First Things First
Before you begin trying to plan out how to reach your target market, you need to have content to reach others with first. Your content may include a variety of different types of media, such as articles, quotes, infographics, videos, podcasts, and more. The critical component here is that anything that you want to showcase on your social media is for you first to create a library of content before you start to plan out what you want to post.
My advice is to create a bunch of content for a month straight with whatever type of media you want to publish. Take these 30 days to define what you want to show the world, BUT remember…
Quality > Quantity
How to Create
There are tons of different types of media that you can create.
- Quotes
- Infographic
- Videos
- Designs
- Podcasts
- Articles
- Anything
Create ANY Content Easily
Creating has never been easier than now. There are lots of different resources at your fingertips. Below is a list of a couple of free/inexpensive software that I have used before.
Different Types of Apps & Websites
- Designs
- Pictures
- Videos
Breaking Down Content
When you create larger pieces of content, like a long video or a podcast, you can break down your content and reuse parts. For example, when there is that one great quote from your article, you can then create a design based on your quote or send out a tweet with just the quote. Be sure though to then link it back to your article and reuse your acquired content through different types of channels!
Content Calendars
Scheduling your content is just as important as creating it, and there are tons of different ways to do so. It is essential to do so because you want to be consistent throughout your social media platforms. I prefer using Excel, or Google Sheets, because not only can you create your content calendar, but you can also import a template from Google. There are other options too. You can also use Apple iCalendar or Google Calendar to do the same thing, but the other day the Google Calendar went down for a couple of hours, so I’d reconsider that one.
I currently love this Excel content calendar by Hubspot.
For Apple Calendar and Google Calendar, you can create a new calendar and sort your content through the categories. Although, I do find it challenging to sort content down to the type of media and channel that you want to post it too.
Also, you can try project management systems such as Trello* to track what content you plan to post, as well as figuring out if you need to postpone posting your content.
*Trello is free to use, but the paid version has tons of cool features!
Social Media Marketing & Management Systems
There is another way to sort your content through social media marketing and management systems like Hootsuite or Buffer. Both options are great options, but it depends on how much material you will be posting on your social media channels.
Hootsuite offers a free version that supports one user, three social media profiles, and up to 30 scheduled messages. The downside to Hootsuite is that if you want to connect it with your LinkedIn page and engage with your feed, you won’t be able to do so anymore.
Buffer also offers a free version. It supports one user, three social media profiles, and up to 10 scheduled posts. The downside to Buffer is that you have to pay extra for Analytics.
Both of these systems are great to scheduled and publicize your content, but it is necessary to see the analytics to your social media accounts and to understand your audience.
Business Social Media Accounts
No worries to both of those options tho, because you can create business accounts to track your analytics if you use the free versions of both Hootsuite and Buffer!
Instagram and Facebook allow you to convert your existing personal page into business pages. In converting your page, you then have access to see insights for your page such as audience’s engagement with your content, the activity of your followers such as profile visits, and it gives you details of who your followers are like top locations.
For Twitter, all accounts have the ability to track analytics; you just have to turn them on. Twitter gives you tons of information about all of Twitter users and your specific followers like what are their interests, lifestyles, consumer behaviors, and more!
With LinkedIn, personal and company pages both give you the option to see insights. You can check the analytics per post or see how many people have viewed your profile.
Find the Right Time to Post
After you have set up your analytics for your social media accounts, you can also figure out what is the right time to post to engage with your audience. You can do this by looking at your insights for your social media posts. But, sometimes you won’t know what time is the best time to post, but don’t worry because CoSchedule has determined what the best time to post for the different platforms is.
Don’t Post All of Your Content at Once Everywhere
After you have determined what times are the best times to post, make sure not to display all of your content all at once everywhere. Not all of your content needs to go on all of your social media platforms because the intended target audience might not be following you on all social media accounts. This is okay! You can create your content based on who you want to see your content.
Social Media is a Two-Way Street
Something that I notice a lot is that brands and people don’t interact with their followers. You cannot expect people to react and comment on your posts if you don’t do it too. You have to engage and interact with your audience, and on your audience’s posts if you would like to see the same responsive engagement. People don’t like to feel like they’re being used or taken advantage of – they want to feel like they’re talking to a person and not a robot.
Your brand has it's own personality too!
Brand Personality
Your brand is like a person and should reflect what your mission is about through everything that you/your company do and what you/your company want to do. Being consistent will also help you in your branding efforts to reach tons of people online. Consistency is key because people will be able to recognize who your brand is without having to throw in your logo everywhere.
Understand Your Ultimate Goal
Overall, you must remember what your ultimate goal is when creating content and who you want to see your content via social media. This can be sale increases, more website traffic, etc. Once you know what you want your audience to do, then you can truly understand what type of content you want to promote and what you want to share via social media. You have to see the bigger picture before you can move forward and start expecting your audience to react to how you would like them too!
If you have any questions, reach out to me, and I’ll be happy to help.
If you have any specific topics, you’d like me to feature about next, comment below! Til next time!
Awesome article! Great insight and tips!
Thank you for reading, Efrain! I’m glad it was insightful and helpful.