Creating Content for your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Quality, focused, fun and relevant content should be at the heart of any social media strategy. Relatable and useful content should reflect your brand and give people a reason to stay engaged.

That’s why it’s imperative to create a content strategy for your social media campaign. Without a guideline for what you will send out and a plan for how and when you say it, you risk leaving your audiences, at best, confused. At worst, they’ll ignore you. No business wants customers to ignore them.


Here are five social media content strategy techniques that will help strengthen relationships and earn your business quality results on the social web.

 1. Identify Your Voice


Everything you say on the social media sites should “sound” like your business. It’s something companies like Skittles do well. Some of their status messages achieve more than 1,000 comments, and many exceed 10,000 “Likes” on Facebook.


Why are these little quips of content so successful? The writing is just like the candy: colorful, playful and imaginative. The pithy, daily, flavor-packed observations are reliably surprising. You can relish today’s post and look forward to tomorrow’s. Skittles want people to think of them and in turn buy their candy and what better way than making a lasting impression through social venues?


Think about your brand in the same manner. What are three words that describe the voice of your business? Now make sure that everything you write and post embodies those three words. This will create a consistent voice in your social media presence.


2. Time Your Content


Create a calendar or timeline that spells out what will be relevant in your business or industry and pay attention to what else is happening….like holidays or local and national events. Now think about what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say. Make sure it’s relevant to where people are in their lives and the season. Nobody cares about Santa Claus in January, but a whole lot of people care about sales after Christmas. A quick look at Google Trends or other social media sites for what is trending can help keep your information up to speed.



3. Know Your Audience


Why would somebody follow you? Why would they like your business? It’s because your content offers them something? Make sure you deliver! For example, a company like SKYY Vodka on Twitter has posted messages in response to what other people are talking about. It shows they are listening and engaging in the conversation. A competitor, Grey Goose hasn’t tweeted in four months and their posts on Facebook are repeats. They aren’t to their followers, Grey Goose is talking at their followers. Their lack of engagement leads people to believe they are just in it for image sake. If a follower doesn’t stick around just because someone posts daily – it’s what the business is saying that makes the impression.

 4. Solve Problems


Humans have survived for so long because we solve problems. And when we don’t know the answer – we look for someone who does and offers it freely.


Give your audience tools to help themselves, and establish yourself as the go-to expert. By making things easier for others, we build trust. Trust strengthens our relationship and people do business and buy from people and businesses they trust.

 5. Be True



Good content isn’t phony. It doesn’t make promises that it can’t keep. It’s human and honest. It has a personality and a point of view. It’s social! That’s why it engages us and makes us want to plug into it on a regular basis. That’s why we follow or like your business.


Your audiences will sniff it out if you’re pretending. But if you’re fun, honest and relevant, they’re going to recommend you to their friends. That is what social media’s all about!