We’ve all had content that fell flat. No matter how long we worked on it or the details we included, the results of those initial Tweets or posts were just disappointing. This can be a discouraging process, making us wonder “what was wrong with that piece?” However, content success isn’t necessarily always about what was created, but how it was created and shared. After all, delivery is important, which is why we’re going to walk through how to create content from scratch that’s worth sharing. Check it out below:
Start With Your Brand Principles
If you’re aiming to make content worth spreading, it has to be authentic to your brand. As sharing something means that the person is willing enough to cosign not only the content at hand but the brand it comes from. A big part of that comes from being authentic to what you stand for, as well as what that voice has to say; because as noted by Zimmer Communications, 80 percent of people claim authenticity as the primary reason they follow a brand. Which, if you’re looking to make content worth spreading, then your first step should be reassessing your principles as the core to what your messaging will be.
To begin, take a look at your current brand mantra or mission statement and ask yourself what type of content would you expect from that source. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to keep a completely serious tone; however, it does mean you need to envision your content coming from a personality. For example, the personality of a sports team can be serious or fun, while the personality of a law firm is going to be a little more informative. Take your time in drafting out a skeleton of what type of character your brand could convey, highlighting the aspects that will give your content legs long-term.
Create Consistent Content From It
Once you’ve established what type of personality your brand should convey, it’s time to start addressing the content you’re going to create from it. An integral part of your content marketing strategy will be doing work that’s not only consistent but speaks from your brand; 78 percent of consumers believe that companies focused on custom content creation are more trustworthy than those who develop things that are generic. If this sounds like you’ll constantly be in front of a Word Doc, don’t fret; creating consistent content can be a much easier task than you might imagine. In fact, there are plenty of guides to help you create content consistently available online.
A big part of creating content is the ability to utilize where your strengths lie. While it’s wonderful to have content that’s both informative as much as it is SEO friendly, some people are better as photographers, videographers, or designers. If none of these are your cup of team, that’s okay too, as the biggest thing is to start picking up a skill you’re eager to learn and feel as though would be most advantageous to reaching your audience. Regardless of skill level though, make a concerted effort to work on your content skill once per day, setting deadlines and pushing as much as you can live.
Give Yourself A Solid Foundation To Build An Audience
As you start generating content for your social channels, maintaining a built-in audience for guaranteed engagement can be a tough battle. As the success of our social media is largely determined by the number of likes, comments, and posts we get, ensuring that those numbers stay at a certain level is crucial for others to see, and thus, start engaging with you as well.
While not overly complex, there are certain principles you should consider when addressing your social foundation. For example, as noted by Sprout Social, Instagram photos generate 36 percent more engagement than videos, which is beneficial to know for your photos, infographics, or written content. Utilizing an agency like Social Gone Viral can be helpful, as they send real people to engage with ymy posts. As this isn’t an overnight activity, building engagement over time will be crucial to your success, and something you should consider as a part of your strategy.
Learn How To Be Strategic With Your Outreach
Finally, with content now generating and an audience readily engaging with you, it’s time to be a little strategic in how you can build and grow from here. This is where social media management comes into play, which is the bread and butter of how to develop and grow your audience long-term. From timing posts to placing ad buys, professional social media management can be quite the task to take on; still, it’s one that’s well worth the return on the time you put in. As noted by Brandwatch, with the average person spends approximately 116 minutes per day on social media, hitting them at the right opportunity could mean the difference between generating sales or not.
A wise place to start with building a strategy is by familiarizing yourself with the popular social media management tools Hootsuite or Buffer. As these platforms will give you in-depth analytics, this information will be useful in looking at how your content can improve performance, including when your audience is most engaging or what type of messaging they resonate with. Furthermore, utilizing other tools such as link tracking to see where your content spreads or creating filters to establish visual consistency can be useful as well. Considering social is often something that requires a lot of practice and patience, don’t be discouraged if your results aren’t perfect at first, as this is well worth the effort of building over time.
What are some strategies you’ve found useful in developing content that will spread? Comment with your insights below!
