Social media is one of the fastest growing and most used forms of marketing in the world today.
The days of buying ad space in magazines and newspapers are gone and they have been replaced by marketing your content and products through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And this is good news. Social media marketing is one of the most effective, far-reaching, and affordable forms of advertising that the business world has ever known.
But how do you integrate social media into your content marketing strategy? Let me show you.
1. Combine Social Media and Email Marketing
There are more similarities between social media and email marketing then there are differences. If you can learn how to effectively couple social media and email marketing, you will have an unstoppable content marketing campaign. But how in the world do you combine the two? The first step is to start promoting your email list across all of your social media platforms.
If you have a lead magnet to incentivize email subscribers (which you should), promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is one of the best ways to increase the reach of your content marketing. Here’s the deal. Clicking the like button on Facebook or the follow button on Instagram is a much smaller investment than subscribing to an email list.
So if you can build a solid social media following and then convert all of your new fans into email subscribers, you will be able to massively expand the reach of every piece of content you create. After you are promoting your email list on social media, it’s time to flip the script and start encouraging your email subscribers to join your social media channels and share content that you are producing.
Adding social sharing to your emails is another great way to boost the number of shares that you get with each new piece of content as well as grow your social media following if you have email subscribers who have not taken the time to follow you on your social platforms.
2. Get the Discussion Rolling
A lot of online marketers dutifully post links to their new content on social media and leave it at that. While this strategy may work for large companies like AskMen or Forbes, it will not work if you are operating a more personal brand. You need to be willing to engage with your audience.
Einstein Movers uses every opportunity to engage their audience and deliver exceptional customer services. They start by posting great, unique content that solves their readers’ problems. Then they start a conversation with them on their own site and take it over to social media: replying to comments, asking questions, and getting their audience involved in the company.
3. Give Your Users a Peek Behind the Curtain
One of the quickest ways to get users engaged and invested in you and your company is to get personal. Egov.com does this by showing their audience a sneak peek of their work with government partners to make government more accessible to the people. Emulate them.
Whether you accomplish this by sharing crazy adventures, the data behind your company, or just your day-to-day life (to show that you are a real person and not a robot), this is one of the most effective ways to indirectly increase the success of your content marketing campaigns.
You see, whenever people feel that they know and trust you they will be more likely to share and promote your content on their own. And while posting that picture of you bungee jumping with friends may not directly increase the success of your marketing, it will build trust and rapport with your audience and will make them more likely to spread the word about you and your company.
4. Vary Your Posting Times
One of the big mistakes that many inexperienced content marketers make whenever they try and use social media as a platform to promote their content is that they post at the same times every day. The thing is, depending on your audience, people look at different social media platforms at varying times throughout the day.
Some people surf through Facebook in the morning while they wake up, others check their newsfeed on their lunch break, and others still wait until the workday is done before they load up any social media. If you want to reach as many people as possible, play around with posting at different times throughout the day to see what performs the best.
5. Focus on the Numbers
In any marketing campaign, you should always be focused on the numbers. You need to do an honest analysis of your social media based content marketing to determine what is performing the best, what isn’t living up to your expectations, and how you can improve. This can vary widely based on your personal brand and your business.
Some people have better success by focusing on marketing their new content through Facebook, others have better success with Instagram and Twitter. Whatever the case is, you need to analyze how your marketing campaigns perform and base all of your actions on the numbers.
Conclusion
The inception of social media has forever changed the world of business, and it is not slowing down anytime soon. As more and more social media platforms are created, there will be more opportunities than ever before to get your content in front of millions of eyes.
However, you have to know how to effectively use social media for content marketing before you can take full advantage of this powerful marketing vehicle. By using the five tips that I have outlined in this post, you will be able to quickly and effectively market new content, reaching more people than you ever thought possible.
How have you integrated social media into your content marketing campaigns?