It would be difficult for me to believe that you do not have at least one profile on a social media site; as a way of staying connected with friends and family, reading news sources or to simply tweet what you have had for lunch today. That being said, lets evaluate what it is that you are doing each time you post to your social network. That’s right, you are creating content!
In order for someone to like a post on Facebook or retweet today’s lunch, you first have to create and post that content. Now, unfortunately when we are looking at this from a business perspective, a 144 character tweet about today’s lunch, however delicious it may have been, is not what we categorize as, good, quality and relevant content.
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the holy trinity of social media networks, when it comes to sharing quality content. While there are many other social media networks including: Linked In, Google+ and Reddit, these three should be your initial main focus in helping to get links and traffic to your website.
If you have a website with social plug ins encouraging people to like you on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, or put a pin on it for Pinterest boards, it is imperative that you have scheduled, good, quality and relevant content posting to your blog. If you don’t have social media on your site, now is the time.
This is where I would use the term, holding hands; as in order for your blog to be visited and your social media plugs to drive traffic to the site, your content and social media marketing plan need to develop a close friendship. Think of social media as your car and quality content as your gas; you can offer rides to all your friends but if your tank is empty, you won’t be driving anywhere!
So what constitutes as relevant content? Well I don’t have to tell you that if you are in the business of fashion, posting content about cars is irrelevant, do I? Of course not! So let’s focus more on what exemplifies good, quality content. Unfortunately, an issue we see with a lot of newer websites and inexperienced SEO, is keyword stuffing.
Naturally keywords factor into driving traffic to your site; however, when you are reading an article, how many times do you read across the same key term or phrase, before you have either lost interest due to the apparent illiteracy of the writer or their obvious sales pitch? Exactly!
Cramming the same keyword into an article a dozen plus times, can actually confuse the reader and in my experience a confused reader is a reader who never turns the page. Two main issues to be aware of are as followed:
- The first issue is losing your place in the text because someone has said the same thing over and over again. We have all done it. You are reading along and suddenly you have lost your place within the text. This can be a result of incomprehension, not having adequate spacing, lack of images, formatting of the text or in this case boredom.
- Another issue that arises is in fact, that the writing is dull and boring. It does not engage your reader to continue reading or pay any acknowledgement to what they have already read. Creating content that is of good quality and substance involves being creative and engaging so that your readers will continue reading. Remember quality over quantity!
It is important that you incorporate quality blog or news posts to your social media marketing plan and business strategy. Do not, I repeat do not, randomly post articles here and there with no consistency or uniformed schedule. Commit to publishing posts on your blog at the same time on the same days of the week you have scheduled to do so. Be aware of social media dead zones! As with anything, consistency is vital for survival in this market.
I realize that there are never enough hours in a day to run a business, spend time with the family, let alone get a moment to yourself. So…If you have further questions about social media, content marketing or are looking for help with creating content and a lucrative schedule for posting, Contact Us and let’s get started!