Social marketing is about creating conversation. Studies have found that the more customers participate in relevant conversations the more likely they are to purchase your products and recommend them to friends. The better your strategy for creating fresh, unique and interesting content, the more effective you will be in keeping your community engaged, interested and talking to you.
Some Key Points for Creating a Content Strategy
Have a point person accountable who understands social conversation and initially does all the communicating. This person can train others over time. Get help if you need it!
Have a strategy and clear focus for your communications even if it's as simple as fueling more conversation. The more refined the focus, the clearer the direction.
Include as many company employees as you feasibly can in the strategy sessions. You may be surprised what the sales administrator or support person may bring to the table.
DO include your executives if they have the time. Company vision can be distilled into excellent social content.
See what your customers are talking about now on your social sites, competitors' social sites and other channels such as forums. Use data gathering tools and search in your social sites to filter the information.
Take a little risk. It's okay to experiment and try some things. You will be surprised at some of the results.
Hold content meetings at least once a month.
Think more narrowly, think broader. Always be on the lookout for content.
Have a central place for content ideas that your team can review. This in itself fuels more content ideas.
Group your content and ask "how does a topic relate to a bigger picture?" Maybe you want to lead up to a product launch in 3 months. You could start fueling the conversation about features or problem solving included in that product.
Don't forget seasonal content around holidays. These are some of the best conversation generators.
Use Google Alerts and industry publishers for news you can distribute. (Just give credit to the source if it's a publisher.)
Try to come up with content that elicits emotional feedback. People want to believe in you and your company. Give them reasons to do that.
Include your support personnel. Don't underestimate their value at taking the pulse of your customers. Are they answering the same question frequently? Put the answer in a blog and a white paper.
Solve problems and generate "how to..." content. People love these topics.
Look at personal stories of your company employees. These stories can make great blog articles.
Review registration card feedback and trade show feedback. Your dealer channel may have some topics you can cover in your messaging.
Remember to mix it up with interesting stories and don't always pitch your product news. People want to be entertained on social sites, not marketed to.
In Summary
So get started on your content program. Start a checklist of content subjects you already know you have and then brainstorm with your team to add more. Look for legacy images and stories, company history, user and endorsement stories, great customer quotes, reviews (even older ones are okay), festivals or events where artists are performing, Flickr or Photobucket pictures from your customers, video links, etc.
Creating thought provoking, meaningful content fuels conversation. Keep this in mind at all times! Deliver a point of view. Be passionate and thought provoking. Your community will respond.
