Avoid joining the “content abyss”

Creating inspiring, different and authentic content for social media can become an impossible mission if you do not ask yourself the right questions right from the ideation. While we must produce quality material, we must also ensure that the right content will be seen at the right time by the right people. Here are three tips to consider ahead of creating written, visual, or video content.

1. Involve your community managers or communication agencies in your creation process

As we know, the digital world is in perpetual evolution, social platforms are frequently – if not daily – updated. Take the example of LinkedIn:

• 8 months ago, it was impossible to upload native video to business pages
• 6 months ago, video view goals did not exist
• 1 month ago, we could not publish a “carousel” campaign

This is why it is important to involve specialists in the creation process, from the very beginning: they will be able to separate the good from the bad practices. For example, unlike other platforms, you can’t promote multiple links in a LinkedIn publication. Also, it is not recommended to embed more than 20% of text on an image intended for Facebook. And finally, Instagram does not broadcast videos over 60 sec. So many subtleties that you need to know before you embark on content development.

2. Set a goal

Like all communication actions, your content must serve a purpose that ties in with your business strategy. You must also maintain a consistency in your messages, regardless of the platform.

Here are some examples of questions that help to identify the purpose of your content:

• Can I understand my message with this visual or video?
• What action should users take after seeing the content?
• If I want to grow sales, will a brand awareness campaign help me?
• If I want to increase the number of subscribers, is a contest the best solution?

3. Develop a dissemination strategy

A statistic often comes up in blog posts: Facebook only shows your content to 2% of your subscribers. Starting from this principle, how to make your content visible? You just have to pay. Indeed, although the organic reach has dropped significantly in recent years, one thing is certain, when there is media buying, there are views. From the moment you grant a budget for content creation, you must agree to allocate it for sponsorship.

The content represents a gold mine for your SEO, your reputation and if necessary, your sales. But to optimize it, you have to agree to promote it to interested people.

In summary, when thinking about content, think about your goal, your target audience, the best platforms to reach it, your message, and the budget to promote it. You can then move on to the creative stage, with a clear guideline, which will increase the chances of success of your campaign.

Finally, remember that without proper planning and promotion, your videos, graphics and visuals are likely to reach the “cemetery” already full of content that does not reach their audiences. And that, we would not want it to happen to you!