‘Content’ may just be the most popular word in our vocabulary today. Influencers make their livelihoods posting on Instagram or TikTok. Businesses build a clientele with the right combination of social media, SEO strategy and blog posts. Every day we swipe through hours and hours of social media content on our smartphones. But where does it come from, who creates it and, more importantly, how do they create it?
Content development is such a broad term. It encompasses everything from designing and writing social posts to tracking data analytics and just about everything in between.
At Fort Lauderdale and Aspen-based public relations and marketing agency Durée & Company, we know that original social media content development is just as important as pushing to the media, and there is certainly a right way to do it. Here is a 7-step guide to achieving your brand’s desired outcome through a targeted and creative social media content development process.
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Establish a Brand Identity
To establish a brand identity, you should look at what the competition is doing and then make it your own. Peruse Pinterest for aesthetic inspiration. Read similar brands’ websites or social posts to inspire your copywriting voice. Identify what your brand stands for and how to portray this mission through colors, words and images. This step is crucial in establishing brand recognition and consistency.
At Durée & Company, we’ve established a clear brand identity on our Instagram, and it isn’t hard to spot. Our pink heaven is chock full of rose-colored graphics, pull-out quotes on blush backgrounds and other pink accents. The color pink represents the dynamic group of women behind D&Co and being authentic in everything we do – a core value of our agency.
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Play to the Audience
Understanding your audience inside and out is a crucial step in tailoring content. According to databox.com, this means identifying where your customers hang out, how they communicate and behave, what their demographic make-up looks like and what ‘pain points’ they have.
This can be achieved in a variety of ways. Survey your current customer base using Google Forms or another service. Read comments on social posts or reviews on your website. Use market research tools like Facebook Insights or Google Analytics to collect target audience information.
Most importantly, capitalize on your brand’s niche. Narrowing in on a specific group of people who fit your particular target audience will ultimately drive the most engagement and purchase of a product or service.
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Choose a Channel (or Several)
Each social platform caters to a different audience and thus requires a slightly different approach in positioning content. At Durée & Company, we recommend always choosing more than one platform and, if possible, making sure the posts tie into each other. For example, a newsletter has links to an article that mentions your brand or an Instagram Story swipes up to a blog post on your company’s website.
According to CO– Brand Studio, Facebook is conducive to video content. Instagram is a good place to show off your best imagery, considering, of course, that human-centered content – or photos of people – always performs best. Twitter is the most casual and probably a good place to show off your brand’s voice – plus, emojis always boost engagement. LinkedIn is the perfect tool for B2B marketing. And now, Clubhouse, a new platform based on voice-audio content, is hosting thoughtful conversations led by journalists and other thought leaders.
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Create
Now the creative process begins, whether that means writing a blog, designing graphics for social media or coming up with compelling captions. Sometimes it pays to be a little shocking to grab attention. It’s most important, however, to always be authentic.
Think outside the box for ways to show how your brand is different from the competition. One way is to lean on news that relates to your brand. When our clients in the cryptocurrency space attended the 2021 Bitcoin Conference in Miami, we were sure to make an Instagram post and reel about it.
And if it’s a slow news day, no need to worry. There are other simple ways to make your content stand out. Use numbers or research to back up claims, write captions and blogs with a conversational tone, avoid complex words or jargon that the ‘average joe’ might not understand and post quotes from experts in the field. These techniques will help humanize your brand to form genuine connections with clients.
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Strategize and Schedule
Time to get organized. Create a social calendar to get your brand’s narrative across. Include tactics like calls to action or swipe-up posts to convince the audience to bite.
For social posts, this calendar should include: the day content will be posted, the completed caption, imagery, hashtags, emojis and any links that might lead the customer to a related article or webpage. For blog posts, the calendar should include: the blog topic, author name, internal due date, publish date and, if applicable, a corresponding hashtag holiday to help promote the post.
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Optimize Content with SEO
Users are more likely to find your content if it pops up first. According to Search Engine Journal, simple tricks like using keywords that appeal to your audience, ensuring your post has simple language but is, at the same time, informative, pairing blog posts with relevant images and using sources to back up your claims can all boost SEO. And for Instagram or Facebook, don’t forget to use a location – this will automatically increase the traffic to your post.
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Track Progress & Repeat
Once the content is posted or published, it’s time to use data analytics to see how it performed. Did your efforts garner a net result? Profit? Here at Durée & Company, we use Sprout to schedule social posts, track impressions and analyze content performance. Tracking content progress will allow you to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. Then you can apply what you’ve learned to future content creation.
Content development is so much more than just posting on Instagram. It takes planning, strategizing and analysis to come up with a tried-and-true content development process for a brand. Our team at Durée & Company has these steps down to a science and can come up with the best content plan for your business, whether you’re looking for a full social media make-over, a little blog help or something in between.
About Durée & Company:
Durée & Company, Inc. is an award-winning, full-service public relations, marketing and special events firm founded in 1999. The firm has offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Aspen, Colorado. Durée & Company serves the corporate, agency and nonprofit arenas for local, national and international clients. Services include public relations, social media, marketing, digital marketing, content development, advertising, special events, branding, radio promotions, affiliate marketing and more. Durée & Company clients include well-known names in yachting, business, real estate, hospitality, travel, cannabis and hemp, wellness and CBD, art and culture, fashion, nonprofit organizations, cryptocurrency and technology, legal and professional services. Durée & Company is a member of PR Boutiques International™ (PRBI), an international network of boutique PR firms. To learn more, call 954-723-9350; go to dureeandcompany.com; or visit its new, specialized cannabis- and CBD-specific site at cannabismarketingpr.com. Join the social conversation and follow Durée & Company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn at @DureeCoPR.
