9 Secrets to Beautiful Content for Your Social-Media Strategy Compelling content is the backbone to marketing success.
By Jason Parks Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Sharing your company's story in a compelling fashion seems simple, right? I can't tell you how many times business owners and marketers completely drop the ball on their content execution, which leads to a failed marketing strategy.
It is important to realize that compelling content is the backbone to marketing success. About 350 million new photos are added each day to Facebook, and 100 million hours of video are consumed daily on the social channel. If your content doesn't kick ass, nobody will pay attention to your brand.
Ask yourself this simple question -- Who are my customers and how do I tell their story? Your marketing strategy will succeed if you tell the story of your customers in a compelling manner.
You can never go wrong with flowers.
For a husband, getting his wife flowers on Valentine's Day seems like a simple way to bring a smile to her face, right? Still, there are plenty of guys who have good intentions but just can't deliver with a bouquet of beautiful roses. Even if you are on a shoestring budget, carnations or a well-written card are viable substitutes that would surly make your wife happy.
Your content strategy can outshine your competitors, even if you have less money. You just need to be creative, like Carly's Carnations has with its content strategy. Even though Carly's Carnations is a make believe ecommerce flower website, for the sake of this story, you will see the nine ideas I'd recommend to them to make their content strategy outshine the competition.
1. Snap memorable pictures.
Take pictures that will resonate with your target audience. Set aside time each month to conduct a 60-minute photo shoot, and you'll have plenty of great photo content -- which can be distributed on social, email marketing and your website (to name a few channels). Just make sure to plan and organize the shoot in advance.
Idea for Carly's
Take pictures of your beautiful bouquet of flowers before they are shipped to your customer. Try and reach out to the customer to learn the story behind each bouquet of roses. Even though the image of the flowers will be powerful, the story behind the roses will be the real differentiator.
Related: 6 New Social Media Marketing Tools the Experts Use. You Should, Too.
2. Shoot compelling video.
Video is becoming increasingly popular on social media. Even if you don't have fancy equipment, just order a tripod for your iPhone for as little as $9.99, and start recording more video content to your arsenal!
Idea for Carly's
Record a video of a boyfriend surprising his girlfriend with roses for Valentine's Day. This content would be gold once the viewer would see the reaction on the girlfriends face!
3. Conduct customer interviews.
Interview your customers, and you will have a treasure chest of content. You can use this material for testimonials, blog content, quotes and much more. If possible, video record these testimonials as it will add another medium where you can promote the content.
Idea for Carly's
How powerful would a series of video testimonials be from masculine men talking about the reaction from their loved ones when they received flowers? Just imagine a 300-pound bodybuilder named "Brad" choking up while talking about how much his gift from Carly's meant to his wife.
4. Create bad ass graphics.
If you don't have a graphic designer on your team, higher a freelancer or use a site like Fiverr. Whether you want to promote an inspirational quote, upcoming sale or industry statistic, professional graphics will differentiate your brand from competitors. Instead of feeling like a cheap brand, it'll make your business feel like a million bucks.
Related: The Right (and Wrong) Way to Do Social Media
Idea for Carly's
Create a series of love quotes utilizing the company colors. This could relate both to the male and female demographic and wouldn't be a hard sales pitch. They could also incorporate photos of the flowers and overlay the quote text on top of the image.
5. Share behind the scenes content .
For each product your company is shipping or the service your business is providing, there is a story developing behind the scenes that is often times overlooked. Make sure to share this content!
Idea for Carly's
Imagine if Carly's had a behind-the-scenes blog series that showed the work that went into each bouquet of flowers at the floral shop. From the arrangement of roses to the special detail into making each color pop to the refrigeration, this process would not only highlight your employees, but also tell a story behind the product.
6. Obtain user-generated content.
User-generated content is pure gold because you don't have to hire a photographer and coordinate all of the logistics behind a photo or video shoot. If customers truly love your brand, they can turn into your brand advocates and post great content. Not only will people see the colorful bouquet, the smile on the customers face will leave a lasting impression.
Idea for Carly's
Add a small business card to each bouquet arrangement enticing the customer to post a picture utilizing the hashtag #CarlysCarnations. By choosing a unique hashtag, you can easily get notified when someone posts photos or videos for your brand.
7. Interview experts.
This is your chance to show off your great team of associates by interviewing an expert. This will spotlight your industry knowledge and provide the viewer with knowledge about the subject manner. Every business should identify their expert and set-up a time to interview this person. You will once again obtain a treasure chest of content that can be utilized across all channels.
Idea for Carly's
Imagine if Carly, the founder of Carly's Carnations, did a video specifically targeted towards males for the most popular flower choices for the upcoming Valentine's Day. Most guys will certainly admit they are not experts in this field and will gladly accept Carly's advice -- then order online from her ecommerce shop.
8. Livestream.
Businesses should now have the mindset that they are their own media department. You can reach a huge audience by live streaming events, especially in utilizing Facebook Live or Periscope.
Related: Can Live-Streaming Video Help Me?
Idea for Carly's
What if Carly live-streamed the entire process of decorating an room for a wedding? The audience would get to see her personality and the work that goes into turning a blank canvas into a beautiful painting.
9. Don't forget to laugh.
David Ogilvy, the "Father of Advertising" was famously quoted saying, "The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible." In most lines of work, you can incorporate a sense of humor, which will make your content stand out and most importantly, make people smile.
Idea for Carly's
Imagine if Carly's had a campaign where they profiled guys who bought their loved ones flowers as an apology. Obviously, this would be risqué and would require close monitoring, but the campaign could be extremely memorable. Just imagine a photo of a guy holding his flowers with his note underneath as text in the status. "Honey, I'm sorry for losing my cool at your parents house this past weekend. While I can't promise it won't happen again, I will do my best to control my temper, even when your dad continuously criticizes my driving."
