Whether you’ve been in business for three months or three decades, you’ll no doubt know that content is one of the most effective digital marketing techniques for small businesses.
Not only can you use content to find new customers and drive traffic to your website, but it boosts your authority and allows you to get ahead of your competitors on search engines.
However, if you’re spending all of your time crafting new blog posts for your website, you might not have the time to create even more content to use on your social media channels.
The good news, however, is that you can combine your content efforts with your social media strategy, cutting the time it will take to create new material and helping you get more out of your time.
Below, we’ve put together some of the ways in which you can do exactly that.
Why is content marketing so important?
Before we delve into the ways in which you can integrate your content marketing and social media marketing strategies, check out this infographic from B2B marketing agency Agency Inc.
Share your blog posts
The most obvious way that you can integrate your content marketing and social media strategies is by posting your new blogs on your social media accounts.
That way, you’ll be able to direct people from their Twitter feeds or timelines to your website, increasing visitors.
You may even decide to set up automatic posting through WordPress, so whenever a new blog post goes live on your website, it’ll be automatically posted on all of your social accounts.
Remember that you can post your blogs more than once. The chances are that you write a lot of evergreen content, like tutorials, reviews and guides; these will be useful for years to come and can be shared again and again to attract a wider audience and get more eyes on your website.
Cut posts into graphics
If you write long, in-depth articles, then you could consider cutting them down into bite-sized chunks for social media.
Creating graphics using Canva, for example, will allow you to add some visual content to your channels and encourage people to click through to read the full blog.
If they don’t, they’ll still be more likely to retweet a graphic than a blog post, boosting your reach and brand awareness (Tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with no images, so it’s worth taking the time to knock up basic graphics).
For example, we created a graphic for Twitter to compliment our post on automating your social media. This post was easier to digest than the full blog, and attracted several retweets and likes.
Don't be a robot on social media. If you're posting content using scheduling tools, be sure to balance it out by tweeting from your account manually and checking your notifications regularly. #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/wjD9gcOGgx
— 99social (@99socialUK) January 7, 2018
Turn content into videos
If you’re comfortable with sitting in front of a camera, then you could consider turning your older blog posts into videos.
Not only are videos more popular than ever before, but they can be shared on every social network, including Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
What’s more, 90% of consumers say that videos can help them make buying decisions, so if you’re looking for ways to encourage customers to make repeat orders, a video is the way to go.
This video from Inside Silicon Valley gives some great tips on vlogging.
Use content for customer service
If you’re using social media as part of your customer service, then you could tweet and share links to your blog posts when customers get in touch asking for help.
Say you run a company that sells bicycles, and your customers regularly ask about repairing their bike chain; you can direct them straight to your blog post on the topic, saving you time and helping your customers get answers to their questions in record time.
If you’re looking for help with your social media management, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team at 99social today. We offer packages from as little as £99 per month, leaving you to work on more important business tasks.