What has social media accounts got to do with content marketing strategy?
It is a fair question and merits a good reply. Today, social media is a powerful medium to help your small business get major exposure and amplify your digital content strategy.
It Takes Time To Find Your Site
People will not find your site on the search engines or find your syndicated content on other popular sites, to begin with. With a new business site, you can take for granted that as far as rankings go, Google will put your site in cold storage for at least 6 months.
It takes time and consistent effort (read producing quality content) to get site content indexed, acquire back links, build domain authority and trust authority before even thinking of ranking at the top. It is a slow and steady ascent to the the peaks of Google search landscape.
Social Media To The Rescue
This is where social media shines through. You can open social media accounts on sites that are well aligned to your content (say Twitter and Facebook to start with). Do some searches on these sites to make sure your niche is popular and has a good following.
Advantages Of Active Social Media Presence
When you open an account and operate under your brand/business name, you can start writing about your business and the services you offer. It is going to be seen in record quick time by others.
If you provide a unique/classy service or have an incredibly amazing product, word is going to spread around and your related content gets shared quickly.
Social media strategies can vary according to the platform, as each one is unique and has its own set of operating rules. Follow good netiquette. Be honest and transparent about your service/product. Be an active participant and use content effectively to reach out to your target audience.
Be Creative To Build A Following
Being creative comes with lot of perks. The way you target your audience on social media determines the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Create interesting content that is share worthy and that addresses the problems of your audience persona.
By standing out from the crowd with creative messaging and hard to beat offers, you build a great following quickly.
Let social media run hot by attracting more people to your fold when the search engines take time to go from cold shoulder to warm acceptance of your business/site.
Social Media Increases Trust
If you play by the rules of the platform(s) you have a strong presence in, and remain honest and transparent in your dealings with your audience, you gain their trust in no time.
Your social media account is a hot communication line for you and your audience to interact. You can use it as a customer service channel to deliver instant top notch service.
Depending on your attitude/outlook, you can earn plaudits or complaints. Yet, they are there out in the open and be prepared to be judged by your audience.
Social Signals Help In SEO
The more trust you earn, it is going to result in strong messages (either positive or negative) from your audience. Assuming you are doing a great job, these comments/accolades etc serve an important purpose in two significant ways
- Attract the attention of search engines through positive social signals
- Attract the attention of people who don’t know you and are converted to your fold
These signals help Google view your business in favorable light and helps boost your site’s ranking metrics. This can cause a rapid ascent in the search engine result pages(SERPs).
Another natural positive side effect is that your content gets shared around, commented upon and liked on say Facebook. This is a behemoth of a social media platform and backlinks to your site from Facebook is a major boost to your SEO efforts, when looked at from the perspective of the domain authority and domain trust of Facebook .
Which Social Media Sites Should You Target?
There are a plethora of social media sites. As a beginner, you are bound to have a dilemma as to how to start this whole process.
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Go Where Your Audience Hangs Out
You have done the hard work and created your small business audience persona. You know the key characteristics of your target audience. Use all this research to your advantage.
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Social Media Demographics To Consider
As emphasized before, your audience persona should match the demographic statistics of any social media site. Also, the type of product/service you offer should resonate with the audience frequenting that platform. This can make all the difference to your marketing strategy.
If you are targeting teenagers, it is hard to ignore TikTok. For a mature audience with higher proportion of either gender, you can’t miss Facebook. If your offering is image share worthy, then Pinterest is a must on your list and so on.
Find a really good roundup of detailed demographic statistics across various social media platforms
Manage Your Time Effectively – Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle or the 80-20 rule is about devoting 20% of your input to get a return of 80% on your output.
If you are owner operated business and do all the work initially, you have to make wise choice on the social media network(s) where you want to have an active presence. Consider the factors explained above. Putting the right efforts at strategic networks can reap rich rewards.
Is Your Social Media Platform Aligned With Your Content Strategy?
As long as your social media network aligns with your brand’s content marketing goals, that is a big first step in the right direction.
Ensure your brand messaging resonates with the platform audience demographics. These are vital steps as you have only so many hours a day to invest your time. Planning ahead and decisively ensures a seamless execution of your digital marketing strategy as well.
Importance Of Branding
As your brand gets tons of exposure on large social media platforms, branding plays a huge role overarching your business and content goals.
Avoid Branding Confusion
As you spread out over major platforms, it is crucial to maintain brand consistency across various sites, by using the same logos, colors, imagery and graphics. Just trying to be unique across various profiles can cause confusion in the minds of your audience.
Users also have profiles on various social media networks. If they were to view your business branded in various ways with different types of messaging, it is to the detriment of your brand and even your personal integrity.
At Traffic Alignment, we understand the complexities of owner operated small businesses or companies that are tight knit operations wise. We create quality content and amplify it through social media platforms. Drop in a line or give us a call.
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