When it comes to social content, most businesses jump right in, assuming they’ll figure it out as they go.
And they’re half right.
With practice, you get better at anything.
But to get the most value from social content marketing, you need to start with your end objectives. Your skill at creating content is far less important than your plan.
The question, then, shouldn’t be whether to do it, or even how to do it, but what you hope to accomplish.
Start with your objectives, and everything else will fall into place.
That may be a gross exaggeration, but you get my point. You need to spend time planning and strategizing before you start executing.
And that being the case, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get back to the basics and review the decisions you must make to get your social content strategy up and running.
Decide how you’ll use content marketing to grow your business
There’s no right answer here. You simply need to decide what you want to achieve with your social content efforts.
A few options may be:
- Prospecting. Generate leads for follow-up by sales and marketing teams.
- Sales. Help your sales team close sales more quickly.
- Marketing. Generate interest in your products.
- PR. Build and repair public opinion about your brand and products.
- Community. Develop friends and fans who interact with your brand socially.
- Customer support. Help customers get the most from your products.
- Thought leadership. Develop name recognition and respect, and to influence your industry.
Set your goals
I like to set one overall objective that keeps me on course. Then I set smaller objectives that will help me achieve that goal.
For instance, let’s say you’re just starting out in social content marketing. Your primary goal may be to develop a strategic plan that builds so much name recognition and authority that you don’t have to do much push marketing to get business.
It’s a good summary of what you want to achieve, and you expect it will take two or three years to get it there.
So your secondary goals are:
- Publish four blog posts per month on your own blog.
- Publish two guest posts per month on highly trafficked websites.
- Become active in Twitter and Google+.
- Implement email marketing to share content and build your list.
That’s enough to keep you busy for the next six months or so. Then you can have a mid-year checkup to tweak and refine your goals.
You can set your goals in one of two ways:
- Set goals for tasks that you know will result in your business objectives.
- Set goals for the business objectives you hope to achieve, then pick the tasks that will help you reach them.
You can approach your goals from either direction. What’s important is that you know what you’re trying to achieve.
Decide how content marketing fits into your overall marketing plan
Your plan will be as individual as your own business. But here are three common strategies you may consider:
Directed Traffic: You could use social media to drive traffic to your blog, then write blog posts that drive traffic to landing pages. I’ve used this strategy in these blog posts:
Integrated Messaging: You could use all content to drive a particular action, such as enrollment in a membership site. So social media, blogs and videos give tips and useful information, but in-depth how-to information is reserved for paid members. Two companies that use this strategy are:
Single Focus on Sales: You could use a wide variety of content — blog posts, podcasts, videos — to drive sales. Each piece of content is written for the express purpose of piquing interest in one of your products. Two companies that do this are:
- ZAGG
- Uncrate
Before you write one word of content, you need to choose one of these strategies.
The choice you make will determine what type of social content you’ll create. It may also direct the development of your sales funnel. So take time to think through your decisions.
As you do, remember that there are no wrong answers. It’s normal to feel like you’re taking a stab in the dark.
That’s because, like any marketing strategy, you won’t know if a plan works until you test it.
For now, make an educated guess. You can easily change your mind if your original decision doesn’t give you the results you need.
Work your plan for three to six months. At the end of your test period, evaluate your results. Refine your plan and give it another three to six months.
That gives you enough time to test your decisions while allowing you to find your best methods quickly.
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If you’re having trouble getting started, you may benefit from some outside perspective. I do coaching for people who need guidance doing it on their own. Contact me to learn more.
