Understanding the Importance of Content Creation in Social Media

According to a report, the number one challenge that businesses face on social media is creating a social media strategy. Content creation is the second biggest challenge. Small businesses often lack the resources and time to develop thoroughly researched and high-quality content that followers are looking for.

The struggle is consistent and due to that, it is important to take the approach of always learning. This content offers a gateway to the big picture of the ever-changing landscape of the digital world. Here’s to your continued pursuit of higher learning! From helping to build a clear layout to providing your audience with valuable content, visual media does a lot of the talking for you. Because not using visuals to their full extent is like trying to put together a puzzle without knowing what the picture is supposed to look like. It can be done but it just makes the process ten times more challenging. Small businesses or brands should know that mastering social media marketing strategies lead to a number of benefits. It can create brand leaders, build brand loyalty, increase opportunities to grow, improve business sales, and more.

Key Elements of Effective Social Media Content

Dare is a mnemonic for remembering the key elements of effective social media content. Effective social media content is digital, my ad targets and speaks to a particular audience, it is reliable and credible, and it is entertaining. Furthermore, effective social media content is consistent with regard to posting and communication style, and content creators are engaged in and responsive to their audience.

Digital: Social media posts, stories, and content should be designed for digital platforms in terms of dimensions, layout, and design features. Taking screenshots of content intended for other platforms, such as forums or chats, can lead to misfires when social media users view them.

Ad targets and audience: The best social media content creation involves creating and targeting ads. Indeed, many social media channels offer network incentives to make ads part of the content creation platform. The human experience of ads should not feel different from other content, as doing so can be considered spam content. In personal branding, especially for niche businesses, it is more personable to create branded ads that are personal and engaging instead of situations where it appears that the marketing department created the ad. The reason is that users are more interested in learning more about people from ads.

Strategies for Creating Engaging Social Media Content

Studies have proven that users are more likely to interact with a brand through user-generated content rather than through photos of the brand or by reading a caption. When a brand retweets, screenshots, embeds, and regrams content created by their followers, the users that created the photos are understandably more inclined to follow the account. By sharing the content on their feeds, the brand’s followers serve as advocates and help spread the word about how great the brand is to the followers’ family, friends, and people out there who want to learn more about the product or service. For brands, sharing user-generated photos means a decreased need to shoot content, while keeping in mind some important tips. They can actually transform an account into a money-making machine.

Maybe my favorite aspect of sharing user-generated content is the need to shoot significantly less content. I have clients that utilize this strategy and only need me to capture shoppable product imagery and in-studio photography, rather than photos in a lifestyle setting, to fill their Instagram feed. A second tip is to only share brand-related content through regrams. When a brand’s followers tag the company’s account in relevant content, the business owner must be quick to take a screenshot of the content and share the image on the brand’s feed. If you have a large community, it’s important to let your followers know that their tag was received and thank them for creating content that represents your brand.

Visual Content Creation

With videos and images being the most engaging form of content on social media, creating eye-catching visuals is important. In fact, 55% of marketers said they prioritized creating visual assets in 2020. But how do you create these engaging visuals? While some brands choose to create complex visuals that involve shooting unique video content, for many brands, this isn’t feasible. This makes visual content creation a topic of interest for many brands, who want to produce high-quality visuals, quickly and inexpensively. In fact, search interest in “free” stock video has increased 43% in the last year.

However, the world of stock footage and images for your visual content creation needs has changed dramatically. Fresh content is available to help you avoid the pitfalls of “visual cliches.” In fact, during the pandemic, consumers have expressed a desire to see brands use local imagery in their visual content. Add in accessibility considerations and navigating the world of video content creation can feel like a complex, ever-changing landscape. But don’t worry, we’ve selected the top resources to make your visual content creation easier than ever.

Interactive Content Ideas

Interactive content is a good way to stray from typical, flat posts on social media. This type of content can be fun, add some playfulness to the conversation, or just get your audience to interact with your posts beyond a simple “like” or “comment”. Interactive content is all about setting up a dialogue with your audience, rather than shouting at them.

Q&A or FAQ: Never underestimate the power of Q&A posts. Let your customers know that you’re there to answer any questions they have. This could be through a general FAQ, or it might be in response to a relevant news story. Either way, make sure you respond honestly and offer as much added-value as possible.

Quizzes, Polls, Votes, or Contests. This type of content is a fun way to engage posting, as they’re simple to put together. These posts can also draw more meaningful information from your audience too. You have a huge opportunity to learn a lot about your audience here – and they get to have fun with interacting with your brand!

Incorporating User-Generated Content

Creating a strategy that focuses on user-generated content does not mean that you have to sacrifice engaging, quality content. According to research, user-generated content is effective at a lower cost than other content types. These resources can showcase the products available in your store. And, due to the creativity of your customers, each of those posts is almost guaranteed to look different from the last. Set up a system to seek out your real customers using your product. Lastly, ensure the stories and images being shared via these user-generated posts align with your brand – they are an extension of the way your company wishes to be seen by the world. You may want to search for high-quality photos to highlight and write up some thoughts surrounding the post. Instagram Repost apps are available, making it easier to showcase how others are viewing your brand.

One of the advantages of user-generated content is that it can add a little something special to your feed. After newly diagnosed breast cancer patients shared photos of their own rich experiences with SurvivorCAMO merchandise, the Founder had an idea. Why not have a contest for the PINK SurvivorCAMO team? Entrants would share their story and be given a shot at winning some free merchandise. This not only increased the number of posts featuring their products, but it also facilitated dialogue with the St. Louis community. Just as it is important to engage with your followers on social media, user-generated content interaction is an important part of your social media strategy. Unlike original posts, there is an outside chance that by sharing or liking a user’s post, you will encourage that user to share your product with their followers. Not to mention the benefits experienced when a company is seen engaging with their customer base on social media.

Tools and Resources for Social Media Content Creation

It seems only appropriate that since we have learned so much about social media content development, that we would review some resources and tools to help you get the job done well and efficiently. Each social marketing plan is likely to use different tools based on your needs and your business model, but these are some of our favorites. Let’s explore various apps, websites, and resources available to help with your social media content creation. Please visit our website to see the tools page, which contains even more tools!

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then the right photograph or illustration can exponentially increase the readability and shareability of your post. But finding the right image can be a headache. These resources will get you started with both free and paid options. Once fine-tuned, your plan is to really get moving with your social media posting. To keep from losing your mind, use these scheduling tools to keep your publishing direct. After all is said and done, you want to know how your content is doing. These tools will give you the numbers to let you know how well your content performs and provide insight into what your followers are thinking. Now tackle that social media and have some fun with your online marketing!

Measuring Success and Analyzing Engagement

In order to really understand how well your content is performing, you need to focus on the data provided by your social media platforms. This information is easily accessible and will tell you whether your content is attracting the right type of interest. By drilling into your audience’s response to your social media posts, you can gain useful insights and refine your content creation strategy. The major platforms all provide a detailed numerical overview of content engagement, so you will be spoiled for choice. They typically measure engagement with an audience across the following elements:

– Likes/favorites – Comments – Shares/retweets – Views – Saves/favorites – Clicks/tracking when an account is tagged or mentioned

As a general guideline, many social media strategies are focused on the number of shares. If content is shared, then others are effectively putting their name to the content by sharing it with their audiences. This association provides an endorsement of the content. A like, comment, or a share means your audience finds your content engaging. If no one is engaging with your content, it generally means it isn’t eliciting the positive reaction you want from your audience. The whole point of creating content is to share.

Once you know which posts are attracting the most shares, you will begin to see a pattern and learn the type of content that your audience finds engaging. Be it a trend that can be utilized and incorporated into your regular content, or it might take the form of a particular question designed to hook them in, your objective is to construct content that stimulates your audience. This process should translate into a higher reach for your content and better brand awareness for your company. With this in mind, let’s look at the different social media platforms which have emerged to host content and provide creators the means of sharing it with a large and monetized audience.