Social
media is probably the single biggest change that our world has seen in
since the invention of Television. Television gave us a great new way to
consume content and it provided lots of opportunities for brands to
increase their exposure.Social media provides the exact same opportunities for brands that Television did, but it is a very different medium and the tactics you'll need to utilize to win are very different. Television is a unidirectional medium. The video is consumed by the audience, but the audience can't talk back. There is also limited choice of what to watch, so TV networks can pretty much guarantee brands that at least a certain percentage of the viewing audience will pay attention to the ads that are shown.
With social media, not only can the audience talk back, but the audience is also creating their own content, discussing that content, and there is so much choice, that very often advertising is completely ignored. You can't buy your way in. The only thing you can do is participate with the crowd at a high level.
The Role of Content
Participating at a high level requires creating content that can be distributed and consumed and talked about socially on the web. Creating content on the web is the equivalent of buying ads on TV and it is the only way to build your online brand in a scalable way over a long period of time.Ads don't work online (at least not very well). They get ignored. People don't have to look at them or click on them, so they choose instead to focus on content. Therefore, if you're a brand, then it makes sense to focus 100% on building content.
Content on the web can take one of 4 forms:
- Text: Which ideally would be posted on your company website or blog.
- Audio: Which can be posted on your website or blog, but can also be effectively distributed as podcasts on iTunes, Soundcloud, or other audio sharing sites.
- Video: Which is highly viral and can be shared on most social networks as well as Youtube (don't make the mistake of not putting your video on youtube).
- Images: Images can be photographs, infographics, or any other still image that engages people online. With the current popularity of Pinterest, Instagram, and even Facebook, I would say that images are one of the hottest and fastest growing ways to share your brand's story.
I generally recommend to my clients that they focus on creating text and at least one other type of content. Text is important because of search. Search is the #1 way that people discover new content online, so it makes sense to create lots of blog posts and web pages that can then get you lots of search traffic.
The choice between audio, video, and images depends on the nature of your business. Images make a lot of sense in most cases, because they are low-cost and easy to generate. Audio works really well for certain verticals, but video is highly engaging and sharable, so it definitely pays to try creating lots of different types of content and seeing what works for your business and industry.
The most important consideration when creating content is to make sure that you create content that is useful, sharable, and cool. Tell us what you do and give us examples of why we would want to do business with you in an entertaining way. Make sure all your content can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks. Spend time creating content that we want to consume online and your brand will thrive online.
