Setting up a blog and social media accounts for your business is relatively easy, but creating a steady stream of content to post to your accounts might prove to be difficult and time-consuming. You can choose to hire a third-party to create content and update your accounts, but creating content for your blog and social media accounts can be easier and less time consuming once you understand how to create effective content.
What’s Important To Your Audience Is Important To You
One of the biggest pitfalls that many owners and managers encounter when developing content for a blog or social media site is writing about what is important to them rather than writing about what is important to their target audience. Owners and managers are often enthusiasts about the product or service they offer – sometimes this is motivated by a personal passion, while other times it is simply motivated by a desire to increase revenues and further grow their business.
How Will It Benefit Them?
The target audience for your blog or social media accounts may not share your enthusiasm, therefore it is important to correctly assess whether or not your target audience is interested in the product or service, or if they are interested in how the product or service will benefit them. For instance, if you own or operate a comic book store, chances are that many of your most avid customers are also comic book enthusiasts, but if your business sells vacuum cleaners, it is reasonable to assume that your target audience may not be vacuum cleaner enthusiasts.
Why Should You Ask Yourself “Why?”
To understand what is important to your target audience, it is important to ask many questions that begin with the word “Why”. Why is your target audience interested in your product or service? Why is your product or service important to your target audience? Why would your target audience be motivated to purchase or donate to your organization?
Comic vs. Vacuum Enthusiasts
In some cases like our hypothetical comic book retailer, it is easier to build a target audience of enthusiasts, which makes answering the ‘why’ questions a bit easier. Yet for most retailers like our hypothetical vacuum cleaner retailer, their target audiences are purchasing out of necessity and without enthusiasm. No matter what your business model is, it is important to determine how your content can satisfy the needs and desires of your target audience in relation to your business. While our comic book retailer may choose to enthusiastically discuss their newest and most desirable collectible comics, the vacuum retailer may instead want to discuss the best ways to maintain a vacuum cleaner, or tips on how to remove tough stains from a rug.
Ask A Question And Start A Conversation
When creating content for your blog and social media accounts, you must remember that your goal is to start a conversation. By inviting feedback through blog comments and social media discussions, you can attract new readers and potential customers, thus extending the reach of your content, and dynamically engage your existing readers, further motivating them to seek out your content in the future. In order to begin a conversation, you must ensure that you are not engaged in a “one-way” dialogue. You may be a subject matter expert, but by writing in a manner that excludes reader feedback or discussion, you are discouraging reader discussion and feedback. Worse, if readers feel that you are writing in an arrogant or condescending manner, they may respond somewhat negatively. Be sure that you are writing in a friendly, conversational tone and remember to ask your readers questions.
Build On What Works, And Discard What Doesn’t
Your primary goal with blogging and social media is driving traffic to your website. By measuring the effectiveness of your content in achieving this goal, you can quickly determine what works and what doesn’t when it comes to your content. Don’t be afraid to abandon a content strategy if it proves to be ineffective, and don’t feel as though you need to “reinvent the wheel” and begin to change things around if your content strategy is working. Build on your previous successes and study what failed – what can you learn, and how can you apply it to developing future content?