Marketers and businesses doing social media know the importance of engagement if they wish to keep their community growing and if they want to make an impact. In fact, there is a lot of information available on the different ways brands can engage their fans; but what about the starting point? Exploring the foundations of creation can only help to boost your social media efforts and it always begins with your target audience in mind.
Creating from the perspective of your target audience
The same way you create your online presence with your target audience in mind is also where you start with when it comes to your content creation. You want to know what makes your audience tick; what drives them emotionally; and what makes them take action. Start with some questions that can help you make a list of topics with your target audience in mind.
- Who is your audience (consider demographics such as age, gender, purchasing power, etc.)?
- What are their hobbies, interests, and leisure activities?
- What touches their heart, what makes them laugh, what makes them cry?
The answers to these questions will provide you with a list of topics that can inspire content creation for your social media that gains the interest of your community, as well as generates a reaction and action from them.
Tying your brand’s product/services
The next piece to the puzzle of creating engaging social media content is tying your target audience’s list of topics to your brand’s products or services. Two ways you can approach this part of the process is either by starting from the items on your first list and making connections between those topics and your products or services or vice versa; meaning you start with your products or services in mind and pin-point topics from your first list. Once you’ve found matching topics you can start creating.
- You can find ways to link your products/services to things such as sports events, panoramic views, household items, hobbies, puns, leisure activities, etc.
- Different types of engaging creations include formulating your shares as quizzes, fact sharing, fill in the blank, question of the week, etc.
At first the process of tying life-style topics to your products or services may be a bit challenging, but once you start doing it (on a regular basis) it will become more natural, almost instinctive. In fact, the added bonus to this content creation process is that over time you will gain an in-depth view of your products or services from a stand-point of how they relate to everyday life, events and items; not only their problem solving attributes.
Testing how engaging others find your idea
The final part of your content creation approach should involve testing. We all know how important it is to get different opinions to understand what works best. As always, you want to verify if your content creation pieces are engaging for your target audience; and alongside, that they also create a sensible (harmonious) connection with your products or services. Both need to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. If your results show that there isn’t a quasi-natural feeling between topic and product/service, start over.
- Some ways you can test is asking employees, family members, and friends how your creative piece makes them feel, what they think, does it feel like all the pieces fit together, and so on.
- Obviously, don’t forget your customers. You need to ask them too since they are the ones you really want to touch.
Note: With your staff, family and friends you can be direct in asking them what they think of a meme you created or a contest you’re getting ready to launch. For your clients, if you don’t want to be direct in your verification approach, watch for their interaction and reaction with your creations on the different social media platforms you’re posting. By observing and listening you will know if what you are sharing is working or not. If it’s not working, tweak, test and re-analyze. When it comes to your social media content creation approach you want to keep your target audience (and engaging them) in the forefront; but don’t forget about your brand’s message and image. When you manage to get your brand to become a part of that emotional response created by the engaging content you are sharing on your social media platforms you will know your efforts are on the right track.
How do you approach creating engaging content for your social media marketing?