Social media has become such a ubiquitous part of the business landscape that companies have to be extremely discerning about what they post. The most successful businesses are those who balance a thoughtful and consistent social media presence with a tailored content strategy for each platform, mixing informative written content with engaging visuals and interactive elements. In this article, we’ll look at the different types of content that work well on social media and how to develop a strategic mindset to transform social media into a strong marketing asset for your business.
1. Company news and announcements
This is the classic way that businesses use social media – for sharing company updates and keeping your customers, suppliers, and prospects in the loop. This type of content might include product launches, upcoming campaigns, updates on project milestones, and even interesting tidbits about the community causes and charities your team might be supporting. However, this type of content is so well used that it pays to be creative. If you’re using social media to promote an upcoming seasonal campaign, for instance, you could use LinkedIn or Facebook to post a countdown, share teasers, and finally announce the launch. Include calls to action within your post to direct your customers to learn more, visit a landing page, or even to request a demo or preorder.
2. Thought leadership and microblogs
Business decision-makers generally look for more from the social media accounts they follow than an endless wall of memes and updates. They also value succinct and insightful content about a range of issues. Social media platforms aren’t generally suited to lengthy posts, but short opinion pieces or microblogs are a good way of hooking readers and directing them to your website, blog, or other in-depth content assets. Many businesses share a bold opinion, industry insight, or concise takeaway from their blog on social media, including a backlink to the website for the full piece. This also works for your guides and longer form content. For instance, you could post a few key statistics from your latest white paper or e-book with a link to download the full (gated) document. You can also cross promote video content from YouTube by embedding short clips onto your social media accounts to boost engagement and click throughs.
3. Video content
Social media and video content have become almost synonymous, and videos of all shapes and stripes are an excellent way to create authentic connections with your customers and engage with users on their mobile devices. And what can you do with video? Pretty much anything you can do with a blog. Showcase ongoing projects, share your customer success stories, feedback, or testimonials, comment on breaking news stories, or even broadcast updates from events in real time. In general, short form videos work best on social media (especially Facebook and Instagram). Keep your videos under two minutes if possible and include subtitles for accessibility on mobile devices – you can always go into greater depth with longer form videos on your YouTube channel.
4. Photos and images
Visual content, including photos, images, and infographics, can be extremely impactful on social media, especially when viewed on a phone or mobile device. There are thousands of ways in which you can use photos on social media, including on-site images from projects, images of your team, snapshots from industry events, and user generated content featuring your customers or clients interacting with your projects. Images can be quickly and cheaply uploaded to your social media at any time to maintain posting consistency and keep your business in your followers feeds. However, relevancy is really important. Don’t just post for the sake of it – images should be genuinely relevant, original, and of a decent resolution and image quality. We recommend avoiding using stock photos and AI-generated images on your social media accounts, as these can come across as generic and could put off customers.
5. Shared content
Your social media platforms aren’t simply a platform for your own content, but can also be used as a means of sharing relevant and value driven content from other users. If you come across a relevant blog, infographic, or report, feel free to share it with your own followers, together with any relevant comments. This is a good way of building relationships with suppliers and influencers in your industry and also cementing your reputation as an authority and thought leader by adding your unique perspective in the caption. Be careful, however, that any content you share aligns with your company’s values and objectives, and always give full credit to the original content creator. A word of caution about sharing content, too: we’ve all seen social media accounts that lean too heavily on shared content, so use the 80/20 rule to strike a good balance. 80% of your posts should, ideally, be unique, branded content that showcases your company’s expertise, products, services, or company culture, while 20% can be curated shared content from other industry partners, stakeholders, and leaders.
6. Polls and surveys
And finally, don’t be afraid to get interactive with your social media content. Ideally, a social media marketing strategy should be an active conversation between your business and its customers, and not a one-way monologue. Social media polls, for instance, are a great interactive way to collect insights from your customers and to stimulate engagement, and can also provide ideas for future content creation. You could, for example, ask your LinkedIn followers about their opinion on the biggest challenges facing their team regarding automated manufacturing processes, or any other subject relevant to your audience and your value proposition. These challenges could then be addressed individually in a series of blog articles, linked to a guide that covers the matter in greater depth and angles your business as the ideal solution.
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