‍Whatever it is, the content you create online is critical. With the rise of the digital age comes a myriad of new platforms, content outcomes and strategies to further engage your audience online.  To be clear, in this article we’re primarily focussing on social media platforms, because they tend to be where most 2-way communication happens.

What’s a business to do though? If you were to attempt to manage every platform and content outcome available online, you’d be looking at 2-3 full time positions and a fairly large headache 🤯. It’s not realistic for companies to cover everything, but rather to find a few high-value interactions they can zone in on - So here’s an outline of the key platforms (the medium 📺), the content outcomes (the media 🎥) and suitability (the application 👌) for you to consider as you revisit your online marketing strategy.

Before we dive in - it’s worth remembering the key questions you ought to be asking as you consider your content strategy and digital marketing strategy.

1. Who is my audience? Specifically, who are they?
2. How can I most effectively reach them? What platforms are they most likely using? What content are they most likely to engage with?

The further you are down the digital marketing pathway, the more experience and data you will have to go back through the above questions and answer with precision. So here we go…

Facebook

Only the largest social network, with the highest number of users, and highest average-daily use. The first consideration is the categories or sections you can represent yourself within.

Facebook page.As a business, you would utilise a page to represent your brand or segments of your brand. ie: location based: Excel Finance Brisbane & Excel Finance Melbourne, or activity based: Garmin Fitness, Garmin Adventure etc.  

2. Facebook group.As a business, you would utilise a group to gather like-minded people in your target market. It may be to facilitate conversations, offer unique or “insider"' promotions, or co-ordinate meetups and events. Which leads us to…

3. Facebook event.As a business, you would utilise an event to drive engagement (read: drive people offline) to an event you’re hosting. A good place to offer additional information, get attendees excited and communicate any last minute changes.

Further to the categories are the content outcomes. Here’s the basic gist for posting on Facebook…

1. Status Update

This is the primary post type individuals or businesses provide and can take a number of different forms:

• A text post - a couple of sentences outlining what you’d like to say.
• A photo post - an image with a text outline above it to explain or provide further information.
• A graphic elements post - an image with graphic elements that communicates in a more creative way.
• A video post - a video with text above it to explain of provide further information.

2. Story

2. StoryThis is a 24-hour post that features at the top of the facebook experience. You engage with it in a similar way to status updates, but it is broken down into shorter “engaging” sections and expires after a time period. This can be graphic elements, photos or videos.

3. Live VideoThis is a live video post that invites your viewers to engage with you in real-time. There are a handful of options for viewer interaction and playback after the event.

Pretty much every business should be on facebook by default, due to the reach and engagement it currently has. People will use it to search for your business, check your store hours and address, and engage with your popular content.

Some of the important questions you need to be asking are:

• How frequently should I post on my business page?
• What should I be posting about? What do people want to hear from me?
• What does the customer interaction look like in this setting?

From a digital advertising perspective, you can use the above post types to reach and engage your target market with your products. This is where Facebook really lifts off in terms of reaching new customers. The key objectives fall within three categories

1. Awareness - more people with increased top-of-mind awareness about your brand and product/service
2. Consideration - people going on a discovery process to consider your brand a little more in-depth.
3. Conversion - people making a purchase decision with your company.

By understanding these categories and who your ideal customer is, you’re able to strategically advertise your content to reach them on facebook. Facebook advertising is a staple in the effective marketing strategy for businesses. I can’t state this strongly enough. This doesn’t mean it has to be large spend however, and should be considered in the larger marketing strategy.

Your questions here are:

• Where does Facebook fit into the customer pathway? (How can we take advantage of the incredible reach it offers?)
• What key interactions take our customers to the next step along the pathway?
• How much of our annual marketing spend do we want to allocate to the Facebook ecosystem?

Messenger - by Facebook

An important side-note: The Messenger platform, facebook’s messaging app, is a key space to consider for customer interactions. At the least, businesses ought to establish an automated chat-response to engage with interested customers, and consider further options like messenger bots/automated conversations.

Instagram

An increasingly popular social media platform, Instagram is the younger and more creative little sister to Facebook. With around 1/2 the user base of Facebook, it offers an outlet for businesses to be a little more personal and expressive. From a category point of view, there are only really personal accounts or business accounts, so it’s fairly straight forward. Similarly, the status updates you provide are in-line with the Facebook experience:  A post, a story and a live-video, with the key consideration being that Instagram is a visual-centred platform. While the layout is quite similar to facebook, there are distinctions worth considering:

1. The Demographic
2. The user demographic for Instagram is generally younger and more engaged online, so in one sense you’re facing a tougher crowd with a shorter attention span. Consider how this might influence your approach.  
3. The Medium
4. Being a visual platform, the quality of your content matters - BIG time. People won’t have the same patience on other platforms, because they are there to be inspired and challenged through individuals and businesses communicating creatively and uniquely.

Some of the important questions you need to be asking regarding Instagram are:

• Does our business product/service fit within the Instagram ecosystem? While there is a market to be captured there, it may be that you have neither the capacity or business suitability to manage an account well. Remember, it’s rarely worth half-assing an Instagram account.
• How can we create a distinct space here? (so as not to create too much overlap between social platforms) You might consider using Facebook for longer-form content, public announcements and more ‘formal’ content and retain Instagram as an inside look into your business, or as a tool to communicate more of your philosophy and unique approach to business in a creative way.

LinkedIn

The professionals platform, LinkedIn is key for connecting business to business and for particular industries. In the grand social media scheme, a smaller fish, but valuable in its own ways. Here are the ways you can represent yourself and the business.

1. Linkedin Company page.
2. As a business, the company page is the face of your brand on LinkedIn. If needed, you can create pages in a similar format to Facebook based on brand segments or markets (locations/activities).
3. Linkedin Personal profile.
4. This is the space for the key players in the business to step in as individual connections back to the larger brand. Managing director, marketing manager etc.

Further to the categories are the content outcomes. LinkedIn roughly follows the Facebook model with a few distinctions.

• Status update
• Similarly you can post a business update on your company page, through text, image or video.
• Articles
• Distinctly, LinkedIn offers the ability to publish articles: longer-form content particularly aimed at adding credibility and recognition to your business and the key employees within it.

From an advertising point of view, LinkedIn offers the ability to connect with a concentrated market of employees - particularly useful for the business-to-business interaction. You can boost content in the form of posts to a targeted demographic along with paying to send an inbox message directly to your target market. While a smaller market, a useful tool for specific businesses.

Youtube

The social media platform dedicated to VIDEO, Youtube is the place for business which a particular leaning towards the video medium and larger brands who have a good deal of quality content to share. Pretty straight forward categorically as everything happens within a ‘channel’ be it a personal or business channel. Generally speaking it is less about the 2 way customer interaction and more focussed on sharing quality media. Here are some ways you might consider utilising Youtube in the digital marketing strategy:

1. Youtube Live.
2. Got a big announcement to share with your followers? Essentially the same as Facebook Live, but for your Youtube audience. It’s not uncommon to go live on both platforms and moderate comments from both platforms. Here’s a youtube live example.
3. Content Marketing.
4. While a broad category, Content Marketing on Youtube could look like helpful videos that entertain and educate your audience. Think about the underlying questions people have before they ever interact with you and consider how you can create something engaging that isn’t focussed on your product/service but is focussed on answering the questions your customers are asking. The 10 most committing 4wd trips across Australia? Sounds like a good way to promote a 4wd accessory. The 10 most beautiful hikes in Northern QLD? Sounds like a good way to promote a hiking shoe. While this category isn’t limited to Youtube, the Youtube experience can be a little more immersive than Facebook, where people can easily scroll past your video and get distracted.
5. Product Videos.
6. Got a handful of products that have specific details worth mentioning? Details that will help the customer to enjoy the product more? That will help them make a purchase decision? Here’s youtube product video example.
7. Vlogs.
8. The Classic Youtube experience, driven more by content-creators than brands and businesses. Generally a small category of businesses can fit in here. If you sell an online product, and have the energy for regular content production, this could be a goer. A clear content strategy and profitability model are key here.
9. User-generated content.
10. Primarily for brands with products, this is essentially palming off your creativity to other creatives ‘influencers’ or your customer base at large. A great way to invite people to share their experience of your product. Careful though… 😉

These are the 3 primary platforms that facilitate the connection businesses can have with their customers, but they certainly aren’t all there is. At the end of the day, your digital marketing strategy is modelled around who your customer is and where you can connect with them in a meaningful way online. It’s important to craft a strategy that fits you, not a strategy that ‘seems like what most people are doing these days.’

What I’ve just shown you is helpful, but it doesn’t necessarily clarify the strategy for you. We’ve helped clients across Australia get their confidence back in their marketing and we’d love to help you. Let’s schedule a time when we can figure out the ONE BIG THING you should next.

To your success online!

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