Every day, we encounter more and more information. It’s estimated that the amount of information on the web doubles every two years, and increases tenfold every five years. How do we keep up?
Short answer: we don’t.
The number of internet users certainly doesn’t double every two years. As more and more content is created, more and more content is necessarily ignored. This presents a problem for content creators that has come to be known as Content Shock.
Facebook, Google, and others have attempted to deal with this glut of content by curating our search results and news feeds more and more, attempting to show us only things they think we will want to see.
This, of course, presents a challenge to bloggers and marketers alike: how do we make sure our content is seen, read, and appreciated by our readers? The best way is to overcome the curatorial activities of Google, Facebook and the rest with a concerted, strategic social media strategy. Read on to find out how.
Fit the brand
If readers don’t understand why they are reading something, they will stop reading. All of your social media promotions, and by extension your content itself, must fit the your brand. Your brand is your personality, your identity, your opinions, and ultimately determines who you appeal to.
Establish goals, non-goals, and KPIs
What you are trying to accomplish will shape your social media strategy. Are you trying to drive conversion, or simply increase traffic? Driving conversion will require a different approach than simply trying to bring users to your website, and your strategy will reflect that.
For each goal, think about how success could be measured. This is called a KPI, or a Key Performance Indicator. In the case of goals like increased conversion or traffic, this might be easy to define, a more nebulous goal like user engagement might require more finesse. Crazy as it may sound, many organizations set off on a task without considering how and when they will know they’ve succeeded.
Equally important is to define exactly what you are not trying to accomplish with your social media campaign. If your goal is to deliver relevant content to the people who want it, anything that doesn’t serve that purpose deserves a close, exacting look.
Put your ear to the ground
Chances are, there are already people discussing your brand on social media. What are you waiting for? Use them! What are they saying? Can you incorporate those topics into your content? This is an easy way to make sure that your content is fresh and relevant to the people who are already engaged. Find your brand evangelicals, create and market content that appeals to them, and the rest will follow.
Determine which channels to use
Some brands have larger presences on Facebook, some on Twitter, some on YouTube, still others on Google+. Without neglecting any of these, make sure you focus on the ones that are relevant to your brand. Find where your brand is already being discussed, and make that channel the centerpiece of your social media strategy.
For some brands, finding the right channel is a no-brainer: GoPro’s YouTube channel is clearly the most important aspect of its social media strategy, for reasons that should be obvious. Not only does the channel display the usefulness of the product, but the content is awe-inspiring.
Analyze, analyze, analyze!
Make use of any analytical tools you have available to. Google Analytics is the goto tool, but many tools like HootSuite and others have built-in analytics to help you see what works and what doesn’t.
Adjust and repeat
Once you’ve allowed your social strategy a while to take effect, don’t be afraid to adjust as necessary. Channel not performing as well as you hoped? Consider putting more resources into it, or alternatively, reallocating your resources to channels with a better return on investment. Social media is always changing, so it pays to be nimble and adaptable.
Content Shock doesn’t need to happen to everyone.
By following these steps, you can leverage the power of social media to protect your users from becoming fatigued and overwhelmed. By precisely and selectively targeting your social media to the people who really want to see it, you get more bang for your buck and avoid boring disinterested users. A concerted social media strategy is the first step to getting the right content to the right people.
