A lot of us use social media as our main marketing channels these days – and a lot of us use them as free channels – not paying for advertising or boosting etc, but hoping that our content will reach our target audience no matter what.
This can often feel like you need to make some sort of sacrifice to a mythical lord of algorithms, or give up the rights to your first born or something of equally drastic and mostly inexplicable reasons.
It true that relying on organic (non paid for) content marketing is becoming harder and harder as the social platforms we use like that less and less. If you want to find out more about that, take a read of this – it’s pretty good: Improving Your Facebook Reach Despite Organic Decline - business.com
But before you throw your teddies out of the pram and have a tantrum about it not being worth it, take a few moments and think about not just what you are posting , but when you are posting it.
The majority of content I share is on Facebook – and these days, mostly through my personal page (for all of the reasons written about in that article above). That doesn’t mean I am not posting on my FB business page, it just means I am more conscious of these points:
- Who do I want to talk to and where are they hanging out?
- What do I want my posts to do?
- How often can I realistically post new content?
Let’s take a look at each of these points:
Who do I want to talk to and where are they hanging out?
I want to talk to overwhelmed business owners who are looking for clarity, focus & accountability to move their business forward. They are hanging out more and more on LinkedIn & the resurging Twitter than they are on Facebook. So I need to change my posting strategy & share more on LinkedIn.
So then I need to think about when audiences are active on LinkedIn. Although LinkedIn, like all the social platforms is always evolving and adapting, generally speaking it is used more in the daytime by people who are office based, so I need to factor that in.
If I want to increase my Twitter activity, I also need to think about when is a good time to post there – business owners are generally, well, doing business during the day, although the statistics say that engagement is better over the lunch period during the day – posting in the evenings (or scheduling posts) is also effective when folks are idly scrolling content in front of the telly etc.
What do I want my posts to do?
This is also important – if you simply push out a load of sales posts, your social channels end up looking like an online version of a never ending DFS advert. And that’s dull as hell. So you need to mix up your posts, allow people to see the WHO behind the WHAT and build that trust and rapport. You can’t fast track people straight to your till, you need to go through the meet/like/know & trust process online too. So think about what you want your content to do:
- Tell a story?
- Share your expertise?
- Showcase how you help/solve problems/create solutions?
- Behind the scenes context?
Ideally a mixture of all of this as well as ‘buy my stuff’ posts is good. If you network, tell people where they can find you, how they can meet up with you, what you get out of it.
If you speak at events, tell people what you share when you talk, where you are speaking next, what value you add, how they can book you.
So when you are thinking about your content, think about what you want it to do and who you are writing it for, as well as when you are posting it.
How often can I realistically post new content?
This is a ‘how long is a bit of string’ question really. If you are creating content, you need it to work really hard. You need to repurpose it as much as you can and make sure you are really getting the most from it. I have a tip sheet to help with that which you can find here.
Try and create new content at least once a week & think about which platform you are going to post it on first. If you get the most interaction and engagement on Facebook, post it there first. Then schedule it to go out again on your next most engaged platform, etc etc.
Use a social media scheduling platform to set that as evergreen content, posting out to your channels on a regular basis so your feeds are always busy. It’s a crammed, high paced, fast moving virtual high street out there in SocialMediaVille, and you need to keep updating your sandwich board – your audience is fast moving, so may not see what you posted yesterday. So you need to keep posting. Often. I use SocialBee to ‘set & forget’ my content marketing – use this link to give it a try for free: SocialBee Free Trial
So remember – when you post is as important as what you post – think about when your potential audience is most likely to be engaging and post then. Use your analytics to see what works and what doesn’t – then form your own posting strategy based on that. If you are using organic content to promote your business, you need to make sure you are using it well in order to get as much from it as you can.
In the meantime, why not connect with me & say hello?
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