The Social Media Marketer

Out Of Social Media Content Ideas? Try These Tips!

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Keeping your social media content fresh and engaging is a constant challenge. There has been much discussion recently about which works best--conversation or links.

On January 11, 2012 Dan Zarella – a recognized top social media thought leader - published on his blog results of a recent study of this issue. After analyzing 100,000 tweets, Zarella found that tweets containing links had 60 to 80 percent chance of being re-tweeted. This is hard evidence that broadcasting interesting content works, at least on some social media platforms.

These findings take the pressure off content creators to “keep the meat in the tweet” and open the door to using a variety of online content to complement business activities. Easier said than done? Not really. Here are tips for finding social media content that can get the exposure you want, without falling into the trap of self-promoting.

• Make Causes Count

Advertising through social media content is a no-no, we all know that. But cause marketing is different, because – well, it’s a cause. It doesn’t even have to be your cause, as long as it relates to your business. Adopt a cause and link it to your product or philosophy. For example:

• A real estate company can adopt the building of green homes and “mine” the topic for news to publish.

• A university may adopt the cause of literacy for all.

• A dental clinic looking for customers can zero in on testing for oral cancer, publish news about advances in research, work in the field, and issues facing developing countries.

This gives you the option to use anything that is newsworthy about the cause as a reason for users to link to and follow your social media content.

• Go Political

Especially in an election year, politics offers everyone a chance to make a point. And no, it doesn’t need to be partisan, so you won’t offend any of your die-hard customers. Look into the candidates’ various platforms and investigate how they relate to your business.

• Are you in the arts world? How do each of the candidates in your state view the arts as a medium, and do they support it?

• If beauty is your business, what are the candidates’ positions on plastic surgery?

Simon Trace, CEO of international development charity Practical Action, wrote on Mashable in January 2012 about how technological justice can help fight poverty. Where do candidates stand on fighting poverty, and isn’t that great social media content for his nonprofit organization?

• Become an SME

Subject matter expertise is in high demand – in business, online and in social media content. Develop an ‘expert’ profile for your company using one of your senior people as the face of the organization, and be the first to comment about issues relating to your business on social media. Self-promotion is strictly out of bounds here, so make the commentary authoritative and knowledgeable, not marketing-speak. For example:

• If your business is selling insurance, the ups and downs of the economy and how it affects policies is an obvious choice of subject matter.

• If you are in the fast food business, become an expert on food safety, efforts to reduce food shortages in developing countries, or the hazards of fair trade coffee growing.

In all cases, remember to make the connection between the subject matter and your product or service, otherwise the point is lost. The link can be as tenuous as stating that you support the fair trade movement, or you can take it as far as Starbucks did when they began their Fair Trade Coffee campaign selling certified products. In reality, only 1 percent of the company’s coffee is Fair Trade labeled, and only around 10 percent is purchased from Fair Trade certified sellers. It’s all about visibility, and social media content has driven the controversy from the beginning.

• Gateway to the Web

One of Forbes.com’s predictions for 2012 was that social media would increasingly be seen as an “overlay of the internet experience.” Your social media content isn’t the end game; what counts is where it takes your user. This makes the formats you upload or link to as important as the content itself. Formats such as video, slide shows and podcasts are gaining in popularity, mostly due to their ease of use on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. It’s all about keeping your followers interested, so keep up with what interests them and connect to it.