It became a basic necessity to have a social media presence in this digital era. Whether you are a businessman or someone who just want to influence the people, content always plays an important to attract people.
For creating a suitable social media content, you must know the following 5 things about your target audience:
• The Social Media platform they use – to finalize the social media platform to put content on
• The topic and interests which attract their attention – to determine the focus of the content
• The reason for using social media – whether they want something specific or just passing time, influent the content and its format
• The time they are most active – helps in scheduling the posts
• The device they are on – determines format and context of the content
By getting to know your target social media audience, you can create the suitable social media content to achieve the desired business goal.
Social Media Content Formats
In general, there are 5 social media content formats you can use to ensure that your content is influential, gets the required attention, and keeps your followers engaged.
Using the mix of social media content formats generates content which will be suitable for each special social media platform. Each format has its own special characteristics to attract a larger audience on social media.
1. Format: Text
The text is the most difficult content format to consume on social media. On an average, users read only 20% of the text on a page.
If novel topics are presented in a short easy to understand text format, it can convert the social media content to social media shares. Also, a blog of 900 words is considered to be the ideal one.
Social Media Platforms for Text Content
• Blogs are the gem of social media. A blog is personal, where you own the content, the media entity, and all the intellectual property rights.
• LinkedIn Publishing and LinkedIn Slideshare allow free publishing of lengthy content.
• Medium is yet to be considered as a social media platform but it is worth using because of the quality of the content available.
• Facebook and Twitter are increasing the amount of text a post can have.
2. Format: Image
Images can be pictures, photographs, charts, informational graphics or even cartoons. A photograph, if used correctly, can collect a thousand shares on social media.
Social Media Platforms for Image Content
• Instagram is a photo sharing mobile app designed to make everyone at their best.
• Blogs – There must be at least 1 image in every blog whether a chart or graphic or photo.
• Facebook allow posting of a different variety of images. It is seen that post with photos/images receives 37% more user engagement.
• Twitter also allows posting of photos and images. What you can’t say in 140 words, you can convey with an image.
• Pinterest is rich in image content. You can use it to promote blogs.
3. Format: Video
With the expanded capability of social media supports to support video, it is expected that video content is the future of social media content.
Live videos are the newest and soon to be the leading social media trend with growing number of social media marketers ripping its benefits by interacting with the users of social media.
Social Media Platforms for Video Content
• YouTube – The second largest search engine after Google must be the focus of the social media marketing strategy.
• Facebook Live
• Periscope developed by Twitter for live video streaming.
• Snapchat and Instagram Stories
• Google Hangouts support real-time video experience.
4. Format: Audio
Audio can be used as a good marketing platform as it allows the user to just listen while performing other tasks as well.
It can be used as Fresh to audio content (like podcasts and audio interviews), reading text content (for blind and for children who enjoy listening more than reading), music, and live content (speeches).
Social Media Platforms for Audio Content
• Blogs can be used for publishing podcasts in the form of regular recurring content columns.
• LinkedIn Slideshare supports audio along with other different formats.
• Apple iTunes distributes music, podcasts, and text to audio content.
• YouTube Audio Library to publish free music for commercial and non-commercial reuse.
5. Format: Presentations
Presentations are basically conversations without an actual conversation. They are used for conveying impactful information with visual delight.
Social Media Platforms for Presentations
• LinkedIn Slideshare is the king of the presentation area. It is great for B2B marketing as it facilitates easy integration into other social media platforms.
• Blogs are another platform to make full use of presentations.
• Pinterest display presentations on a Pin Board which can be used to get traffic and readership.
Conclusion
In order to maximize your audience and achieve the business objectives, you need to use a blend of social media content formats.
Also, keep in mind to share the content format to the respective suitable social media platform.
Instead of creating new content, try to reformat it into different formats in order to meet the needs of the relevant audience based on the social media platform they are using.
It would be better to create all related content at once; it will not only save time but will increase your audience and improve the ROI from the social media content.
