Attributes of effective social media content

The latter’s effectiveness is often best measured in terms of reach (eg. how many fans/ followers) and user engagement (eg. how many ‘Likes’, ‘Shares’, ‘Retweets’ etc.). User engagement is the outcome of the ability of a campaign to evoke some response from its target audience, which of course is a function of the message (content) that is presented to the audience.

In the past couple of years during which we have carried out several organic social media campaigns for both B2B and B2C clients, particularly on Facebook, we have expanded our understanding of the key attributes that result in successful social media campaigns. Broadly, there are three, which we list below:

Frequency

Post content frequently. This ensures that you are increasing the probability of the content being seen. It is a fine balance, of course— don’t overdo it such that your fan base experiences ‘fatigue’. Post at least once a day, ideally twice. We’ve seen many campaigns flounder because of the inconsistency with which content was posted — if you are out of sight, you could be out of mind fairly quickly!

Creativity

Creativity, be it in words, visuals or video, is critical to keeping users interested in what you have to share. We have seen numerous instances when a creative presentation of a frequently published thought or message has evoked an instantaneous response with users sharing the content. The key lesson here is that it is not just the message that counts; it is also how it is delivered!

Diversity

We all know that variety is the spice of life and this maxim holds true with social media content as much as it does with other facets of life. It is essential that your content strategy has a good-diversified mix of content types and formats, as different formats and types will appeal to different types of people who constitute or will be the conduit to your target audience.

Use these attributes as the main pillars of your content strategy for your social media campaign. A sustainably successful social media marketing campaign is unlikely without ensuring these three are in place.