo any of those three steps and your brand could end up looking flat, overcooked or worse! Let’s not even consider getting burnt in the process…
Starting with Quality Ingredients
Most people understand that social media content can be loosely divided into three categories…
Our three content categories include:
- Informative = Letting people know about your business, products/services, news, shared industry news or advice
- Educational = Teaching people about the value/difference/advantages of your business, products or services, sharing other’s success stories or testimonials, sharing research or content from other sources
- Entertaining = Adding some fun and personality to your brand, inviting followers to vote/like/comment, showing your company culture, sharing fun or funny snips from other sources
Getting the Quantities Right
So you’ve worked out the type of content you can use which covers those three categories but now you need to get the appropriate volume to suit your brand. Too much Entertaining can really put off people if you’re a chartered accountant, just as too much Informative can just be downright boring no matter what your business!
Take a minute to think about your business and brand, put it into numbers if that makes it easier for you – what percentage of time would you allocate to each category in a month of content?
B2B Brands will be more about the Informative supported by some Educational with occasional light relief provided by some Entertaining content.
B2C Brands are likely to put more emphasis on Entertaining for engagement and customer retention, which is then supported by Educational and lastly Informative.
Bake ‘til Cooked
Even with the best ingredients and careful measuring you can still ruin a good cake just by over-cooking it, and the same can be said with your content strategy. This is where it is essential to set your content theme timelines to suit your brand – retail will have quick turnaround content strategies and themes over maybe a week or two, while B2B businesses may follow a single strategy and theme for a full month.
Once your content is cooked, that’s when you need to see what you’ve got! Taste the results, review your plan, reset your content strategy and go again.
The secret to great content and a great content strategy is a careful blend of science and art, just like all good marketing!