In 2018, 3.196 billion people globally are using social media, whereas 2.958 billion mobile-users actively access various social media platforms from their phones.

Surprised?

Well, this is the fact that has been driving the world nowadays.

If you are a brand today, there is almost zero chance that you are NOT on social media. It is practically impossible not to have a social media presence in today’s world.

To remain active in this modern era, it is necessary for brands to participate in social media proactively and have a growing presence in it.

The key is to reach out. You need to keep sharing valuable content on social media channels to ensure that you are reaching out. The more the engagement, the better your chances of getting noticed and recognized.

Social media is the ultimate platform for all those brands who are looking to boost their business and build a steady following as well.

However, posting random things on your social media channels is not going to do you any favors. You need to have a proper strategy; you need to have a structure to follow. You need to know how to leverage content marketing to gain more social media presence.

But why content marketing for social media?

Well, it might seem unnecessary, but the truth is a bit strange.

Content marketing gets 6 times more conversion than any other form of marketing. In 2018, almost 80% of the online traffic was driven by video marketing content.

More than 1 billion hours have been spent daily to watch YouTube videos.

Snapchat received more than 10 billion views on videos daily.

An estimated 21.5 billion blog posts are viewed every month on WordPress.

And, almost 94% of content was produced just for social media platforms. 

With content becoming an integral part of social media, now is the time to use it to your brand’s advantage.

You’re probably wondering how to do that?

8 Ways to Use Content Marketing to Amplify Your Social Media Presence

Here are eight ways that will help you to use the right content marketing strategy to boost your social media presence.

1 - Set Goals that are SMART

The concept of setting SMART goals have been around for a long time, maybe for decades, but only recently has it started gaining some traction in social media. The idea is being used extensively to increase social media presence.

SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Content marketing uses the concept of SMART to boost the same with the readers. It is all about being smart enough to make the right strategies.

The purpose is to be specific about the social platform on which the content is to be published, and the goals should be measurable using analytics and should be achievable (nothing outlandish) and relevant (it should support your goal). Time-bound is to ensure that you can achieve your goal within a specific period.

By keeping in mind this simple concept, you can quickly notice a positive change in your social media presence.

2 - Identify Your Audience on Different Social Media Accounts

The content you create for your social media platforms should target your specific audience. Because if you don’t know whom you are targeting, the result might just become a little too messed up. You might even miss your target.

Defining the audience can be difficult. And “everyone” is not an audience. Yes, anyone might come across your brand, but only a specific group of people will invest in your product or service.

So knowing about your target audience will help you identify the social media platform you need to post your content on. Ask questions such as:

• Who will read the content?
• Why will they read the content?
• What is the product/service providing?
• What are the advantages of buying this product?

Pondering on such questions will help you understand your target audience better. Identifying them will not only get the desired buzz, but it will help your brand’s voice reach out to the right people too.

3 - Be Human

Yes, when crafting content, be it a 1000+ words blog or a video, you need to keep in mind the technical aspects of it.

For instance, you need to include the right keywords in the right places. Ultimately, you will want the search engines to identify and boost your content.

However, you should remember that you are writing for humans at the end of the day and not for bots.

A similar type of concept applies to social media as well! You don’t want to come across as just another brand with no face to relate to. This is a big mistake that most marketers make. People who are buying your product/service want to know more about you.

Treating your customers as humans and crafting content that appeals to them is what matters at the end of the day! They will buy from you when they can relate to you and will keep coming back for more.

Showcase the human side of the brand, and you will gain more followers than you can ever expect.

4 - Build Relationships, Not Followers

Almost taking the last point forward, it is essential to focus on building relationships and not just obsessing about the number of followers.

Confer with an expert, and they will tell you that it is better to have 100 interested followers than 1000 disinterested ones. Your content should not only treat them as humans but should focus on building beautiful lifelong relationships.

Having content that provides solutions, helps them overcome their problems, and converses with them (using comments as well) are the best ways to keep your followers engaged. Once they have the confidence that whatever you give them is fruitful, they will automatically start following you.

5 - Create Content That People Want to Read

Parroting the content someone else is posting is not going to help you. You need to create your own identity. Your brand should have its character to stand out in the crowd.

Think, what makes your brand different from others?

Keep the answer in mind and create something unique, innovative that will have an appeal of its own. To get noticed or even to boost your brand, you need to use original content.

Yes, researching and crafting brand new pieces of content can be difficult, but it is all worth it. And make sure you keep everything innovative so that your followers stop and invest their time on it.

Social media is full of noise; you need to be loud enough to break it.

6 - Invest in Buyer's Journey

Buyer's journey is defined as the journey undertaken by a potential customer that includes being aware of, considering, evaluating and finally deciding to purchase the product/service that is being offered.

Crafting content that invests in portraying the buyer's journey is what you need to do to ensure that you have a lot of conversions.

Your content should follow a simple structure -- make the consumers aware that they have difficulties (awareness stage) and provide them with possible definitions for the problems faced (consideration stage). By the end of the blog, convince them that they will need your product/ service to solve their issues, and direct them to invest in the same (decision stage).

So compose all forms of content keeping this structure in mind. You can use different types of content for every stage of the buyer’s journey.

For instance, use blogs in the awareness stage and newsletters in the consideration stage. Case studies can be used in the final stage when they’re making a decision.

When you directly address the problems of the customers, they become keen to solve it, and this prompts them to buy the product/service you are offering.

So, all content you post on social media should infuse the buyer's journey in its structure. Help them on their journey, and they will follow you back.

7 - Use Ample Visuals

There are several types of visual content available, however, today, video and photo content rules the social media platforms. Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat are exploding with video and picture stories.

Facebook’s live video feature gets six times more engagement than any other content.

While video content gets 40% more share than any other form, by 2020 the number is going to double.

Most experts believe that video content is taking a firmer hold on social media than was ever expected. 32% marketers have plan to use visual content such as videos, images, and infographics to promote their brand.

So, if you want to engage your customers, you need to use ample visuals. Narrate compelling stories using these visuals.

51% of B2B marketers are using videos as a part of their visual content marketing strategy, and with the growing response on social media, it is only understandable that they are investing much of their time constructing meaningful video content.

Therefore, to reach out to more people, to increase conversions and ROI, make sure that you include visual content in abundance on your social media platforms.

8 - Post Content Regularly

Businesses that post blogs regularly (at least 16 blogs a month) get 3.5 times more traffic than those who don’t. Since social media has a broad reach, posting frequently can pique the interest and attention of the customers.

This simple yet straightforward tactic also helps customers build confidence in your brand. Because people have access to their social media platforms all the time, the need to publish fresh content on daily basis and to reach out to them is crucial.

While posting new blogs or videos is a big thumbs up, many a time, repurposing old content can further increase traffic.

However, you don’t have to be active on the social media platforms all the time either. Chalk out a schedule that will help you manage your time well. There are several automation tools available in which you can schedule all your posts.

To prevent wasted time on social media, analyze your posts over a recent period of time. You’ll likely see a pattern of higher engagement at certain times. Start scheduling your posts at these times and continue to monitor. This way, you save time and also ensure proper customer engagement.

However, the point here is that you should be active on social media and post some form of content (blogs or videos, old or new) daily.

Conclusion – Content Marketing and Your Social Media Strategy

Content marketing is the present and future of marketing. So is social media. Hence, not combining these two would be faulty.

Content is compelling and useful, whereas social media has a massive reach and impact. Thus, using such a broad platform to reach out to more consumers and boosting the image of the brand is a chance you don’t want to miss.

Hence, invest your time in forming a stellar content marketing strategy, create some fantastic content and leverage your social media platforms. You will witness success like never before.

Our guest author Michelle Rowley is a content writer by profession and writing has been her passion since her childhood. Spreading kind gestures is something she deeply believes in and realized early on in her life the impact that words can have. She finds expressing herself through blogs fascinating. Apart from blog writing, she is currently working at DataCaptive and also writing an autobiography.