Social Media Content: Are You Doing It Right?

Social media is the best way to communicate with your current audience while attracting new potential customers to your business. 

That’s why digital entrepreneurs invest in this strategy and create profiles on different networks.

But in the end, do you really know what the best content for each media is?

In this post, we’ve set aside the main tips on social media content so that you can learn which type of post is best for each of your channels.

But, before we start, we need to talk about the question you’ve probably asked yourself:

Do I really need to have a profile on every social media app and site?

Which social media should I use for my business?

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Even though a lot of social media seems like it’s all the same, each channel has an audience with a specific profile. 

Just think about LinkedIn vs Instagram. 

The former is an essential professional network. It’s where you’ll be networking and finding your next career or side gig.

The latter, on the other hand, is casual at best. This is where you can talk to your audience about whatever’s on your mind and not necessarily strictly professional subjects.

This means that the tone and language you’ll be using in each of them will be different. So, the type of social media content has got to be different too.

For your business, especially if it’s online, you have to create profiles and outline strategies on as many platforms as you can. But in the end, you need to focus your energy where your audience is.

You’ve probably noticed that this isn’t such an easy task. It requires planning and dedication. 

And if you’re self-employed and work by yourself, this might be even harder, especially if you don’t plan ahead.

But even with the best planning, it’s important to understand what each social media platform has to offer your business.

To do so, you need to understand who your persona is, because only then will you know which social media your audience uses the most.

Then, it’ll become easier to understand on which media you should focus on and plan out the content that will be posted.

In short: you don’t need to be present on every social media, but make sure that you have a profile on those with which your target audience engages the most.

 

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Social media content planning

Once you understand which social media to have a profile on, it’s time to start planning what will be posted on each of them.

This step is important so you can have everything organized and not post too much content on one media or forget about the others.

This is why it’s time to control your anxiety and make a plan before you start activating your profiles.

Of course, planning your social media content doesn’t need to be, nor should it be, set in stone. It’s only a guide so you can keep in mind everything you need to do during a given month.

But as you’ll quickly learn, new things pop up, and plans change. 

So don’t worry if you need to mix things up to post important content on social media.

Now that we’ve got this aspect ironed out, we’ve got 3 quick tips to help you when planning your social media content.

1. Plan ahead and have clear goals

Spelling this out might seem obvious, but when it comes to social media content, some people end up skipping this step. 

As with everything in your business, you need to have a goal not only for your social media strategy but also for your posts.

What do you want to do?

• Boost sales?
• Become an authority in your area of expertise?
• Promote your brand to a new audience?
• Find people to work with you?

Believe me, each of your posts needs to be directly linked to your goal so that you can post interesting content for your audience.

After all, there’s no use in clogging up your social media with posts if they have no effect on your audience as well as on your business.

2. Create your brand persona

Yes, we’ve already talked about personas in this post, but when we mentioned them earlier, we were referring to the buyer persona, which is different from the brand persona.

What does that mean?

A buyer persona is your customer’s ideal profile, in other words, people who’d possibly buy your products or services.

A brand persona, on the other hand, is the set of characteristics that represent your brand’s personality. In other words, perceptions, and values that you want your audience to have of your brand.

It is from your brand persona that you’ll define the tone you will use in your social media content and the manner in which you’ll communicate with your audience.

Do you have any questions about this subject?

We have a complete post that explains the difference between brand and buyer persona. 

3. Set up a calendar and social media manager

The last tip is to create an editorial schedule with set actions for each of your social media platforms. Go ahead and use Google Sheets or Google Calendar. Don’t get too fancy with this step, but do it! 

With a schedule, you can have an overview of everything that needs to be posted on your social media. Thus, you won’t forget any posts.

In addition, you can define precisely the type of post in each media.

To take this to the next level, make your life easier with apps like Later or Sprout Social. Social media managers are a great way to plan things out all and once and not have to worry about posting later.  

Social media content strategies

There are all kinds of strategies out there regarding social media content.

Here are a couple of ideas to get you started. Feel free to tweak things as you go.  

The best strategy is to test these tips out and find what aspects of each one works for your business.

The Pareto Principle

Widely known as the 80/20 rule, one way to apply the Pareto Principle to your business is that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers.

But this doesn’t apply only to sales.

As a power law, the Pareto Principle can be applied to several other concepts, including social media content.

For this type of strategy, you’d post 80% of content to captivate and educate your audience and only 20% of content focused directly on sales.

4-1-1

Digital influencers set trends.

If you want to be recognized in your market and also attract more audiences to your business, having influencers talking about your brand is one of the best ways of doing this.

But getting established influencers to talk about your brand or product is tough, especially for those who are just starting.

One tip to get this type of reach is the 4-1-1 rule, developed by Andrew Davis, author of Brandscaping.

This strategy states that for every 6 pieces of social media content that you post, you should divide them into:

• 4 reposts from an influencer that is relevant to your audience and your business.
• 1 post that is exclusively yours and that demonstrates your authority in your area of expertise.
• 1 post that sells your product or service.

With this strategy, in addition to mentioning influencers and showing them that you can expand their audience, you can also attract followers with your exclusive content.

The best channel for this type of content strategy for social media is Twitter.

Tips from our experts

In addition to these strategies, let’s hear from some folks who make a living analyzing social media content.

We’ve spoken to a few of our experts at Hotmart and they provided interesting tips for you:

Pedro Turambar, Branding Specialist

“With Twitter, I know everything that’s going on in the world and about the subjects that interest me. 

If something interesting happens in the film industry, in soccer, or in the world, I know immediately because of Twitter.

The essential thing for me on this network is to follow several profiles so you can understand what’s happening and also share them. After all, whatever you retweet is also considered your content.

The content curation of those you follow counts a lot to your Twitter content because people interact by retweeting within your retweet. 

I basically use Twitter to share memes and to promote the texts I write on other media, such as my blog.

In addition, it’s also very important to engage in relevant conversations with other people.”

Rosario Romay, social media analyst

“On all social media, always remember to talk to your audience, i.e., reply to what people are asking.

Of course, not all businesses can do this, mainly because this action needs to be scalable. 

But even if you can’t reply to everyone quickly, when you speak to your audience, do so in a humanized way.

Never leave users without an answer. Otherwise, they’ll think that there’s no one behind your profiles.

If someone goes to your fan page and sees that all the other questions were answered, even if you take a while, they realize there’s a real person behind your business who cares about their audience.

This also shows that the page is active, that you have updated content, and that you care about helping people.

When you talk to these people, you satisfy users because you answer their questions and can also understand their pain and even what they feel your business lacks.

Replying to comments is an excellent way of obtaining insights, regardless of the social media you use.”

Matheus Lacerda, Social Listening Coordinator

“One of the most effective ways to humanize your brand to create an authentic relationship with your audience is using Stories. You can use this video strategy across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and even with YouTube Shorts. 

I believe that creating an identity for your Stories is very important, especially creating Stories that people don’t get tired of seeing. Invest in images, customizable templates, and strong storytelling that keeps your followers engaged. 

Try to create 1 to 7 Stories a day that fit your audience and always tag those who are part of the social media content. Just like retweeting, you can reach a new audience when the people you tagged repost your Stories. 

Always pay attention to who mentions you so you can understand what your audience is saying about you and take advantage of this to repost the best content you’re tagged in.”

Thiago Machado, Senior Brand Strategy Coordinator

“Never stop asking your audience what they want to see and hear.

Conduct tests and polls on Instagram, use Twitter polls, and post images looking for comments so your audience can reply and leave their questions, or even make a video asking for these insights.

This way, you’ll be sure of the type of content that you need to post on your social media.”

Manage your social media content

There’s no use in doing all the research and planning for social media content if you don’t track your posts or are unable to manage them.

Therefore, it’s very important to keep track of all of your actions.

Oh, and don’t forget about your business!

As important as social media is for your brand, getting your online business off the ground is even more important. 

To help you get the ball rolling so you can turn your ideas, knowledge, and content into income, we’ve put together a checklist for you: How to Start an Online Business from Scratch – click on the link and download it for free!