Which types of content should be part of my 2021 social media marketing strategy ?
The business realm across the world has been undergoing enormous transformations and one of the foremost changes in the entrepreneurship sector is the emergence of technological advancements (Evans & McKee, 2010).
Modern technologies have been integral in supporting the growth and development of rapturous networking activities and Social Media (SM) has presently become one of the main issues in the business paradigm. Social media platforms, which comprise the actively consumed websites that are enhanced by the advent of the net 2.0 technologies, have been significantly influential in major business undertakings.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a modern marketing technique that uses social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Google+ among other social networks . The use of social media marketing strategies is increasingly becoming viral across the world, thus becoming renowned as viral marketing. This study examines the overall impact of SMM on modern entrepreneurship.
15 Types of Content That should be part of my Social Media Strategy 2021
In this digital era, it’s important to embrace all forms of content to help your
brand stand out. Text-based content will always play a part in digital marketing, but creating and promoting visual and interactive content can bring huge benefits when
you get them right.
Broadly speaking, we can categorize the different types of content into:
Written Content
Visual Content
Interactive Content
Video Content
Types of Written Content
- Blog Post
Blog posts are consistently a top performer for brands.
Not only are blog posts essential for effective SEO (search engine
optimization), they can increase your thought leadership status, help build
networking opportunities, and act as a lead generator for your business.
Create blog posts when you want to inform your audience, increase brand
awareness, highlight your company’s knowledge of current industry news, or
build a long-term track record of providing helpful, valuable content.
If you’re wondering what type of blog post to try, there are no shortage of
possibilities. Here is a list of 21 different types of blog content.
1. How-to Blogs
2. Quotes
3. Stats
4. Round Ups
5. Collaborations
6. Q&As
7. Interviews
8. Company News
9. Product News
10. News Release
11. Comparisons
12. Listicles
13. Step-by-Step Guides
14. Why
15. New Strategy
16. Research
17. Best Practices
18. Tips
19. Checklists
20. Gone Wrong
21. Repurposing
- White Papers
White papers are effective for businesses wanting to prove industry expertise.
Like e-books, white papers can be offered as a free digital download, or can
be published online as PDFs for improved search engine optimization.
Use white papers when you want to solidify your reputation as a SME (subject
matter expert) or when you want to offer a specific opinion that is best
delivered in long format. Unlike a blog post or thought-piece offered as a
guest post, white papers should be educational and backed up by hard
evidence and statistics. - Ebooks
E-books are powerful lead generators for brands hoping to grow their email
marketing subscriber list or boost engagement opportunities for their sales
teams.
E-books can be offered as a free digital download, provided as gated content
to premium subscribers, or offered on marketplaces like Amazon to establish
brand authority for a company CEO.
Use e-books when you want to offer in-depth or background information,
when your audience isn’t time-constrained, or when you want to move past
the building awareness stage and help guide potential customers deeper into
your sales funnel. - Customer Success Stories
We’re more likely to buy something when we know a real customer has faced
similar challenges and benefited from a product or service. Customer success
stories show how your company performs in the real world. - Product Content and Guides
These help to address the specific concerns of bottom-of-the-funnel leads.
They will also feature keyword phrases with less competition, which is great
for SEO.
On-site guides and demos show prospects what you do, how you do it and
help them to imagine using your products. Publish a set of product guides on
your website that is free of jargon and salesmanship.
- Testimonials
According to a study by Dimensional Research, 90 percent of people
surveyed said online reviews influenced their purchase decision. Reviews,
ratings, and testimonials provide more evidence from genuine customers that
your company delivers on its promises. Promoting these content assets to
leads in the bottom of the funnel gives them one more reason to take further
action.
Types of Visual Content
In this digital era, it’s important to embrace all forms of content to help your
brand stand out. Text-based content will always play a part in digital
marketing, but creating and promoting visual content can bring huge benefits
when you get it right.
There are three main advantages of using visual content:
It’s more attractive. Press release distribution company PR Newswire found that including
photos, videos and other visual media in press releases attracted 77 percent more views
than text-only content.
It’s more accessible. We can process visual information 60,000 times faster than textual
content.
It’s more memorable. According to Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina, you’re six times more
likely to remember information if visuals are attached - Memes
Memes are ideal for Twitter and Facebook and are easy to create. Think
about your target audience and what they’ll find amusing or inspiring. - GIFs
GIFs are perfect for sharing fun, light-hearted content. Twitter has made it
easy to add GIFs to tweets, with a built-in option that lets you attach a GIF
based on your chosen phrase
You can also create your own GIFs with GIF Maker by Giphy or And Then I
Was Like, which helps you turn webcam video into a shareable GIF. You
might already have video content that you can repurpose into a GIF. - Magazines
One of the more recent types of visual content that has been gaining
popularity are online magazines (“e-magazines”). Similar to the physical
magazines we’re all familiar with, online magazines look to combine big,
powerful imagery with interesting stories and snippets.
Red Bull, Harry’s and Fujitsu are all examples of companies that come out
with their own magazines.
Types of Interactive Content - Polls
As well as being great for collecting audience insights, polls are quick to read
and hard to ignore.
The career website The Muse used Twitter Polls to ask users what would
make their workday better. Most people chose the “better boss” option and the
company used the results to inspire a subsequent blog post. - Quizzes
More and more companies are using fun Q&As in their marketing, whether it’s
asking users what type of animal they are or which city they should be living
in.
Art equipment suppliers Aaron Brothers created a color quiz asking users
“What’s your color?” It generated around 500 leads that they could hopefully
convert into customers at a later stage.
Types of Video Content
- Vlog
If you’ve been creating high-quality content for your blog, why not put it in a
video format as well to give your audience a wider variety of ways to consume
your insights.
These are some of the easiest types of videos to produce and they tend to get
high engagement.
If you’re not sure where to begin, take some cues from some of the top
YouTube celebrities who have been able to capture and hold the attention of
wide audiences. - Company Culture
A major goal of content marketing is to showcase the vibrant, human side of
your brand. One of the best ways to do this is to give viewers a peek at your
company’s employees and culture. You don’t need to have a quirky, Google-
esque culture to make this work.
Company culture videos can include interviews with employees, company
parties, birthday celebrations and more. The key is to show that your company
isn’t a faceless entity but a mosaic of real people and personalities. - How-To Tutorials
People tend to be visual learners and how-to tutorials are some of the most
sought-after videos on the Internet.
In fact, the number of YouTube searches for tutorial videos soared
by 70% in 2015 alone.
Providing helpful instructions and tutorials builds long-lasting customer loyalty
and it also reaffirms your credibility and product knowledge. - Webinar
A webinar can be a highly effective way to engage with your audience,
especially for marketers in the B2B realm.
In fact, a report from the Content Marketing Institute reveals that 66% of B2B
marketers cite webinars as one of their most powerful content marketing
strategies.
Since webinars require users to register, they can also act as valuable lead-
generation tools. As an added bonus, the content from a webinar can also be
repurposed into blog posts.