Pet Peeves of Content Creation

I have been here longer than many. I used Telex and Fax machines at work. I created love tapes. I cried listening to Queen on the radio. I wrote letters to my godmother; I used Macintosh as a text editor; I called places to order stuff and waited for months to have orders delivered. I played around with Orkut; I took pictures with a real camera and waited days to see the horrible results. And I (God forbid) couldn’t stalk my online crushes. But yes, I learned a lot from having scarce resources.

So, let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart: I can create content.

When I see some social media business accounts being condescending, uninvolved, and somehow discriminatory (#noplaceforhate), I want to scream at them and just say “STOP!” If you want to create a sense of community, you have to gain followers to help spread your message, and you want to sound inclusive. Also, follow back, reply to comments, and answer DMs, but I give you my blessing to go ahead and ignore automatic messages from fishy accounts.

Today I want to focus on how you can manage the information you put out there and how little tweaks can make a huge difference in terms of results.

Content is a conversation: Something I learned a lot from observing, living, and breathing social media for the last six years (plus, twenty in Marketing-- yes, I’m old) is that content is king. Posting a beautiful picture with a solid caption will only take you so far, but when you don’t reply to a comment, follow back, or ghost a discussion, your followers may feel minimized. So be in it, roll with it. Always remember that a post is a marketing tool to communicate with your audience, leads, existent, and potential customers. I will write more about post contents in a future post (think hashtags, pictures, geotags, all the yummy stuff).

Come to stay: You also want to stay consistent. You can be minimalist in your imagery, but don’t be the account that posts once a week. That’s not minimalist--that’s lazy. People can feel it, and they will unfollow you (which means buh-bye, potential sale, and hello, bad review and word-of-mouth).

Oh, so aesthetic: Speaking of images, think about what your ideal client would like to see. Say your main focus is the millennial audience--don’t post pictures of kids covered in peanut butter. Or perhaps your thing is makeup; monster truck pictures ain’t gonna fly. Equally, quotes are great, but they mess up with the aesthetics you’re trying to create. How about creating a pattern for your brand? (here is a great example of consistent social media aesthetic). Listen, you have to know your audience’s personas like the palm of your hand and then entertain them.  Stick to what you know and what your customers can relate to. The same goes for the use of emojis and specific lingos.

Ooohhhmmmm: Treat criticism with care. Deleting a bad review on Yelp is just plain immature and controlling. Answer to the review in a polite manner. Say you appreciate the feedback, and perhaps invite that prick (just kidding, #not) to a private conversation via email or DM. Be open-minded enough to actually take in what they have to say and maybe improve your process (think free market research).

Hard pill to swallow: Also, make a point. If you are not selling a product (e.g. consultant), don’t turn your account into a photo album about, well, you. Being selfie-centered is valid if you’re in the wellness business, for example. But if you’re a travel writer, for example, let your feed be more about the places, people, culture, music, food of the city you’re visiting, rather than having it focused on yourself. I had a potential client once who wanted to host guided tours for women. After doing all the research to create her branding board and her tone of voice, she said she wanted to keep posting her pictures in teeny bikinis. So, I showed her that 89% of each bikini picture “likes” came from men--obviously not her audience. She had a hard time letting go of the instant gratification and becoming more interested in meaningful, engaging content, but once she followed through with the transition, she realized that women became actually way more engaged, and guess what? They were willing to buy her guides. Ta-dah!

Freedom of Speech: And use stories! Behind the scenes, Q&As, UGC, feature content that wouldn’t fit in a post. Share, share, share! And remember that stories are posted chronologically, so no algorithms to beat--phew! Just remember that keeping your mission in mind is your best compass when you’re deciding what to put out there. Keep things fun, but avoid being ego-driven.

Now let’s get to it! For your content marketing to be successful, you need to make sure you stay strategic in what you're creating and avoid falling into the trap of simply reacting. And if you need help creating, curating, or posting content, we would love to help! Click here to set up your Free Discovery Call with a bee.