How To Develop A Social Media Content Strategy

Ensuring that your content is consistently engaging, informative and congruent with your branding can seem like a tall task, no matter how essential it is. The key to putting out great content all the time, is having a well-structured social media content strategy.

A social media content strategy lays out the planning, publication, creation, management and governance of your content. When done correctly, your social media content strategy will attract and engage your target audience.

With 70% of marketers investing in social content marketing annually, this is a train you surely don’t want to miss. Keep reading on to join their ranks and build your own successful social media content strategy. 

HOW TO MAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

The process of creating your social media content strategy is pretty straightforward. Essentially, you need to bring it back to basics and figure out the who, why and how of your brand. Once you have this laid out, planning content for social media that suits these points is simple! 

Let’s get into it. 

Define your goals 

The very first step in creating a social media content strategy is defining your brand goals. 

Specifically, you need to ask yourself what your goal is for developing social media content marketing and why you are creating content in the first place. For example, are you trying to expand your brand reach? Or, are you trying to practice thought leadership and gain industry authority?

Make sure to keep your goals handy throughout the rest of this process; otherwise, your initial dreams for your content may get lost in the frenzy. Sticking true to your goals establishes consistent branding and ensures you hit all your marks.

Get to know your audience with persona research

Up next, is conducting persona research. 

Producing content is all about pleasing your audience, so understanding them properly is the key to making sure they’re happy. 

Take some time to gather data on your buyers; their age, location, gender, what sort of content they respond to most, and more. Once you have a firm idea of what your audience looks like, creating content that they engage with and enjoy becomes far easier. 

Run a content audit

If your brand has already been producing content for some time, then running an audit is an integral step to polishing up your social media content strategy. 

A content audit involves combing through your published content and taking note of what is working well and what is not. Key things to focus on when performing this step include content quality, topic and formatting gaps, and content that can be repurposed. 

By noticing what content has performed well in the past, you can discover patterns and trends. Applying these trends to your new content ensures that it performs well. 

Select a content management system

Staying on top of your content whilst also trying to perform your regular office duties can be overwhelming to say the least. Hence, content management systems exist.  

Content management systems (CMS) help with your social content planning. They manage, create, and track your content, ensuring you never make a misstep. There is a large variety of CMS out there, so be sure to check in with your content team to identify which one will best suit their needs. 

Once you have chosen a CMS, it is important to put a content governance model in place. This will handle publishing, maintenance, and content creation. It will also help remove outdated content when the time comes. 

Decide what sort of content you want to make 

Now for the exciting bit! What sort of content are you going to make?

A great social content strategy balances decision making, risk taking and data analysis; if done correctly, your content will cater to your audience’s needs but in a forward thinking manner that is unique to your brand. 

A common mistake made by brands is to pump out similar content on each platform they manage. Whilst this would make everyone’s lives a million times easier, content that suits Instagram does not fare well on LinkedIn. As a result, create individual goals for each of your accounts and produce content that suits these goals. 

For example, perhaps your LinkedIn will focus on long form, industry based content, whilst your TikTok will play into funny office antics. 

Brainstorm social media content ideas

This is where it all starts to come together. 

Combine everything you have learned through your social media content strategy to make informed decisions on your content. There are lots of amazing tools out there to help you with your brainstorming if you get stuck. Feedly, in particular, is incredibly helpful for AI suggested content that caters to trends in your industry. 

Publish and manage your content

Finally, it is time to publish. Make sure to create a content calendar and posting schedule so as to stay on top of your content and keep your audience engaged. 

Managing your content once it has been published is a major part of any good social media content strategy. Engage with your audience as much as possible, track how your content is performing and adjust accordingly. 

Metrics such as reach and impressions are integral to tracking and optimizing your content. Tactics such as SEO, cross-channel promotion and general social media strategy are fantastic ways to ensure your content performs to the best of its ability. 

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TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT TO CONSIDER

The content you decide to post using your social media content strategy depends largely on your audience and goals as a company. In saying this, there are several tried and true content types that lend themselves to most social media content strategies. 

Blog posts 

Blog posts are a fantastic way to build up a regular readership and develop industry authority. 

Posted on your website, blogs can be on any topic you choose. Perhaps you want to establish your brand as a thought leader and thus will post lengthy blogs about industry niches. Or, maybe you want to use your social media integration as more of a newsletter, updating your clients on company news to build a human connection. 

Whatever path you choose, make sure that your blogs contain information of value. This will encourage audiences to reshare your content and thus broaden your audience reach. 

Case studies 

A sure fire way to build brand credibility is through case studies. 

Case studies feature a story from a time your brand delivered real customer satisfaction via your product. An example of how amazing your brand is, case studies can exist in many forms; from blogs to Instagram captions. 

When done correctly, case studies establish your brand as credible and trustworthy. 

Templates 

If you are seeking to establish your brand as an authority on industry knowledge, then templates may be the perfect avenue for your social media content strategy. 

Templates are free, downloadable documents that provide a service to your audience. For example, you could provide your followers with a free content strategy template available for download from your site. 

Through templates, your followers are led onto your site, thus increasing website traffic, and are encouraged to return again for even more help and resources. 

Infographics

Infographics are a fantastic way to share educational content in an easy to read, entertaining manner. 

These little morsels of information lend themselves perfectly to sharing and reposting, making them a great way for you to expand your audience. Infographics can be used to share information on your brand, your service, your industry, or even issues that align with your values. 

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