What is a Small Business Social Media Strategy? Part 3

This is Part 3 of my 4 Part Series entitled, What is a Small Business Social Media Strategy?  In this post I am looking at the interesting topic of Content Creation.

Some commentators actually describe Social Media strategy in terms of Content Marketing – reaching your audience by creating interesting content.

You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

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Content Creation

 

 

Producing content is the core of your Social Media Strategy, but it is not just about writing.

 

 

Text

This is the heart of your blog and website.  However you structure your website you should set out your content in an organised way to make it easy for your potential customers to find your information.  You can provide this information and connect it together with links, tags and categories to make it easy to find.  Don’t worry about how to do this at this stage.

In your blog, you post your blog posts.  These articles, which should be 600 to 1000 words long (don’t worry too much about this though) you will be posting on regular basis.   Posting schedules vary and you should aim to do at least one a week although it can also be daily or something in between.  These articles can be linked to other parts of your website which will enable your potential customers to get a richer experience.

Audio

Using your PC or Mac, a smart phone or an external microphone, recording audio has never been easier.  Different people like to access data in different ways.  Audio is really convenient for people who are travelling, such as in their daily commute, in the Gym or just out walking the dog.  I do all three.

I use GarageBand on my Mac to create an introduction and an “out-tro” to wrap up the podcast.  If you are listening to this you will know what I mean.  I then export the file my Mac and upload it to my channel at ipadio.com which you can find here: http://www.ipadio.com/channels/JohnColley/

iPadio then enables me to share the file to iTunes, my Blog where it appears as a blog post and to an number of other social media sites.  We will discuss the Social Media Engagement Strategy in the next segment.

Video

YouTube is the worlds second largest search engine and it is owned by Google. Video is also particularly engaging and really helps you to connect with your potential customers.  Do not be afraid to just get in front of a camera and be yourself.

Again, the technology to do this has never been more accessible.   I have a Sony HandyCam digital camera and a built in camera on my Mac.  You probably have something similar.  However, the tool I use for my videos is my iPhone 4S which takes excellent pictures.  The audio could be a little better and I will experiment soon using an external microphone with my iPad.

Once you have taken the video, you simply upload to your PC or Mac.  I then import the file into iMovie but you can use similar programmes on PCs too.  I complete the post production with some titles and music and then export the file to a quicktime movie which creates a .mov file.

I then go to my YouTube site and upload, completing the YouTube set up with titles and tags.  This file can be public or private.  I can then take some very simple code that YouTube provides at the touch of a button and embed the video in a blog post.  Have a look at this link on my home page – https://jbdcolley.com/ or open another tab and have a look at my YouTube channel at https://jbdcolley.com/youtube.

Again this is not the place to produce a detailed How To – we can do that together another time.

Webinars

I want to mention Webinars in this context as an excellent example of a way to leverage technology and create content at the same time.  A webinar is simply a seminar which you might normally do in a room to an audience, but you deliver it over the web using software (which does have a cost) and to an audience you invite to log in at the time of your chossing.  It is possible to record this and then make it available through your site or as part of a programme of repeat “broadcasts” in the future.

You can charge for these or they can be free but critically there are no geographic limitations.  Your audience does not have to travel to your seminar venue to benefit from your knowledge and if the time does not suit them either, they can watch and listen later.

Lead Follow Up

Content Creation also extends to collateral that you can provide to people who come to your site.  This can be in the form of access to audio or video files (I currently offer a six part technology M&A course to subscribers on my site – http:/001.309.myftpupload.com/join.

You can also prepare a pdf file – providing helpful information – and offer this as a free ebook to your potential customers in return for them providing their name and email address.

eMail – Building your List

This is one of the key objectives behind your Social Media Strategy.  Once you have these email addresses you need to create content to engage with your potential customers.  This requires a combination of automatic emails (autoresponders), broad cast emails and possibly a regular newsletter.  More content.

Key Tip:  Once you have written a blog post, you can record the audio and turn it into a podcast.  Then record a brief video introducing it and post it on YouTube.  You can offer some of this content, developed to a more complex level as part of a webinar.  Then in your emails, provide links to all this to let your list know what you have been upto.  This repurposing of your content is entirely acceptable and makes your content more widely accessible.

In Part 4 I will discuss Social Media Engagement and finally, Monetisation.