Posting daily content to your business’ social media channels is a major key to having a successful social media marketing presence. The problem today is that most businesses have either no idea what to post, or they post 3 times per day and every post has a call-to-action to buy something from them…no thanks, yawn and “unlike.” In this article, I will reveal Social Vantage’s content strategy that is successfully implemented by over 200 businesses all over the world.
Typically a business will post a promotional post about their new products, or share an article that informs their audience about a new update or cutting edge development in their industry. The biggest problem I see repeated by thousands of businesses is that most of them do not take the time to provide true value to their audience through their content. Whether that “value” is educational, information based, or even humorous to give their audience a laugh and lighten up their day.
Another major issue I see is most businesses do not have a content calendar for their social media posts. They are not scheduling their posts out and planning ahead for what is going to be posted on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc. This becomes a problem because when a business finally begins to scroll through their own published posts, they will actually notice that the majority of their posts are all the same type.
Every business has the opportunity to post 3 different types of posts; some businesses can post 4 types. Below we analyze what these 4 types of posts are and why every business should implement them smoothly into their content schedule.
Promotional Post:
A promotional post is any piece of content a business will post to their social channels to drive conversion for their product or service. This post will typically drive followers to the business’ website or a landing page to “opt-in” for an offer, coupon or free giveaway. The general idea here is to drive traffic, increase leads or increase sales. Generally speaking, this is when a business promotes itself on its social channels.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a promotional post on your social media channels. There is no point of having a strong social presence for your business if you are never going to increase website traffic, leads or sales. However, the problem that occurs with this style of post is when a business posts a “Promotional” post two days in a row, or even a few times in a single day. Promotional posts 99% of the time will drive down your page engagement, which is why you should never post a promo post twice in one day or even two days in a row. Below are a few examples of promotional posts:
Engagement Post
So if our page engagement is being driven down because of promotional posts how do we get that engagement back up? Simple, we create “Engagement” posts. The main goal of an engagement post is to increase the page engagement (Likes, shares, comments) and overall activity on a business’ social media page. The way Facebook’s algorithm works is they ultimately want to serve the most relevant, highest quality content to their users. Remember, when your business makes a post your post is now competing with Bob Smith’s new status update about getting married to Jill, or John Doe’s new status update telling all of his friends he is having a barbeque for the big game on Sunday, or Jackie’s new status update telling all of her friends she got a new job. All of these people have “friends” on Facebook. All of their content is competing with YOUR content. So now that you fully understand that, LOOK back at the last 5 posts your business has made and ask yourself, would I really be interested in this post versus a status update from one of my family members or close friends? If the answer is a quick NO, then it is a good thing you are reading this article! Below are a few examples of engaging styled posts.
Educational Post
The next social media post every business should be making weekly is the general “Educational” styled post. Most businesses make this type of post but end up turning it into an “Educational – Promotional” post. The goal of an educational post is to EDUCATE your fan base about a specific topic or issue in your business’ industry. Keep in mind, these people do not just follow your business on social media to get your latest “coupon special” or to learn that your company just got featured in Forbes. They are following you because they want to LEARN from you. If you educate your audience on a specific topic or issue that is common in your industry, those people are going to consume that content, respect the value you brought them and then continue to return to your social pages with the thought that you will eventually put out more valuable content. For example, if an auto-repair shop puts out a very basic post about “How to change your cars oil in 10 minutes or less.” The idea is that you are helping tons of people solve a small problem. In return, they are going to continue to check your social pages for more updates and on top of that, when that person’s car engine fails and they need help from the experts beyond a simple article, they are calling THAT repair shop. Just like that the repair shop converted on a sale from a free piece of content they posted. Below are some good educational post examples.
Local News Post
The final piece of content that some, but not all businesses can post to their social media channels is the local news styled post. The goal of this post is to provide value to your audience in the simplest form. Only local businesses with a storefront location would benefit from this type of post. They can make posts about the weather or town news. The posts for local news do not have to be relevant to the business’ industry at all. For example, if every Monday a local bank posted an article about what events were happening around the town that week, they would receive a ton of engagement (Likes, Shares, Comments) from local people in the area thanking them for the information. Those people will then know that every Monday if they go to that Bank’s Facebook page they can find a list of the events in town for the week.
(NOTE: Want the 21 Viral Facebook Post Ideas For Business Owners Guide? Copy and Paste these 21 proven social media posts to create massive engagement for your business. Get them here.)
You now have a full understanding as to what types of social media posts you should make for your business and hopefully you already have a few ideas for your next posts! Something to keep in mind is the order in which these posts should be scheduled. As we mentioned earlier, promotional posts will drive down your engagement, and engaging styled posts will drive up your engagement. Educational posts can go either way. If on Monday you make a promotional post, make sure you follow up on Tuesday with an engaging styled post to drive your engagement back to normal levels. On Wednesday you can then make an educational post or local news post. The goal is to schedule your social media posts evenly so that your engagement levels remain steady while you drive traffic to your website and provide great value to your fans all at the same time.
Now it’s your turn! What type of content posts do you currently make for your business? Try implementing this strategy and tell us how it works for you below in the comment box!
