7 Winning Content Ideas for your Social Media Posts

3m to read / 

It's not easy to come up fresh ideas for your social media posts every day. Here are seven easy to follow tips on types of winning content you can create easily.

1. Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers make up great stories. One easy way to create interesting posts is to pose interesting questions. Remember, your audience loves sharing experiences and opinions on social media – so provide a platform for their expression. Having a relevant and interesting image to go along with your question will get immediate attention, and more people will engage. You can ask your audience which of your products, for example, they really like. But don't always post questions just about your brand. They should involve the audience's genuine interest and passion. You can also get a lot of interest by asking them to predict something. For some questions, you can provide two options as answers, rather than leaving them open ended.

Another way is to provide answers – again with relevant and useful visuals. These resolve the audience's problems, or answer queries. Many brands use this content bucket to respond to Frequently Asked Questions about their products. 'Answer' posts can be useful 'how-do' demos, instructional videos, simple solutions explained visually and more.

2. Fill in the Blanks and Poll Posts

Asking your audience to fill in the blanks actually engages them and gives them a sense of direction on how to express themselves. "My favorite player in Superbowl LI was ___________". Or get a sense of which social platform they are most engaged on "The social media platform I use most every day is __________". You get the drift.

3. Create a theme for days of the week

If you create bucket themes for days of the week, you can come up with content for those days easily. As well, people will know what to expect – it gives them a feel of consistency about your posts. Movie Mondays, Tuesday Tip of the Day, Wednesday Windows, Thursday Thanks, Friday Fun, Saturday Showtime etc. Often you can actually find day themes that are common hashtags, and you can get more mileage by using those hashtags.

4. Special Holidays, Unusual and Funny Name Days

There are names for almost every day of the year – and a lot of them have hashtags attached to them. You can create pretty cool content by building your posts around these day themes. You can ask them questions around the days theme – and perhaps have a quirky call to action. Be sure to use appropriately relevant visuals to make these posts interesting. Check out this site to get a list of days in the year you can build your posts on. Remember, it can be days, or weeks, or even occasions that you create.

5. Jump on the Local Events Bandwagon

There's usually a lot of interest on events around town – a concert, a special occasion, a gala or a big sporting event. You can use the buzz around these events to generate interesting content. Use hashtags when possible. Actually, these can be global events as well where a hashtag will get you a whole lot more interest than a normal post. You can plug the local event, provide tips, may be even a couple of free tickets...

6. Feature your customers

This works like magic. People want to be heard and seen on social media. You can feature customer testimonials, demos, unboxings or even a simple 'how-to' tip that they provided. Use their photos or videos – this adds visual value and authenticates the post as well.

7. Share resources

You really need to come across as their friend, as someone who provides useful content. Don't hesitate to provide information, tips and resources from third parties that will be of relevance to your audience.

These are simple tips to follow. And they make for interesting content buckets that go beyond the usual types you do on a regular basis. Create useful, interesting content and you'll engage your audience better. And that's That's Digital Marketing Strategies 101.

Please share this post with your friends, and please comment on this if you want to add something...

Now read more on social media and content:

• 6 Critical Steps to a Winning Social Media Strategy

• Winning Content Strategy: Always share something valuable and useful

• Content Marketing Strategy: What kind of content should you create?

Read more

5 ways to get fans to create social media content for brands

3m to read / 

Include your fans in your social media marketing by letting them create content for your brands. Social media content today is a lot about story telling, and today those stories need to be authentic and ones that add value to the consumer.

According to a study done by Nielsen, “92% of consumers trust online content from friends & family above all other forms of brand messaging. And they trust strangers second most — far more than they trust content from brands. Social media content generated by your fans – your community – is a great way to add that spark of authenticity and creativity and enables marketers to tell brand related stories without having to work hard at creating them.

1. Curate content under a clever and catchy #hashtag

Let your brand be the platform that your fans use to get recognized and be creative. Focus the spotlight on your fans and you'll get a whole load of user generated content. Use a clever and catchy hashtag to curate all the content – which will give you instant access to what your fans and followers are uploading.

Check out this amazing #wanderlust campaign by National Geographic. It asked users to simply tag their photos of beautiful places and people with a @wanderlust hashtag – creating a much loved opportunity for fans to highlight their photography skills under a famous brand banner – National Geographic. The brand had access to a huge collection of content that they could use in their social media.

2. Ask them to be creative with your products

Be the brand that brings out the creative side of your fans and followers. Encourage them to think outside the proverbial box and come up with interesting ways to showcase your products and how they use them. All of the social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat offer your fans great opportunities to show their creative sides with photos, videos, tweets or simple posts.

The key is to get your fans to get involved with your products and your brand and give them the freedom to be creative. Unboxings are a great way to encourage fans to create user generated content around your product.

3. Ask them for their opinion

Fans like to have a voice – specially when it comes to brands and products on social media. Ask your fans and your community for their opinion. Let them tell you about their preferences, ways they use your products, cool features (that may be even you didn't know about), hacks, unboxings, new product ideas, flavors, colors etc. Run polls across your various platforms. People look to social media for recommendations, reviews and feedback from “real” people – make these authentic conversations work for your brand.

4. Run contests with low barriers

A lot of brands try to get user generated content by running contests and some are hugely successful. But they key to running contests is a prize they'll value, and more importantly, removing or lowering barriers to entering. Make it easy. Keep it simple. Allow text only submissions. Don't insist on high quality videos in HD.

Open up the contest across multiple platforms whenever possible. You can use a catchy #hashtag to bring all the entries together (see Point #1). Contests should motivate and encourage your fans and followers and inspire them to be creative and innovative. Without too much effort. For example, one research finding shows that "contests which allowed for text-only submissions (in addition to photos and video) saw a 900% lift in submission volume."

Here's an interesting post from Hootsuite on some of the best UGC contests.

5. Offer multiple ways to upload content

Offer multiple ways to upload content across multiple platforms. Don't just insist on submissions that are limited to smartphone uploads (like Snapchat). Open up across various platforms and ask for content. But remember, in today's mobile driven world, you absolutely must engage and make your submissions possible using mobile. User generated content (UGC) comes in various forms, formats, and sizes. Be open to harnessing a 140 character tweet or a long form blog post, a 10 second 'snap' or a 3 minute YouTube unboxing. Remember they're all products of brand love.

UGC or User Generated Content can help your social media in unprecedented ways. Remember to make it easy for your fans to engage with your brand and product and it will flow in.

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategy. That's 101. Please share this post with your friends and colleagues today... And do comment if you feel you want to add to this.

Now read these social media content related posts:

• 7 Useful Social Media Post Ideas for winning Content Marketing

• 8 Must Have Steps to Unleash the Power of Content Marketing for your Brand

Read more

6 Ways for Brands to Use Snapchat: The Fastest Growing Social Platform

4m to read / 

With 200 million active users, and over 9000 snaps shares every second, Snapchat is taking social media by storm. As a brand, specially, to connect to younger audiences, you really need to get on Snapchat and use it connect and engage your audiences.

McDonald's and KFC were quick to get on board with branded filters. Pepsi also got in on the act early, creating a ‘Chelfie’ filter, transforming snappers into cheeky cherry faced cherubs. These days, 'Geofilters' are upping the content ante. Only available for Snapchat users within a set radius and for a set amount of time, they can be specifically targeted and run in parallel with wider PR campaigns.

As well as filters, brands are also creating stories of popular events, often adding branded content between snaps. Snapchat makes brand 'advertising' more integrated and natural: rather than a ‘hard sell’ – and Snapchat audiences resonate to that.

Snapchatters tend to ignore the "branded experience" for the most part. Don't re-purpose your existing social content for Snapchat. Your content should be fresh, created for Snapchat and keeping the user in mind. Audience and Customer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing.

Here are six ways to use the power of Snapchat for your marketing:

1. Offers and Promotions

Offers and Promotions work really well on Snapchat. Brands send snaps of offers: the audience can take a screen shot, and use them either in store or online. It's easy to measure the success of a campaign by how many people used the snap or the code.

The instant here and now nature of Snapchat incentivises your target audience to shop right away. A call-to-action like “20% off today only!” or “Screenshot this snap and present it at the register for $2 off every sandwich.”  works well. These enticing offers encourage your customers to shop while making them feel like they have a unique advantage and that they're special.

2. Teasers

You can create a sense of expectation by sending teasers. Today's younger audiences love content they haven't seen, or when you create anticipation of what's to come. It's the reveal factor that engages them. Teasers on Snapchat create a buzz around new products and new ideas, and can be a great way to get customers engaged before a launch. Brands can also do offer teasers, revealing , say, a code or discount at the end of the story.

3. Story telling

Today, content marketing on social is all about brand story telling.

By using ‘My Story’ brands can add snaps or videos that are visible to users for 24 hours. This format gives you the opportunity to share a creative and engaging message. Brands often create a succession of videos (each 10 seconds long), and create a ‘multi-story telling’ effect. This is a great way to get your brand’s message across in a more unique and interesting way.

4. Fast, immediate and memorable

Snapchat is all about the fast and the immediate. The ability to see something just once, and for a short period of time, clearly adds to the fun of Snapchat.  Since your snaps can only be 10 seconds long, which is a considerably short window to capture the customers’ attention and effectively deliver your message, you really need to sit down and think about what exactly it is you want to push in front of them. This is why it's important that your content adds value and is useful and memorable.

Read about: Winning Content Strategy: Always share something valuable and useful

5. Interactive and engaging

Snapchat is a great way to have your audience interact with your brand product. This is a great way to keep your Snapchat audience engaged. Try regular competitions, contests, unique to Snapchat product sneak peaks, coupons. Do this on a specifically timed basis "Fun Fridays" could mean, that's the day you give away clues to a freebie.

Sending “Snaps” around special promotions or events should help drive traction, especially if you include an exclusive coupon or freebie. Or, get your audience to send in snaps of them doing various things with your product. That's great user generated content. These can also be reused as other pieces of social content on other platforms as well.

6. Filters

Snapchat ‘filters’ or ‘lenses’ are stickers, frames, images and movement sensitive animations that can be layered over your images or videos. Snapchat has added cool filters to make images more fun. Location filters, for example, change depending on where you were, with each place having it’s own fun, and contextually relevant filter. You can be creative with location specific campaigns and micro-target audiences – making content more relevant to them.
As marketing on Snapchat is still fairly new, huge opportunities exist for companies that decide to take the leap now. Not only will you be able flex your creative muscles, but your campaign may also prompt media coverage, expanding reach and visibility for your brand.

If your marketing efforts isn't using Snapchat yet, read:
Power tips on how to get on Snapchat for brands

Read also on audience building, which is key to Snapchat marketing:
4 ways to build a cool Snapchat audience for brands

Those are some points to keep in mind for your brand to successfully engage with the powerful audience group consisting of millennials and Gen Z folks. Remember they aren't just a powerful demographic. They're cool, savvy and hungry for content. Stay fresh. And that's the basics. That's Digital Marketing Strategies 101.

Please share this with your friends and colleagues, and do add your comments below...

Read more

Power tips on how to get on Snapchat for brands

6m to read / 

Is your brand using Snapchat yet? Snapchat has a huge following with both Millennials and Gen Z users, so if those are the audeiences you’re trying to reach and engage, and tell a innovative brand story, Snapchat is the way to go.

As a brand manager, or agency lead, are you up with it (or down with it, as teens would say)? Do you what the whole Snapchat buzz is all about? And are you aware that some of the world's biggest brands like McDonald's, TacoBell, Evian, Mercedes (yes Mercedes), American Apparel, Intel all use Snapchat effectively?

About Snapchat as a marketing platform

Snapchat is the fastest growing social network in the history of social networks, and 63 percent of its more than 100,000 daily active users, are between the ages of 13-to-34 and a driving force behind the mobile revolution.

On Snapchat brands need to be able to understand the idea that users are looking to experience and share content in a unique and specific way. For brands, this means creating unique content in that format that stands out and stories that users want to talk about. You, as a brand will need to create content on the fly in unique and creative ways that you may not have done before, or aren't quite geared to do. But, it's time you did.

Snapchat have over the last year added functionality that helps brands tell less-fleeting stories and reach a wider audience. Snapchat celebrities are gaining massive followings … and letting brands in on some of the fun. Those are Snapchat influencers at play.

“With Snapchat, it feels less like a creator/viewer relationship and more like a friendship – like a text message between friends,” says Snapchat expert and celebrity Shaun McBride, who snaps under the handle Shonduras. He’s worked with many brands, including Disney and Red Bull. Snapchat videos have 10 billion views everyday (Facebook is at 8 million) with 100 million active users each month, according to Bloomberg.

What is Snapchat? Who uses it?

Snapchat is a 'photo sharing app' that allows users to take photos, record videos, add effects, text or drawings, send 'snaps' to controlled groups of recipients. 'Snaps' last between 1-10 seconds. 'Snap chat stories' – the ones brands usually use can last between 25 seconds to 24 hours. Today people still use the platform to share time-limited photos and videos, but a newer feature called Snapchat Stories lets users (and brands) post content that lasts 24 hours rather than immediately self-destructing.

Snapchat users are usually in the 13-24 age group. Most are iPhone users. They share funny photos and videos, their everyday life moments and thoughts, their moods and fancies. They share 400 million + snaps daily. A high percentage of snapchatters are women.

By putting together a series of photos or videos during a day, you can create longer, more engaging stories.  Snapchat earlier launched Discover, a new way for brands to reach viewers. Discover lets brands feature their editorial content within the app. This is mostly used by media channels to promote owned content but with plenty of opportunity for content-rich brands as well.

Choose your Snapchat brand ID carefully

Choose your identity carefully – Snapchat will need to make an exact match when they type in your company (or brand) name. Make sure your Snapchat ID is intuitive and simple.  You can find Dominoes Pizza UK by typing “Dominoes_UK” but not "Dominoes Pizza". To me, that's a bit of a difficult one. Coca Cola is "cocacola". Coke will not lead you there.

Images don't need to be perfect – but tell stories

You don't need photoshop perfect images. They should look real, and in the here and now. Your images or posts should tell great stories, cool stories. Like all other social channel, it’s all about great content. Plan your stories and unfold them. It's not about image quality, but about the storyline and the narrative. It should feel natural.

Snapchat should fit into your overall content strategy

Here again, realize that there should be content that's done right. Somehow, your content on Snapchat may be somewhat different in tonality and approach, but you should be speaking the same language across all your content channels.

Content Marketing Strategy: What kind of content should you create?

Don't re-purpose for Snapchat. Create fresh

Many brands out there are simply re-purposing existing content, or using their YouTube content by inserting commercials and “pre-roll” content into Snapchat's Discovery channel. This just doesn't resonate. Honestly, Snapchatters tend to ignore the "branded experience" for the most part. Your content should be fresh, created for Snapchat and keeping the user in mind. Audience and Customer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing.

Timing is everything. You don’t want to overload users with spam-y “Snaps”. If you have a lot of great content to share, create a Snapchat Story. This allows you to build a fluid narrative through multiple “Snaps” that users can view for up to 24 hours.

You could use the "Stories" feature to reach your entire audience of followers at once. But also use specifically created content to special groups of your audience to hyper-target them. They appreciate 'bespoke' content.

Reward your followers

This is a great way to keep your Snapchat audience engaged. Try regular compeitions, contests, unique to Snapchat product sneak peaks, cuopons. Do this on a specifically timed basis "Fun Fridays" could mean, that's the day you give away clues to a freebie. Sending “Snaps” around special promotions or events should help drive traction, especially if you include an exclusive coupon or freebie.

Building a Snapchat following or audience

It may not be difficult to get people to watch your snapchat stories, but what is key is to build a community around your brand that will engage with your stories and share them. Building a cooperative, participative audience requires your brand to become a source and a connector of everything that's cool. You share. They share. Simple, really.

Rather than relying on followers typing in your company name to find you, share your unique Snapchat ghost (Snapchat’s version of a QR code) so users can take a picture and connect.

4 ways to build a cool Snapchat audience for brands

As marketing on Snapchat is still fairly new, huge opportunities exist for companies that decide to take the leap now. Not only will you be able flex your creative muscles, but your campaign may also prompt media coverage, expanding reach and visibility for your brand.
Those are some points to keep in mind for your brand to successfully engage with the powerful audience group consisting of millennials and Gen Z folks. Remember they aren't just a powerful demographic. They're cool, savvy and hungry for content. Stay fresh. And that's the basics. That's Digital Marketing Strategies 101.

Read more

4 ways to build a cool Snapchat audience for brands

Is your brand using Snapchat yet? As a brand manager, or agency lead, are you up with it (or down with it, as teens would say)? Do you what the whole Snapchat buzz is all about? And are you aware that some of the world's biggest brands like McDonald's, TacoBell, Evian, Mercedes (yes Mercedes), American Apparel, Intel all use Snapchat effectively?

What is Snapchat? Who uses it?

Snapchat is a 'photo sharing app' that allows users to take photos, record videos, add effects, text or drawings, send 'snaps' to controlled groups of recipients. 'Snaps' last between 1-10 seconds. 'Snap chat stories' – the ones brands usually use can last between 25 seconds to 24 hours.

Snapchat users are usually in the 13-24 age group. Most are iPhone users. They share funny photos and videos, their everyday life moments and thoughts, their moods and fancies. They share 400 million + snaps daily.  A high percentage of snapchatters are women.

How does a brand use snapchat?

It's the immediacy factor of snapchat that makes it so cool. The action  and reaction is in there here and now. Keep it fun. Brands can use it to tell interesting stories. Anything that's a scoop works. A secret, a quick news burst, a limited time offer. You can have games and contests on Snapchat. Use endorsements. Highlight launches. Use celebrity updates around your brand. At the end of the day, your brand has to have a sense of humor. You have to be able to react quickly, to what's happening around you. And take risks. But the first real step is to create an audience for your brand.

1. Build an audience, a Snapchat community.

It may not be difficult to get people to watch your snapchat stories, but what is key is to build a community around your brand that will engage with your stories and share them. Building a cooperative, participative audience requires your brand to become a source and a connector of everything that's cool. You share. They share. Simple, really.

2. Share your brand Snapcode everywhere – on all your social media and more.

Your unique Snapchat identity is called a 'snapcode'. It is a unique QR code. When your unique code is scanned in the Snapchat app, people can find you and add you and of course, follow you. Spreading your Snapcode is probably the quickest and easiest way to build an audience. The more you share your code, the better it is for your Snapchat efforts. Share it on all your social platforms. Create stickers with the code on it, put it everywhere. How about a t-shirt?

3. Create content that drives to Snapchat

This is beyond just sharing your Snapcode. This means creating posts, videos, links on websites that shares your Snapchat experiences that lead to Snapchat. Is your Instagram pointing to Snapchat occasionally? Do it. Twitter mentions also help. It's the 'have you seen our latest on Snapchat' factor on all your social content that will help.

4. Collaborate with other users and brands.

This is another cool way. Reach out to a keen Snapchat user who likes your brand and create something together. Have fun with that. You can even collaborate with associated brands – either under your group umbrella, or even that have some sort of alignment with what you do.

If you spot another use who has a sizable audience, you can even do a Snapchat "takeover". It's when you literally switch accounts with that user. It's a great way to grow your audience, but you must be careful here not to tread heavily on your brand's intent or values. But yes, it is a cool way. See more on Snapchat "takeovers" here.

Start using Snapchat now, before you are seen as playing catch-up

Marketing-wise, you have a plethora of options when it comes to timing. You could expand and add to an existing campaign, create a Snapchat-specific campaign or even time it to be seasonal with creative holiday or event driven “Snaps”.

Sending “Snaps” around special promotions or events should help drive traction, especially if you include an exclusive coupon or freebie.

Timing is everything. You don’t want to overload users with spam-y “Snaps”. If you have a lot of great content to share, create a Snapchat Story. This allows you to build a fluid narrative through multiple “Snaps” that users can view for up to 24 hours.

According to Co-Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel, Snapchat users send 400 million “Snaps” each day. The number of photos shared has skyrocketed from 20 million in October 2012 to 60 million in February 2013, 150 million in April 2013, 200 million in June 2013 to 350 million in September 2013.

As marketing on the app is still fairly new, huge opportunities exist for companies that decide to take the leap now. Not only will you be able flex your creative muscles, but your campaign may also prompt media coverage, expanding reach and visibility for your brand.

It's certainly not rocketsurgery...

Worthwhile reading: How Snapchat built a business by confusing olds

Read more