In the last article, we spoke about marketing and setting up your social media accounts as well as finding agencies to run ads for you. Today we are carrying on with this topic. However, we will be leaning more towards content creation today and also what you need to be wary of with your social media profiles.
Content creation is very important as it really brings up your brand and it creates a personality for your company. This is vital that you take content creation seriously because it can either attract or deter your customers from doing business with you. The ket is with content creation is to give more than you take. Provide people with value. You want to create shareable content that people enjoy. You’re not on social media to sell. Your there to be sociable hence the name “social media.” If you create posts mainly aimed at bringing in sales, who will care? Not many. But if you create posts for example, largely around makeup hacks, etc (if you own a cosmetics company) then more people are more likely to be interested which is what we want.
Interest is vital. Nobody will buy from a company they are not interested in no matter how good the offer is. Having a good social profile is needed if you want a long-term brand. It’s so valuable as it builds up relations and trust. By having a strong social profile you can extend your brand further into other markets. It becomes a cult then. Just think of Nike if you want an example. Ok, they never had social media but they did use some strategies that are widely used today on social media such as influencer marketing. In fact, they have a billion-dollar contract deal with Cristiano Ronaldo that will last a lifetime.
How Can I Create Content?
This is pretty simple. You can either do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Doing it by yourself is heavily time-consuming though.
If you want to do it by yourself to save costs or you’re experienced with social media content, you can use these platforms to create content.
- Canva (free)
- Pic Monkey (free)
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Pixlr
Canva is the one a lot of people use. Most of the features are free apart from most of the stock images and illustrations. On Canva you can create professional logos, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, cover art, Instagram stories, and more. It’s also so easy to do since there are so many professional pre-made templates that you can use. How easy is that? Picmonkey is similar.
Photoshop, Illustrator, and Pixlr are a lot harder to use. You can make more advanced posts through Photoshop and Illustrator however, it does take some learning. Pixlr is free and Photoshop and Illustrator have free trials, however, they are costly software. You can do so much with Photoshop and Illustrator if you know what you are doing however if you don’t then it can be a hassle. If you’re not so experienced with Photoshop, Illustrator, etc then it’s best to stick with Canva.
Alternatively, you can delegate this task of content design to someone else, i.e. a freelancer. Where can you find one of these? Check below for examples of where to find a content designer easily.
- Upwork
- Facebook groups
- Freelance.com
- Jobs Board Local
- Business Events
Just remember like any freelancer (you should have hired some by now etc) you need to do the adequate checks needed. Things like asking for their reviews, past experiences, customer numbers, etc. This is vital because you want a good deal and you need good work. If you get someone bad you will only waste money and time. Be careful of who you choose.
What Content Should I Create?
Your first 12 posts should define your culture etc. They should define the color palette of your page and also the page’s personality. Always choose a theme and a color palate. You do not want a page that has wishy-washy posts. What does this mean? Simply a page that has not got a defined theme or color palette and the correlation of posts do not make sense at all. This makes your brand look unattractive and disorganized.
Your posts at first should provide shearable value to people. In fact, even when you do have a large following you should still be doing this as it creates and maintains a bond.
Here are a few post examples you can try
- Information posts
- Feature posts (like a location etc)
- Giveaways
- Tutorials
- Memes
- re-post other peoples posts
You want to create shareable content all the time. You need to be interesting. The reason why is because of feed. People’s feed is no longer in chronological order. It’s more based on what they like hence your posts need to be feed stoppers. If they stop people in their feed, they’re more likely to check out your page, stories, and website. You want to drive them to your page because it increases the chances of them checking out your site and purchasing.
The key stage is getting them to know you. In sales we call this the awareness stage. If they know who you are, then getting them to be more interested in your brand is so much easier now. You want them to save your content and re-post on their stories, etc. If they do that, it means your name is getting out there to a lot more people completely free of charge. Just imagine that. Also because the person seeing your post is sharing their post your brand becomes more credible not only just to them but also to their friends. If their friends see your brand on their friends story, they’re more likely to trust you and know you better. In fact they may share it themselves.
Pinterest is a good shout for this, especially with fashion. there are group baords whereby many people pin things to one board and a lot of people follow it for ideas. If your post has value (i.e. links to a blog post on your site) it is more likely to be shared about. However, outfit ideas, makeup, cool pictures of your product, etc can also go viral since Pinterest is used mainly for ideas about outfits etc.
We will talk about pinterest and blogs in another article because its quite a big topic. But in a nutshell you need to make sure you are making content for each platform individually. An Instagram aimed piece of content would fail on Pinterest and vise-versa.
Always take advantage of Instagram and Facebook page stories as it allows you to build a personality and connectivity with your followers. Post things like behind the scenes, order updates, business updates, etc. This brings you and your customer closer together which builds up the trust.