A strong online presence is essential for businesses in today’s digital marketing era.
A report by Smart Insights shows that the number of social media users grew by 320 million people in one year, from January 2023 to January 2024.
Social media is one of the most effective ways to build and maintain a strong online presence. However, simply having social media accounts is not enough to generate traffic.
You must create compelling content to stand out and truly engage your audience. Social media content allows your brand to showcase its unique personality. However, your followers always expect engaging content to inform them about your brand, product, and industry.
Every social media post you create is a new opportunity to advertise your business.
In this blog post, I will highlight the essential steps to create social media content for a strong online presence.
6 Steps to Create Great Social Media Content
Creating content for social media serves as the foundation for every social media strategy. A strong social media content strategy is essential for creating effective content for a better online presence.
48% of social media marketers share similar or repurposed content across platforms with minor adaptations, according to a HubSpot report. You should not be doing the same.
Here are the key steps to create social media content:
1- Learn About Your Audience
Social media revolves around segmentation. Platforms like TikTok or Twitch would be ideal if you aim to engage younger users.
Conversely, older demographics tend to move towards Facebook or Instagram, while B2B interactions require a strong LinkedIn presence. Pinpoint your typical users and focus on targeting them specifically.
This approach ensures you connect with a segment that aligns best with your business objectives. However, since social media constantly evolves, keeping your research open to your accounts is essential.
Key aspects to identify about your target audience:
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Education
- Geographical Locations
- Interest
Read Also: Social Media Marketing Automation Guide
2- Set Goals
Now that you’ve gained insight into your industry’s dynamics, it’s time to establish objectives for your social media content.
Are you aiming to drive traffic to your blog, increase your followership, or drive sales via social commerce? Are you pursuing all of these goals simultaneously? The type of content you develop will depend on your desired outcomes.
For instance, your call to action will differ significantly between a sales-oriented post and one intended to enhance brand recognition and interaction. Getting specific about your objectives using the SMART goal-setting framework is highly recommended. Some potential goals for your social media strategy include:
- Enhancing Brand Awareness
- Generating Sales
- Increasing Engagement
3- Perform Competitive Analysis
If your competitors are finding success on social media platforms, look at their profiles to observe which types of content resonate with their audience. Since you share the same target demographic, the content performing well for them will also appeal to your audience.
However, it is important to maintain the uniqueness of your posts. Avoid directly copying designs or content from your competitors.
Using the right tools can simplify gathering insights from your competitors, such as analyzing average engagements, growth rates, and top-performing content on a larger scale through automation.
These insights empower you to establish data-driven goals and strategies for creating superior content for a strong online presence.
4- Conduct a Social Media Audit
Once you’ve identified your target audience, you must conduct a social media content audit to evaluate your content. Conducting a content audit is crucial for devising an effective content strategy that resonates with your brand.
This process allows you to analyze the performance of each post quantitatively, identifying what works and what doesn’t.
Assess which posts garnered high engagement, which ones fell short, and the type of content you’ve shared across different platforms. Your audit criteria should directly align with your content objectives.
For instance, if enhancing brand awareness is a priority, focus on metrics like follower count, impressions, or reach on each platform, pinpointing which posts contributed to acquiring new followers.
5- Develop a Content Creation Plan
You may need a sufficient amount of content to repurpose for daily posts. Hence, it is important to devise a content creation strategy that allocates quality time to designing social media content.
You can use advanced design skills to create visually appealing posts. Also leverage content creation tools that enable you to generate unique content without needing a designer.
Utilizing user-generated content effectively can serve as your golden opportunity. Encouraging your social media audience to share their positive encounters with your product or service is the most potent form of social validation you can seek.
6- Create Content Calendar
Developing a content calendar can streamline your social media posting process, saving you valuable time. A comprehensive social media management tool can be advantageous for daily social media updates.
Such tools enable you to schedule posts across all your platforms effortlessly. They offer insights into post-performance and facilitate real-time analysis, empowering you to refine your marketing strategies quickly.
For instance, suppose you intend to boost social media traffic to a recent blog entry. In that case, your content calendar can assist in plotting the optimal times to share relevant content on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram Reels.
Read Also: How to Skyrocket Your Social Media Strategy with Content Calendar
Final Words
Social media can significantly improve your efforts to improve online learning and reach a wider audience. While creating social media content for a strong online presence may seem daunting for some businesses, it is often more straightforward than anticipated.
By following the outlined steps, individuals and businesses can effectively engage their audience and build a compelling online presence. To succeed in this task, it is crucial to uphold authenticity and consistency in your strategy. Stay ahead of the latest trends and consistently evaluate engagement metrics to improve your presence on social media.
