How to develop social media content that gets your target market’s attention and seamlessly integrates into your inbound marketing plan.
Targeted social media content is a critical aspect of having an effective inbound marketing plan. With a focused effort on developing social media content that targets your desired audience, you can effectively bring the client to you rather than vice versa.
Let’s take a look at some of the essential steps for developing effective, targeted social media content.
Identify
Too many marketing plans are destined for failure because they don’t address the correct readers. The first step is pinpointing your target market.
Are you hoping to attract middle-aged mothers? Young athletic types? Teens? People nearing retirement? It should go without saying, but before you can develop your inbound marketing strategy, you must identify whom you’re targeting.
Without understanding the who, you won’t understand what draws the particular client to your product or service.
Understand
Next, use social media wisely. Understand where your target market is most likely to be found. Facebook is the most widely used social media site today, but it is far from the only one.
Furthermore, while Facebook can be a great way to connect with a fairly diverse market, other social media sites can open the doors to a more niche audience. For example, the average Twitter user is 28 years old and female. Instagram users are mostly between 18 and 29, while Pinterest attracts women of higher educational background and income.
Match a social network’s main demographics to your marketing plan for maximum effect.
Create
Create content with a purpose. Your social media content should inform your audience of who you are, encourage users to develop a relationship with you and promote sharing.
Develop content that speaks to your target audience, whether that means making them laugh, offering professional advice or just appealing to a common interest. Always remember that every time a user shares your content, the user has become your ambassador.
Shareability is a priority.
Be Active
Once you get the social media ball rolling, you have to maintain your activity levels. Users are active on social media and expect businesses to be active as well.
Successful companies tend to have a high response time on social media, which is especially useful when it comes to self-service and responding to inquiries about your product or service.
Being active on social media is an integral step in cultivating a relationship with your target audience.
Track
Track user data closely and study your findings. Your metrics are a way for you to better understand your audience. Understand what’s working and what’s not, and adjust accordingly. If your audience responds better to images than text, heed the call and use more pictures.
If they respond better to informative sharing than more transparent self-promoting, focus on being the voice of expertise. Over time, you can personalize your social media content to your audience’s needs and interests.
Incite
Finally, include a call to action. It should be very clear to your audience how to take the next step of becoming customers.
Inciting users into action is the desired result of a targeted social media content strategy, otherwise, what is the point of getting traffic? Once you have the other steps in place, you can focus on converting leads into customers.
By defining who you are as a company on social media, you can welcome new contacts while nurturing relationships with continuing clients.
Developing targeted social media content is an essential part of branding your business in a way that speaks to your consumer and in the end, maximizes your potential success.
