It’s a well-known fact that a brand’s content success lives or dies by the choices made in
- distributing content
- promoting it
While many brands use social media platforms as a green signal to post content anywhere and everywhere, the issue with a scattergun approach to spreading content is that it takes little account of WHO your messaging reaches.
Apart from reaching the right people you also need to factor in if your chosen demographic is receptive, whether the community shares the same values as your brand, and most importantly – does your content warrant a LIKE or a straight UNFOLLOW?
Making wise platform choices
Some channels are appropriate for anything-goes, no-holds-barred content; others are less likely to align with your audience’s core style.
You need to make sure you do your homework on this before diving into the proverbial shark-infested waters of Twitter or sauntering into the well-coiffed corporate world of LinkedIN – one size definitely does not fit all and here are some things to consider.
Audience attributes: Ask yourself, does your content’s tone and delivery match the ethos of the people who engage on this channel? Who are you targeting – Gen Xers, Boomers, Millenials? Does your content reinforce stereotypes or provide commentary on social betterment?
Engagement: Are your audience social media addicts or casual users? This will dictate whether you should post once every few hours or twice a week. Also try and understand whether you have any off-limit topics, whether your posts should be primarily text or media based and whether you should keep up with trends or be a trendsetter.
Style and tone: Research community language tics and what topics that drive their daily conversations – start off with a casual tone (it is SOCIAL media after all) and then slowly build up to a formal voice depending on your audience
Resources: Depending on your chosen approach, do allocate the right personnel for the job. A fully integrated web and social media content strategy will require an SEO, Video/photo capture, image retouch, video editing and copywriting skillset at the very least. So, make sure you have the right people for the job to avoid any hiccups.
