Content by its very nature is dynamic and fluid. If you allow it to take new shapes and forms, you can convey wisdom and insight to new markets, populations and even to a new generation of thought leaders.

It is important to understand that social media is another way to convey ideas, and more importantly that with social media you’re actively participating in discussions, not lecturing masses, you may find it to be quite in line with your goals as a professional marketer.

Having a social presence online is a key component of any company’s web PR and marketing strategy.

There are multiple social platforms available for creating profiles, spreading viral campaigns and creating competitions. Social media has become its own ecosystem, connecting people and information 24 hours a day.

Because of the availability and fast-moving pace of information, your content has to be planned, created and posted in such a way that it will action people to respond immediately to your campaigns.

When planning your content, think carefully what outcomes do you want from the campaign? For example:

• Do you want increased sales of your product or service?
• Do you want to create an improved company image?
• Do you want to connect and engage with your customers?
• Do you want to spread the word about a new product or service?

Once you have answered these questions and set your objectives, start looking at how your competitors are using social media, learn from what they do right and also observe what they do wrong.

A performance indicator that your business has to be well acquainted with is web analytics. These tools are evolving and with innovative tools like heat maps that display the cluster and density of clicks on a web page, marketers are able to gain a great deal of information from the data.

They can now analyse the behaviour of individual users, make qualitative and quantitative hypotheses, assess patterns and take action to improve marketing initiatives. Content that is thought provoking, that has a direct business application, that can drive behaviour change or call-to-action, and that leads to measurable results is very “like-able.”

A call-to-action is a statement that tells the readers exactly what you want them to do. Should they buy your product? Share your article? Follow you on Twitter?

The most effective way to get people to do what you want is to tell them directly.

Your call-to-action should be related to the goal of your marketing campaign as well as to how you measure conversion.

A few rules of thumb for content:

If you have new content to write about, posting once a day should be sufficient. Never resend the same content just to make up your weekly quota. A daily post has an obvious frequency; however, make sure that the post is sent out every day and at roughly the same time every month. Followers like consistency.

When the time is right, i.e. when a certain platform becomes monotonous, expand your social media strategy. Experiment with new platforms and formats but most importantly, stay relevant and true to your followers.

Article written by Sam Gqomo