Content can form the basis of a strong social media campaign according to Mary Lynn Halland. Mary Lynn is a marketing generalist and social media management specialist at Consulting Resources NY. She shared her knowledge at a Lunch and Learn session at Red Rooster Group.
Using Content to Engage your Audience
We’ve all heard the buzz about social media. Many companies and organizations have realized that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging sites can provide a powerful tool for marketing their services or causes to the public. Mary Lynn talked to us about how a company or organization can most effectively use social media.
Mary Lynn’s main point was that content reigns as king in the realm of social media. That is to say, almost any company or organization can create a Facebook or Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile or a blog with just a few easy keystrokes. But the key to making your organization’s social media presence a compelling and hopefully profitable interface between you and your clients is what specific kinds of information your organization chooses to relay through which social media channels.
Understanding Your Audience
Before posting to your organization’s social media page, take the time to research and find something genuinely interesting that will appeal to the demographic of your clientele. If you’re marketing your cause or services towards a target audience that reads about news and current events in the world of philanthropy, then posting an article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, while relevant, might prove to be redundant.
However, if you find an article on a similar topic written for a different type of publication (the Wall Street Journal, for example) then it will still appeal to the target audience but is less likely to overlap with the news sources the members of that audience already routinely read.
Use Different Social Channels Appropriately
It is also critical to remember that a Twitter account serves a very different purpose from a blog, which is also different than a Facebook page or a LinkedIn account. You may notice that many companies post the same links or information in each of their social media platforms, but as Mary Lynn explained to us, this strategy does not use each platform to its fullest potential.
Additionally, Mary Lynn explained t how important it is for an organization to use only the social media platforms it has time to cultivate with care. While many people might assume that creating a blog for their organization is a great way to reach out to clients and prospective customers, which it is, it is also easy to forget that keeping a blog is a very time-consuming task! If your organization can’t dedicate the time or people necessary to the project of a blog, it’s probably preferable and better for your brand image to just not have one, as opposed to creating one and then only updating it once a year.
Social Media Resources
For more information about social media and its role in marketing, check out the two books that Mary Lynn recommended:
- Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, and Webinars that Engage Customers and Ignite your Business by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
And for more information about content marketing or social media campaigns, give us a call. It’s something we know something about. Red Rooster Group has a strong social media content strategy that has achieves consistent page 1 rankings for numerous high level key words. We can do the same for you. So, if you are looking to develop an effective content strategy, contact us.
Katie Feller is Red Rooster Group’s social marketing intern. She is helping to develop and implement social media and website marketing for Incarnation Camp’s alumni program.
