Successful social media marketing strategies center around the mix of content being published. To keep your audience of current and potential customers engaged, strike a balance of industry, branded and human content to have an informative and healthy social media presence.
The Informed and Healthy Social Media Feed guide below provides a 4-step process to think through the strategy that's right for your brand and your employees. Not every brand's posting strategy is going to look the same.
1. CONTENT MIX: Content from a variety of sources is the goal for this strategy. Publishing a mix of industry, brand and personal content is going to drum up audience engagement.
Best Practice: Consistency is key for the network algorithms. Schedule industry content ahead of time, and fill in the gaps with brand and human posts on a monthly and weekly basis to maintain a successful posting strategy across your networks.
A good rule of thumb for your weekly content mix is 1 Industry post, 1 brand post, and 1 personal or community post ( 3 total/week). Want to go above and beyond? Try 2 industry, 2 brand and 1 personal or community post per week (5 per week, at least).
Industry content is content comes from third party publishers and provides educational value to your audience while establishing your brand and your employees as thought leaders in the industry. For example, this could be an article about improving your credit score or getting ready for tax season; sharing news stories, etc.
Denim Social content collections are updated daily with industry content, making this an easy way to find post-able content to schedule out ahead of time. Click here to learn more about Denim Social’s content library.
Brand Content is original and relevant to your company. Think product information and newsworthy happenings. This content brings awareness to your audience. For example, this could be a post about a specific offering or that your branches are closed on Thanksgiving or a website update.
Human content is meant to create a personal connection with your company’s and employees’ audiences. This is the content that humanizes your company, allowing followers to get to know the people who make it happen every day. For example, this could be branch events, career wins, philanthropic involvement, professional updates, etc.
Best Practice: Too much of one type of content won't capture your audience's attention. Strike a balance between fun and entertaining, educational content that adds value, and content about your business. People buy from people, and personalized content typically garners the most engagement!
2. STAY RELEVANT AND KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: Listen to the conversations and trends in your industry right now. What do you see your audience reacting to or sharing across their networks?
Best Practice: Set aside some time every few days to scroll through your own social media, so that you have an understanding of what is trending on a local, national and global level. Subscribe to industry newsletters and read them regularly. The more plugged in you are to what is trending, the more engaging your posts will be. And you may stumble upon some great ideas along the way!
3. BE FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE: Remember, you can always pivot. What used to work may not work anymore as you gain new followers, try new content strategies, etc.. Keep an open mind when executing and creating your posting strategy. It is possible to tweak your strategy, while staying on brand, to align with what your audience is engaging with. Think about how much has changed in the world, just in the last 3 years. Social media is the same way!
Best Practice: No two companies’ strategies are the same. Make sure that when you are adapting your strategies, you’re staying compliant and true to your company’s brand, while posting the most engaging content mix and published posts for your company’s size and industry.
4. ANALYZE AND ADJUST: Once you have the first 3 steps nailed down, it’s time to measure your strategy’s success. Use your analytics and reporting to see how your published posts are performing. By making some minor tweaks and adjustments to your posting strategy, you may see big results.