Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

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Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

July 2012

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

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Introduction 3

Proactive Content 4

Reactive Content 5

Additional Resources 7

About Awareness Inc. 8

Introduction

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

Every brand in the world is trying to figure out social media right now. From massive brands with hundreds of thousands of employees to mom-and-pop shops, businesses arestruggling to find that secret sauce that leads them to online success. Well, everyone can stop looking because the answer is simple. It’s STILL all about content.

In order to grow your audience on social media channels, you must have a well thought out content plan, which includes leaving room for spontaneity. The way to look at the social media content world is in two buckets.

1. Proactive Content

2. Reactive Content

How do you manage content for an ever-growing assortment of platforms withoutlosing your mind, or negatively affecting your bottom line? You proactively schedule your content.

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

32

Introduction 3

Proactive Content 4

Reactive Content 5

Additional Resources 7

About Awareness Inc. 8

Introduction

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

Every brand in the world is trying to figure out social media right now. From massive brands with hundreds of thousands of employees to mom-and-pop shops, businesses arestruggling to find that secret sauce that leads them to online success. Well, everyone can stop looking because the answer is simple. It’s STILL all about content.

In order to grow your audience on social media channels, you must have a well thought out content plan, which includes leaving room for spontaneity. The way to look at the social media content world is in two buckets.

1. Proactive Content

2. Reactive Content

How do you manage content for an ever-growing assortment of platforms withoutlosing your mind, or negatively affecting your bottom line? You proactively schedule your content.

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

4 5

Proactive ContentIn the world of social media, there is no doubt that relevancy is king. You cannot pre- schedule 100 percent of your content and assume that the “set it and forget it” model is going to grow an engaged audience for your brand. Instead, you identify your key brand messages and supplement those messages with engaging, fun and remarkable content.

Brand messages are important. If you sell shoes online, of course you are going to want to schedule content about your latest deals or releases. That said, you have to remember that your audience is not always searching for great deals or information on an upcoming release. Users are also not always searching for great content – they just see it in their feeds and react to it. Therefore, if you want to get people to your page to see content onthe latest release, you have to use better bait.

Reactive Content

Remarkable content is typically rich media content:1. Infographics

2. Simple Trendy Graphics (condescending Wonka, eCards, etc.)

3. Contests

4. Polls

5. Questions

Reactive content is a horse of a different color. Scheduling content is one thing, but social media is about the here and now. Just like a broadcast news organization, the key to a successful campaign is leaving room for what’s happening now. In the social media world, we typically refer to the here and now as trends or trending topics. From a search engine optimization standpoint, trending topics are gold. If you can capitalize on trends, you will see better reach and engagement.

How do you capitalize on those trends?

Listen. Understanding what is going on in the world and how it effects your audience is key. Monitoring the current trends and the engaging with those communities brings an entirely new opportunity for audience growth.

If you sell basketball shoes, consider live tweeting an NBA game. If you have a local pizzeria, monitor for people in your area asking their friends who has the best pie in town.

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

4 5

Proactive ContentIn the world of social media, there is no doubt that relevancy is king. You cannot pre- schedule 100 percent of your content and assume that the “set it and forget it” model is going to grow an engaged audience for your brand. Instead, you identify your key brand messages and supplement those messages with engaging, fun and remarkable content.

Brand messages are important. If you sell shoes online, of course you are going to want to schedule content about your latest deals or releases. That said, you have to remember that your audience is not always searching for great deals or information on an upcoming release. Users are also not always searching for great content – they just see it in their feeds and react to it. Therefore, if you want to get people to your page to see content onthe latest release, you have to use better bait.

Reactive Content

Remarkable content is typically rich media content:1. Infographics

2. Simple Trendy Graphics (condescending Wonka, eCards, etc.)

3. Contests

4. Polls

5. Questions

Reactive content is a horse of a different color. Scheduling content is one thing, but social media is about the here and now. Just like a broadcast news organization, the key to a successful campaign is leaving room for what’s happening now. In the social media world, we typically refer to the here and now as trends or trending topics. From a search engine optimization standpoint, trending topics are gold. If you can capitalize on trends, you will see better reach and engagement.

How do you capitalize on those trends?

Listen. Understanding what is going on in the world and how it effects your audience is key. Monitoring the current trends and the engaging with those communities brings an entirely new opportunity for audience growth.

If you sell basketball shoes, consider live tweeting an NBA game. If you have a local pizzeria, monitor for people in your area asking their friends who has the best pie in town.

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

6

Reactive Content

The other side of reactive content is responding to users who are engaging with your brand directly. This is often referred to as moderation. Moderation is imperative to growing and keeping an engaged audience. It is absolutely vital to respond to users who reach out to your brand via social media in a timely fashion.

Why?

Because the world is watching. It is no secret that social media complaints can lead to huge backlash for brands, and cause serious problems for businesses of all sizes. The key is a quick, positive, and helpful response. If you do not know the answer to their question, at least acknowledge the user and let them know that you are going to do some digging for them.

The next question is likely: How in the world am I going get all of this done?

Once again, it all goes back to those two types of content. If you are proactively scheduling 70 percent of your content early in the week, then you and your team will only have to worry about reacting the remainder of the week. Now all you have to do is create a team that can scale with your brand as your grow online.

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Additional ResourcesFive Killer Strategies to Dominate Social Media’s Big 3: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Even with the increasing number of social networks, most experts still recognize that successful social marketing revolves around the Big 3: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.How to Audit Your Social Marketing Efforts Learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of your current social marketing strategy. Identify new ways to improve the return on your social marketing investment.Social Engagement: How to Crack the Code of Social Interaction Engagement is the enduring effect of content to motivate an audience to do something; motivate your audience with data proven best practices.Social Commerce Lessons: The 6 Social Principles that Increase Sales Learn more about content strategies and driving sales.Actionable Social Analytics A detailed guide on how to approach your social analytics process.2102 Social Media and New Media Predictions This free e-book is full of insights on Big Data and other trending topics in social media. Hear from 32social media experts, including David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis, and Erik Qualman. The Social Funnel: Driving Business Value with Social Marketing For a detailed discussion on how to effectively measure your social marketing initiatives, download our free e-book.The State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012 Learn how leaders allocate resources, discover the top social platforms and social media management tools they use, social marketing investment priorities, and the practices com¬panies will adopt in 2012.

Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content

Social Media:It’s (Still )About Your Content

7

Additional ResourcesFive Killer Strategies to Dominate Social Media’s Big 3: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Even with the increasing number of social networks, most experts still recognize that successful social marketing revolves around the Big 3: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.How to Audit Your Social Marketing Efforts Learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of your current social marketing strategy. Identify new ways to improve the return on your social marketing investment.Social Engagement: How to Crack the Code of Social Interaction Engagement is the enduring effect of content to motivate an audience to do something; motivate your audience with data proven best practices.Social Commerce Lessons: The 6 Social Principles that Increase Sales Learn more about content strategies and driving sales.Actionable Social Analytics A detailed guide on how to approach your social analytics process.2102 Social Media and New Media Predictions This free e-book is full of insights on Big Data and other trending topics in social media. Hear from 32social media experts, including David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis, and Erik Qualman. The Social Funnel: Driving Business Value with Social Marketing For a detailed discussion on how to effectively measure your social marketing initiatives, download our free e-book.The State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012 Learn how leaders allocate resources, discover the top social platforms and social media management tools they use, social marketing investment priorities, and the practices com¬panies will adopt in 2012.

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Awareness Inc. is the leading provider of enterprise-class, on-demand social marketing management software (SMMS) for marketers to publish and manage social content, engage with their audience and measure the effectiveness of their social media activities across multiple social media channels. The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is built upon Awareness’ expertise with some of the world’s leading brands and marketing agencies including MLB, Sony Pictures, Comcast, Likeable Media, Associated Press, Cox Communications, Mindjumpers and American Cancer Society.

The Awareness Social Marketing Hub is built to address the challenges marketers face managing multiple social channels. The Social Marketing Hub is the first enterprise-class application for serious marketers who want to plan, implement and measure meaningful social media strategies across the organization.

About Awareness

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Social Media:It’s (Still) All About Your Content