Social Media Content Management – 6 Tips to Ace Different Channels

A late 20^th century saying “Different Strokes for Different Folks” commands profound respect in todays’ adrenaline packed world of social media. While you might still deal with the same set of people across various channels, their expectations from you and your brand change drastically from one medium to another. So you might be nailing it on Twitter, but still wondering what is stopping you from ruling Instagram? The answer is deceivingly simple – Treat every platform uniquely!

This is easier said than done. Not because people don’t know about it. But the content customization as per social channel requires dedicated thought, tools, tact and time – things that are owned and spent sparingly. Managing social media content is the best example of art marrying science, requiring equal proportions of creativity and logic.

Top 6 Tips for Social Media Content Management

Here are few tips of the trade that can help you to sail the social media tide without the dreaded slip-ups:

1) Master the 3 P’s (Platform-Purpose-People)

Each social media platform serves a distinctive audience in its own exclusive way. Learning and understanding what each channel can do for your content is the first step to identify what platforms you would use to reach out to the target group.

Explore things that are appreciated or are looked down as pet peeves for each medium. Twitter users like images attached with tweets, Facebook community can’t stand posts asking for forced likes or hard marketing and Google + followers are passionate brand advocates. These are just few examples and incorporating such insights into content management strategy helps your business to stand out.

Gender-based behaviors are also important data point when scanning and finalizing content for social media.

2) Visual Content can work wonders on mostly “every” social channel

Picture this: Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. Take any social media platform, posts with images make it more exciting and engaging. This is probably the single most important as well as common thread across channels. Companies are increasingly allocating more budgets on acquisition and creation of compelling visual assets.

Apart from images, videos, illustrations, info graphics can also add zing to your overall presence on social media. Instagram especially can let you connect with customers on experiential level by allowing them to peep in your world through employee and product videos.

3) Play on the strengths of each channel

In order to succeed on any social platform, you need to grow your audience and network. This requires dedicated investments in terms of money and time. There are two things that need to be very clear in your social media content strategy:

• Mastering a particular channel before moving to the next one (This helps to build your brand credibility, helps maintain frequency of posts, gets you noticed and gains more followers)

• Implementing the best practices for each channel. Some quick tips include:

• Twitter: Use strategic and original hashtags for marketing campaigns and promotional contests. Get your most important content noticed by adding visual appeal to your tweets. Higher frequency of posts increases the chances of being seen by followers. Shorten URLs, use questions/facts, give clear CTAs, and avoid abbreviations and all caps.

• Pinterest: Ideal for brands with high-quality imagery. Contextualize your pinnable images with relevant text/info that tells readers what exactly to expect when they click on pinned graphic

• LinkedIn: Expand audience reach through LinkedIn Publisher, a free tool that lets you network like never before and strengthens your credibility as an expert in the industry

• Instagram: Photo and Video sharing at its best, the platform is best for establishing connect with target customer base albeit in a very Non-Salesy manner. The posts should be light, fun and offer informal/personal insights into your brand. Use relevant captions and include questions to drive comments.

• Facebook: Keep things upbeat with posts and images that share preliminary info in exciting way. It makes the user to click and explore further. Use conversational dialogue/comments to engage with customers

4) Don’t ignore other Social Media Platforms

Google+, Vine, Tumblr, YouTube, Blog Post offer lot of opportunities to connect with relevant communities and take your marketing efforts to next level. For instance, using Google+ to link content on your website can have a major positive impact on your organic ranking.

Presence on these platforms conveys that your brand keeps up with real time events and caters to different segment of user base. This makes your brand more approachable and visible too.

5) Know the best times and days for content sharing on various channels

Prevent the horror of poorly timed posts or missing out on the critical posting dates by documenting and following a robust social media content calendar.

Sources: Data Analytics firm – SumAll.com, unionmetrics.com, Kissmetrics.com, www.fastcompany.com

6) Express beyond Brand

All the channels, irrespective of their nature prefer variety. Occasionally shift the focus from what you are as a brand to other things like:

• What you can do for your customers
• Reshare, repost or retweet posts that might be useful to your users
• Invite idea sharing and one on one chat sessions that can elevate your brand presence by active participation of users
• Post content that is not just filler but resonates your brand personality and voice in a subtle indirect manner

Social Media Content Management has high co-relevance with the SEO whereby your brand earns high traffic and links, both key factors in deciding the page ranking. Therefore it is imperative to track what works for your brand or has scope for improvement basis the consumption, engagement and action taken by the target group on your posts.

Whether you sell shoes or software, Flynaut can take your brand to new heights by helping you to manage social media content with élan.