How and What Social Media to Use

Love it or hate it, social media is everywhere. Whether you're travelling, shopping or dining out you're frequently assailed with invitations to 'check in', 'tag friends' or 'post a review'. Regardless of whether you use social media in your personal life or are still firmly resisting the allure of Facebook, using social media to promote and grow your business is essential in the modern business world. But what are the best social media platforms for your particular business? And how do you use modern social media to your advantage?
Before deciding which social media networks you’re going to spend time and resources on you'll need to decide what you want to achieve with social media. These goals should be specific and tied to a business objective. You can get more information about  setting your social media goals in this article from Social Media Examiner. Once you’ve drawn up a list of goals read through the descriptions and examples below and see which network(s) align(s) with your requirements.

Facebook

Best for:

The oldest and probably most famous kid on the block, Facebook still has much to offer. Facebook offers you the chance to build a community around your business, gathering feedback, passing on useful and interesting information and handling complaints. It has an ad platform as well, which you can use to promote your content, such as blog posts, and the products you want to sell. The biggest drawback of Facebook is its lack of organic reach. This means that even if you have built up a large following on the site, very few people will see your posts unless you pay to promote them.

Twitter

Best For:

Twitter is essentially Facebook for those of few words. The platform allows users to send and receive 140-character messages and post links. This brevity is both Twitter’s strength and weakness. It allows you to communicate quickly, but with so many messages flashing past your tweets can get lost in the noise.
It can be hard to promote your company directly on Twitter and many companies opt to use it for branding purposes. The site also has an ad platform, which you can use to promote content or sell products.

Instagram

Best For:

Instagram is an online portfolio of your pictures and short videos. If you have no physical product to sell, or don’t work in a visual medium, Instagram is probably not your best choice. There is some room for text, but don’t expect to be able to post long diatribes advertising your business. Showing, not telling, is the key to Instagram.

Google+ for Business

Best for:

Google+ isn’t the as widely used as many of the social networks, but it does have its uses. Popular among online marketing professionals, so if you’re targeting that demographic, then you’ll find it can be a great place to share content and make connections. You can set up Google+ for your business via the Google My Business page.
Businesses with a physical location may also find Google+ useful as you have a chance of showing up in Google’s local search results. Secondly, it’s a good platform on which to gather reviews.

LinkedIn

Best for:

LinkedIn differs from other social media platforms because its focus is business to business, rather than business to consumer. Companies looking to hire might find it useful to set up a page, and for sole traders such as consultants, the ability to build and maintain connections with past, current and future clients is the main benefit.

Free Tools for Beginners in Content Marketing

“Content Marketing” is such a broad term that covers so many different avenues that it can be difficult to know where to start with it.
So perhaps it makes sense to begin with a definition…

What Is Content Marketing? 

Here’s how the Content Marketing Institute defines the practice:
“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
Ok – that might seem a little woolly for those just starting out. So let me try and extract something a little more useful.
To understand content marketing, the most important thing to get to grips with is what we mean when we refer to the actual “content” itself.
Content is the word content marketers use to describe every single bit of free information that they publish online in association with their brand.

Amongst other things, content is:

 

Content marketing, therefore, is the process of creating and publishing many forms of content, with the design to raise brand awareness, establish the business as an industry authority, attract visitors to a business’s website, and ultimately increase sales.

Importantly, one of the key theories of content marketing is that it is designed so that users find you, as opposed to you finding them and hitting them with a sales pitch.
For instance, let’s say you’re in the business of selling paint and other DIY goods. What might be a useful piece of content for your potential customers is a blog explaining “How to Gloss the Skirting Boards Without Getting Paint on the Carpet”.
And so you write it – and other similarly valuable posts – and promote the post on social media. What you hope is that people who are about to embark on a bit of DIY home decorating will find this blog, read it, be inspired to check out what other useful tips and tricks you offer, and then consider you for their next purchase.

That’s the theory – and it works, and I’ll show you some stats to prove it as we move on now to reveal some of the great free tools that are available on the web to content marketers the world over.

Free Tools for Beginners in Content Marketing 

For Blogging 

All content marketing begins with a good, regular blog. Indeed, 82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI from their inbound marketing – and I have to say that the remaining 18% simply must be doing it wrong.
So here are a couple of free tools to help you do it right.

WordPress 

Yes, WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and content management system (CMS) for good reason – it’s simple to use, secure, and effective. Other CMSs are available, but often require users to be able to code. Forget about them, is my suggestion. For beginners, it’s WordPress all the way, and, with a huge catalogue of plugins available, you can quickly build your blog site to a point that you are ensuring that all your posts are search engine optimised, your keywords are strong and competitive, and that your site is secure for making sales.

Google Docs 

Google Docs is essentially an online word processor. Although it doesn’t quite have all the bells and whistles of the likes of Microsoft Word, it’s still pretty darn close, and for blog-writing purposes it’s got everything you need. The most important feature, however, is that your documents can be shared, viewed and edited with multiple users simultaneously, meaning that everything you write can be collaborated on with your whole team – for free!

For Making Video 

As a beginner in content marketing, you’ve arrived at a time where the emphasis on video has never been stronger.
Here are just three stats that prove it:

Thankfully this is also a time where creating videos isn’t a particularly expensive or difficult endeavour. Here are a couple of free resources to get you started.

Screencast-O-Matic 

You don’t even need a camera to start making videos. All you need is Screencast-O-Matic and you will be able to start making how-to-style recordings to help your visitors navigate your site, or walk them through your new app or piece of software. Perhaps not suitable to all businesses, but if you can make use of it for yours, then you should.

Windows Movie Maker 

Beyond screencasts, you will of course be wanting to experiment with producing some proper action footage. Smartphone cameras are pretty powerful these days, so you might not even need to invest in an expensive camera at first. But what you will need is some editing software to mash all your scenes together. Try out Windows Movie Maker which is completely free to download and start using immediately. If you can’t get on with it, then TechRadar has a list of 19 others you can experiment with.

For Infographics 

Infographics are brilliant things to be producing. They help you tell data stories which will convince your audience of the valuable figures that you can promise them.
Here’s a couple of free tools.

Canva 

Using Canva is as simple as dragging and dropping the pre-created illustrations into your infographic. No design skills necessary, templates available, and it’s as simple as filling in the blanks with the relevant information that you want your audience to be able to digest at a glance.

Piktochart   

Another great free infographic creator is Piktochart. The free version has more than enough features for the beginner, and allows you turn all that boring yet essential data into gloriously consumable visuals.

Colorcinch  

Colorcinch is a powerful online photo editor that lets you quickly enhance images, add text, and create stunning visuals without any design skills. Elevate your brand's online presence with professional-quality graphics in just a few clicks.

 

 

Found this post useful? You’ll surely like this one, too: “How to Write an Effective Content Marketing Strategy” – our easy-to-follow guide in getting you set up to start content marketing with aplomb.

How To Write An Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Whether your business resides in the B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-consumer) space, content marketing in 2016 is almost certainly one of your top priorities (and if it isn’t, then you need to remedy that pretty sharpish).
Indeed, a recent study from the Content Marketing Institute found that a whopping 88% of B2B marketers use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy. I have to say that I was relieved and encouraged when I read that stat, for it clearly indicates that the overwhelming majority of marketers already understand the modern importance of the practice.
My delight was short-lived, however. For, upon reading the remainder of the article, it was revealed to me that whilst a very pleasing 88% of marketers are using content marketing, only 32% of these have a documented content marketing strategy.

2016_B2B_DocumentedStrategy
Image source: Content Marketing Institute

 

Does Having A Documented Content Marketing Strategy Make A Difference? 

Yes.
Documenting your content marketing strategy provides you with a figurative map and compass which can be used to steer your business towards success. Without one, you are simply driving in the dark without headlights. Granted, you may eventually get to where you want to be like this, but the avoidance of obstacles cannot be guaranteed, and your vessel will most likely suffer damage on the journey.
I don’t like making wild claims without evidence to back it up, mind you, and so once again let’s turn to the Content Marketing Institute’s study.
The research found that the more sophisticated/mature a company’s content marketing strategy, the more effective the results. Take a look at their infographic and then consider the statistics below:

2016_B2B_maturity
Image source: Content Marketing Institute

 

The correlation is therefore simple – the more sophisticated your content marketing strategy, the more effective the results.


How To Write An Effective Content Marketing Strategy 

Writing a content marketing strategy may appear intimidating, but, as the statistics show, it is necessary if you want all of your content marketing efforts to pay off.
The good news is that the writing of an effective content marketing strategy isn’t as difficult as it may first appear. In fact, the process can be a lot simpler than actually creating the content itself – although, having said that, when you’ve got a solid content marketing strategy, content creation becomes a lot easier, so it’s a win-win situation all round.
So let’s now walk through exactly what you need to start building a strategy that will put you in great stead for content marketing success.

1- Define Your Goals 

What are the ultimate goals of your content marketing plans?  
In the first instance, increasing your SEO (search engine optimization) will almost certainly be at the top of your list – the more content you create, the higher you will find yourself on SERPs (search engine results pages), and the higher you are on SERPs, the more discoverable you are.
But, beyond brand awareness, what are your other goals?  
Improving your credibility and status as an industry authority may also be a priority – so you will be wanting to create lots of content that positions you as an expert in your field.
What else? Do you have a mission statement? 
Perhaps you’re selling some sort of product that aims to get young people out and about more. In this case, your mission statement might be something like “[Brand name] seeks to improve the physical health and fitness of young people in a fun and exciting way.”
With your goals set, you can begin to understand more clearly exactly who your target audience is, and from there work out the content that will most appeal to them.

2- Create Client Personas 

Your client personas are fictional renditions of your ideal customer.
So, using the above example, your two main client personas are likely to be the parents of the young people you want to use your product, and the young people themselves.
But, you will need to refine these personas a little more. Does your product appeal to boys or girls the most? And is it mums or dads that you want to target?
Other things like age, physical ability and even household income are important – is your product top-of-the-range, for instance, and very expensive, or is it more affordable?
Once you know these things, you can start researching.

3- Research Your Audience 

So, you’ve developed your client personas – now you need to work out where these types of people hang out online, and what sort of content they are most likely to engage with.
Are they most likely to be found on Facebook or Instagram? Perhaps they’re all over Pinterest, or possibly Twitter?
A great way to determine this is to do some spying on your competitors – where are they posting their content, and how much engagement is it getting?

4- Decide On Formats

Your audience research will almost certainly reveal to you that you will need to be creating different types of content to target your different personas across different marketing channels.
You may realize that whilst parents are showing willing to read and share your blog posts across Twitter, the young people are only really interested in videos on Facebook and Instagram. Take note, and forge your strategy accordingly.

5- Draw Up An Editorial Calendar

By now, you will have a pretty clear content marketing strategy – you know what types of content you will be creating, for whom, and where you will post them. All that you need to do now is accept that you cannot and should not post everything at once, and so draw up an editorial calendar that will track your output over the coming weeks and months.
You will of course need to heed of your resources – writing three blogs a week may sound like the best idea, but if you’re working on your own and need to make time to create video content, infographics, and engage with your following across all of your social channels, then you’re going to have to have a rethink.
Consistency is key, however. If you’re going to focus on a regular blog, then make it regular – post at the same time on the same days of the week, as this way your audience will get to know when and where they can expect new content from you.

Final Word 

I’m afraid to say that making a content marketing strategy is a never-ending process. You will almost certainly find that some elements of your strategy are not paying off as well as you thought they would when you first started them.
This is fine – so long as you adjust your strategy accordingly. The great thing about having a documented content marketing strategy is that you can use it to track your successes and failures. Indeed, keeping yourself informed as to the performance levels of each piece of content that you post will help you make improvements for your future campaigns.
The only other thing to say is that make sure that you promote all of the content that you put out thoroughly and consistently. Share across social media, make sure that you engage with all comments that are left, and thank all likers. With this, you are sure to keep your audience engaged, which should always be one of the key goals of your content marketing efforts.
Good luck, and happy strategizing!