Want to write great social posts? Develop a social media content strategy first

In recent years, I have often been invited to give lectures in various places in Taiwan. Whether I share it with companies, the public sector, non-profit organizations, or universities, there is one topic that is quite popular, and people often discuss related issues with me.

Did you guess it? That’s content marketing on social media.

In fact, I am an editor myself, and I am very aware of the various responsibilities and difficulties of being an “editor” (which is actually a very important responsibility, not a small one at all). Therefore, whenever the audience or students in the audience ask me how to write social posts, or how to increase the number of fans, increase stickiness and other similar questions, I will always think of the time when I served in the media.

Community editors must be proficient in all kinds of martial arts

Whether it is traditional media or social media, the competition is speed and eyeballs. Since you are an “editor”, you have to be “proficient in everything” - not only must you be familiar with the big and small things in the relevant field, but you must also be able to write all kinds of interesting and touching posts, and you must also know how to talk about hot topics in order to keep up with trends.

For example, the [Taiwan Lantern Festival] held in Pingtung in 2019 (https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E5%B9%B4%E8%87%BA%E7%81%A3%E7%87%88%E6%9C%83 ) became famous, many people want to understand what is so great about being praised by foreign media as “Disneyland without roller coasters”? If you post a post that simply describes the splendor and beauty of the Pingtung Lantern Festival, I think it will definitely not attract much traffic! A strong community editor must not only know how to “take advantage of the situation”, but also be able to analyze and unearth unique features and write out his or her own opinions.

If you also hope that the social posts you have worked so hard to produce can be favored by more people, I would suggest that you first formulate a “content strategy” and then start producing wonderful content.

Content strategy is the core of community management

What is “content strategy”? According to Wikipedia, “content strategy” refers to the planning, development and management of the content production process. In other words, “Content Strategy” is preparation for creating, publishing and managing useful content.

Content can be said to be the core of any social media strategy. If you want to create valuable and engaging social media content, you must use the power of content strategy to drive it. Content production staff, including community editors and copywriters, must have a very clear blueprint in mind. In addition to defining in advance what content will be published? More clearly, why was it released at a specific point in time?

Three major stages of content strategy

When formulating a “content strategy”, you can start from the three stages of “planning”, “publishing” and “measurement”:

• Planning: In order to effectively leverage the power of social media and differentiate your brand, you must think about what valuable content you can provide? If you have no inspiration, you might as well start with issues related to life consumption, entertainment and leisure, and try to find topics that can inspire resonance. Another important point is that social posts cannot just talk about brands and products, but must consider whether the content strategy is consistent with the needs of the target audience?
• Release: In order to confirm whether the previously formulated content strategy can be implemented, it is recommended that you follow the practices of traditional media and use the content calendar (content calendar) to master the content generation process and release pipeline. When creating a content calendar, you can add elements such as dates, themes, matching images, topic directions, and notes.
• Measurement: At first glance, if you plan the content and then publish it, it should be fine? But in order to ensure the effectiveness of content marketing and optimize the content production process, we must use many digital tools for measurement. As for the measurement indicators, in addition to the basic traffic, number of views and number of fans, you can also pay more attention to the number of interactions, comments and [number of shares] (https://www.contenthacker.today/search?q=%E5%88%86%E4%BA%AB%E6%95%B8) and so on.

In the past few years, because I have started teaching content marketing and social marketing, I often have the opportunity to communicate with friends from all walks of life. I find that many people write product copy or social posts in a hurry. Not only are there no rules, but there is no set of careful strategies behind them. This is really a pity!

After all, hotspots don’t happen every day. Even the splendid and beautiful Pingtung Lantern Festival must rely on the resources of the central and Pingtung County governments, as well as the collective efforts of 900 shuttle bus drivers, a team of 1,000 Lantern Festival civil servants, and 6,000 Lantern Festival volunteers.

Success is not a fluke, it requires methods and strategies. I hope you will follow the “content strategy” before producing content in the future. Before you start typing, you might as well ask yourself “why”?

Great salespeople always start with Who. Then they move to Why, What, and How. And then eventually to When, and How Much.

---