How Content Marketing and Social Media Work TogetherWhile social media and content marketing might appear to be two separate things, in reality, they work in tandem. Brands can maximize the impact of a large piece of content like a white paper or blog post by sharing small snippets on their social media channels.A strategy helps you focus and maximize your efforts to achieve the greatest value from every piece of content. It helps you avoid vanity metrics and evaluate what is most important to your business, such as brand recognition or web traffic.1. Identify Your AudienceSocial media marketing is an excellent tool for building relationships with potential customers. However, before you create the right content for your target audience you must know who they are. This will allow you to create a strategy more likely to achieve your goals and boost your bottom line.The best place to start is to track who follows your company on social media and also who interacts with your posts. What are their interests? And what do they need? What information do they need and why? This information will enable you to find similar people across other social media platforms.You can also learn more about your target audience by studying the content of other companies in your industry. What kinds of posts are they making and sharing? What type of content is proving successful for them? This will give you information on how you can create your own content.You can also reach out to your audience via social media to find out what they would like to learn about your brand. ModCloth, for example often asks its customers to send pictures of them wearing their products. These photos are then displayed on ModCloth's social media accounts. This helps the brand feel more connected to its audience which can increase engagement.Once you've identified your audience and developed a strategy, it's time to start creating and sharing content. Make sure you monitor your metrics however, only those that are tied to your SMART goals and KPIs (which you defined in step 1). Be aware that not all of your content will work flawlessly immediately - but you will eventually see the results if you are consistent and stick to your plan.2. Create a StrategyIn order to see growth through social media, you require an action plan. You will not attract new followers, convince them to visit or convert to your site by simply posting content without a purpose or strategy. Instead, you should create a written strategy for your content that you and your team can follow. This will help you set SMART goals, create and share content regularly and track your progress.Begin by defining your social media marketing plan by defining your buyer personas (or fictional representations) of your ideal customers. From there, think about the kinds of content they enjoy and the formats that resonate best on each platform. Instagram and TikTok, for example are great platforms for visuals, such as photos and short videos. Twitter, on the contrary, is best for text-based posts or links.Also consider how to use each platform to promote your brand in unique ways. For instance, Instagram is a great platform for fashion brands to showcase their distinctive designs and products. Stumptown Coffee Roasters also uses their Facebook page to highlight events and locations across the country.Another great way to drive engagement on your social media accounts is to get your followers to engage with you through the use of calls-to-actions in your posts. For example, if you are hosting an announcement or giveaway invite your followers to leave comments or tag their friends or share the post with their friends.Remember that social media is a great place to showcase customer testimonials and reviews. They can be very beneficial in increasing the trust of your audience, especially if they come from social media users who use or recommend your product or service.3. Create ContentYou need to create content that is relevant to your intended audience in order to effectively market your company on social media. This can be achieved using a variety methods, including blogging videos, podcasts, infographics and many more. Additionally, it's crucial to think about the type of content that your audience would like to see and share. Research has shown that information and promotional posts have lower ratings on social media than personal and clearly entertaining content.Once you've figured out your target market and your marketing goals, it's now time to plan the type of content that you'd like to see. It is recommended to mix promotional posts with informative, entertaining, or educational posts. This will increase the chances of your audience becoming a customer by increasing their engagement with your business.Interviewing thought leaders is a popular method to produce content. This is a great method to get insight into the most recent trends and strategies within your particular field. You can also promote your business by posting the article on people's social networks.Other popular types of content include tips, tricks, hacks, industry news updates, and other interesting tidbits that will be of interest to your readers. Think about adding images to your posts. This has been proven more effective in attracting attention and increasing engagement.It's important to track your content performance, and make any necessary changes. If a particular format of content performs poorly you might need to change its subject or angle.4. Share Your ContentIf you've devised a strategy and created engaging content, it's important to share it on social media. This is a great way to increase your reach and gain new customers. Make sure to keep your posts short and use appealing titles. Don't forget to share various types of content - videos, images text, links, and text are all viable alternatives.You can also attempt to generate interest by posting your content across different platforms and at different times. This will ensure that your content is reaching the highest amount of people you can.You may also want to look into partnering with influencers or even running contests. This could be a great method of generating publicity and traffic for your business.When your audience has begun to view your site as a reliable source of information, they'll be more likely to interact with your content and eventually become customers. This is why it's crucial to focus on quality, instead of quantity when you're marketing your content.It is important to remember that if you are using a pillar strategy for content marketing, it is recommended to share links to your long form content on social media. This will give your followers an idea of what's to come and will encourage them to go to the entire article or blog.It's not always clear why certain content is shared more frequently than other content. However, it's worthwhile looking into the psychology of sharing to determine what drives people to share specific pieces of content. This will help you develop a more effective marketing strategy in the near future.5. Keep track of your resultsIt is essential to track the results after having created your content and shared it. You will be able to tell if your strategy has worked or if it is necessary to modify it. For instance, you might notice that one type of content performs better than the other, or that certain platforms are delivering more engagement than others. You can monitor your social media's performance and reach with tools like Mention or Hootsuite.Keep in mind the fact that just because you're posting your content on several platforms, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's performing well. It is essential to tailor the content of each platform to the audience it is targeting and follow best practices. You can avoid annoying your audience by not overdoing it.When analyzing your results, make sure to review all the metrics that are important to you and your team. Select metrics that are in line with your goals and KPIs SMART and make sure to distinguish them for the different social media platforms that you are using.It is possible to integrate content marketing and social media effectively if have the right strategy and tactics. This will help to increase brand recognition and drive traffic to your website to increase leads, increase revenue, establish authority and more. For more information about how to implement a successful content marketing strategy take a look at this free guide to download from DemandJump. It contains tips, case studies and more from companies like yours that beat the algorithms and won at content marketing. Join today to receive your copy today!