If you go shopping at your local department store or grocery store, you’ll quickly notice displays highlighting certain high end merchandise or sale items. These displays are designed to draw a customer’s attention to specific products. If they catch your eye, chances are good you will end up taking them home.
You can use the same principle to your advantage in content writing when promoting your content through social media. After all, social media platforms function almost like virtual billboards that you can use to advertise your business.
What can you do to convince the social media window shopper to become a customer?
Tailor Your Marketing to the Platform
Content promotion works best when you embrace the advantages your chosen social media platform offers. If you make a pin on Pinterest, for example, you should focus on using or creating imagery that mirrors your content message. Twitter, on the other hand, is all about developing catchy teaser sentences to pair with your content link. What works well on one social media platform will not always produce the same effect on another. It is important to understand your audience in each place.
Create a Hook for Your Audience
Ever notice how some movies open with an intense action-filled sequence designed to introduce a main character and pull you into the story? Your content marketing strategy can embrace a similar technique. If you are writing a list article about exotic travel destinations, for example, a good hook would involve posting an image and a question related to the main topic. Get your target audience to think. If you can spark their curiosity, chances are better they will commit time to your content.
Spark Conversation With Your Content
One golden rule is repeated over and over with content creation. You must create content people want to share. That’s one reason why you see so many list articles and other forms of share bait content. It isn’t enough to simply share. You need to also get people talking about your content on various social media platforms. Do your part to stimulate conversation by posing questions and responding to comments. You can also create hashtags on platforms like Google+ or Twitter related to your content so more people can find the conversation and join in.
Stand Apart From Your Competitors
Originality is the best marketing tool in your toolbox. No one wants to see the same old topics rehashed to death. A lack of creativity in marketing good content can also be a killer. Brainstorm inventive ways to reach your audience. Discovery Channel has great success with its annual Shark Week because it effectively turns the week-long program into a big event on social media platforms.
John C is a professional writer and editor who has written articles and blog posts dozens of websites and publications for more than a decade. His current goal this summer is to branch out into the exciting world of fiction writing.
