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We've only been at The Social Shake Up 2014 for a little over 5 hours, but we're already learning valuable takeaways about content creation. Here are 5 tips for more effective content creation and what to watch for as we look to develop creative, engaging, and relevant content for our brands.
While you may have the resources to spew out content all day long, if it's content that your audience doesn't care about, then you're essentially wasting your resources. Be sure that if you're talking to Millennials, the look, feel, and tone fits them. It's probably not the same content that you'd serve up to Baby Boomers. The more often that your content is geared to the right audience, the more likely they'll notice you. You need to cut through the clutter, so audience understanding is at the heart of that.
Watchout: While it may feel right to jump on the latest trending conversations, it might not be anything your audience is talking about. Don't always feel compelled to just "join in" because everyone else is. Join in the conversations relevant to your audience, your social media team, budget, and resources will thank you.
In the days of traditional advertising and marketing, imagery, logo usage, colors, brand voice, and vision were all mandatories in your brand book. Today, in our digital world, social media standards need a chapter of their own.
When you clearly define your social media standards and how you want to come across in the digital world, like the social appropriate voice, the campaign goals, the standard visuals, etc it can help speed up the content creation process since you have a guide in place. It allows you to limit the number of approvals needed to publish content since you've already identified and agreed upon the standards in the brand book. Setting up a solid foundation for your social media just like any other branding attributes will set you in the right direction.
Watchout: make sure your guidelines don't limit the creative process. While you want guidelines for consistency you don't want monotony. Ensure you create guidelines with some flexibility to allow your creativity to still shine.
"The best moments are unplanned", according to Andrea Harrison, Head of Platform Strategy for RebelHouse. Andrea emphasized that it's important to let some things happen on their own. One of the examples is instead of just creating custom branded hashtags to interject into the social space, maybe it's better to listen and jump on the hashtags that are already part of conversations. Sometimes reinventing the wheel isn't how you'll get skin in the game. Talk about what others are talking about so you are part of what's already happening.
Watchout: make sure that you can cut through the clutter. When you jump on the bandwagon you're competing with everyone else on it too. When you have compelling and innovative content it will help you standout amongst the crowd.
If you don't create a space, the time, or group of people to get social media content created then you'll go nowhere. Remember, you need resources and talent to get things done. We live in a world where people are actively wanting new things all the time. It's the advent of we will not wait for it. So if you don't have people and resources at your company coming up with content, then some teenager in their bedroom and/or a YouTube sensation will be doing it on their own time, potentially taking away your audience's eyes and time to their content. Invest in a team so you have a quality social presence.
Watchout: don't bite off more than you can chew. The last thing you want to do is not keep up on your content if you start publishing. It will deter your audience from continuing to engage. To help combat this, developing a well defined social media calendar will help you stay on track. It will hold your company accountable as well as setting up a publishing pace that's appropriate for the time and resources that you realistically have.
In the sea of users and companies on social media, getting noticed can be a problem in and of itself. Do yourself one favor and start by unifying your naming conventions. If you have your Twitter handle named a certain way, use that same name in Instagram, Facebook, etc. It can already be hard enought to get your audience to find you once, let alone as differing entities. The more consistent you are with your naming the more you can heighten your discoverability across channels.
Watchout: try to find a name that works across as many networks as possible. One way to check and find the best name is through the website http://knowem.com. Knowem scans hundreds of social networks and shows you which networks have your name available. Quick, down and dirty way to checking your name all in one place.
Be sure to join the conversation and add your own tips and learnings on Twitter with #socialshakeup.
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Content Marketing