Content Marketing: 50 Ways to Tell Your Story

(Insider Secrets to Better Branding)

Sherry Beck Paprocki

• Publisher: RS Rock Media, Inc.
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780996306515
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

Social media, mobile devices, blogs and more have made it prime time for good storytelling. Author and entrepreneur Sherry Beck Paprocki has written this quick guide for telling good stories in consistent and compelling ways via a variety of modern techniques. As vice president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Paprocki has recognized a confluence in today's marketplace: businesses and nonprofits need expert storytellers to create their content and plenty of independent writers are willing to help them. Paprocki, an author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Branding Yourself (Alpha, 2009) and others, was among thought leaders who recognized that social media would rock the branding world. Now, as an award-winning writer, author and owner of R.S. Rock Media, Inc., she shares insider tips to creating the best content possible aimed specifically at the audience you need to target.

SECTION III

UPGRADE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA

Look back at the last six months and review the successes and failures that your business has had on social media. Can you document which posts work well and which do not? Do you know how many fans “like” your business?

Social media posts, alone, are not difficult. But, you should have a mission and specific goals set if you’re planning to integrate social media into your overall editorial schedule and marketing plan. Start with a social media audit and examine today’s best opportunities for creating a strategic social media plan.

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11. A SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT

To do a social media audit, assign a college intern, a freelance writer or someone else who is savvy to social (listed in numbers 13 to 19) to assess how many posts are made each week, if they are well written and if they seem to have a marketing goal.

If possible, look at the social media pages belonging to your key employees. Are they doing a good job at representing themselves in relationship to your business? For example, look at LinkedIn and see if someone identifies herself or himself as an employee of your company.

Good social media for a business depends on developing a strong following. The people who follow you because they like your brand are called brand evangelists. Employees are the first people who should be your brand evangelists. If they like their jobs then they should be willing to link themselves with your brand.

Do your employees have social media accounts? I was surprised during one recent social media audit to discover that the director of advertising at a local newspaper had only one link on LinkedIn.

Your social media audit may reveal that you need to convene a staff meeting to emphasize the importance of it in your business. The quick ascendance of social media in the last five years has left many people thinking that it’s purely personal when, in fact, it can have a lot to do with building business.

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12. A STRATEGIC SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN

A professional writer with good social media skills may be the person best able to help you shape a strategic social media plan. This person can develop a calendar of social media posts, pinpoint which media will be used and what those posts should involve. Your social media plan can be done a month at a time or you may want to build your strategy for a three-month period. Incorporate give-aways, promotions, contests and other interactive fun that keep your fans and friends engaged.

Following are the most viable social media options for business. You may want to integrate many of them into your brand strategy. Keep in mind that all social media, of course, is global. So, the messages you post about your business will be viewed by people all over the world. Don’t forget, too, that most social media sites offer strategic advertising possibilities.

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13. FACEBOOK

The largest of all social media sites, Facebook, now has more than 699 million people who visit the site every day. Facebook has more women who are members than men, by about 10 percentage points. And, Facebook is still the top ranking social media for teens with 84 percent of people who are 18 to 29 years old using it. (Only 45 percent of people over 65 are on Facebook.)

Your business can have a Facebook page for free and it’s important to keep that page updated and current because of the audience this media delivers. Due to Facebook’s algorithms, paid advertising on this medium will help you reach more people than simply posting. Google “Facebook advertising” to locate information about this possibility.

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14. LINKEDIN

Considered the top way to interact with other professionals, LinkedIn has more than 300 million members and more than 12 million small business professionals. The audience is largely between 30 and 49 years old. They are well-educated professionals who are working their way up the ladder. LinkedIn is also an opportunity to get others to write testimonials regarding their work with you.

Linking with others here can help you develop a strong bond with your target audience, especially if you’re in a business that sells products or services to other businesses. In fact, LinkedIn is the most effective social media for connecting with other business owners. It also offers you the ability to blog and purchase advertising.

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15. TWITTER

Twitter has 271 million monthly users and 78 percent of those who access Twitter do so via their mobile devices. Generally, more men than women use Twitter. This website proclaims itself a great tool for connecting businesses with their clients and the website even offers The Small Business Guide to Twitter.

Joining Twitter is also important because it can provide you quick access to information that could affect your business. It has archival possibilities. Do you feel tremors? Is there an earthquake? Search #earthquake and you may see a ripple effect of reports as the quake crosses the region. Is there a severe snow storm crossing the country? Search #snowstorm and see if there’s any chatter.

Hashtags (also known as the pound sign) are important when using both Facebook and Twitter, as they allow you to categorize posts about your business or certain topics. For example, any post on these two social platforms should include your business’s name after the hashtag, such as #RSRockMedia. If I were staging a book launch for this title, I might use the hashtag #50WaysLaunchParty.

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16. INSTAGRAM

A highly visual media that focuses on photo sharing, rather than text, Instagram has over 300 million users. There’s an important edge with this social media. One study found that 83 percent of teens from wealthy households were on Instagram. If that’s the audience you’re looking to capture, then consider posting photos to Instagram that are important to your marketing strategy.

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17. PINTEREST

Another visually driven social media, Pinterest has been called a digital scrapbook for its 70-some million users, most of whom are women. Users pin their favorites on their pages and can share that page with others. It’s a good way to do some viral marketing if you own a small boutique or have specific products to sell.

Pinterest is the latest social media to add advertising. Let’s say you have just opened a business that sells olive oils. An artistic photograph featuring bottles of oil and a few recipes posted to Pinterest can get your business off to a more interesting start.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• SECTION I. WRITE YOUR STORY
• SECTION II. REFRESH YOUR WEBSITE
• SECTION III. UPGRADE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA
• SECTION IV. MINE FOR GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES
• SECTION V. GET VISUALS AND SOUND
• SECTION VI. CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY MEDIA
• SECTION VII. ENGAGE WITH AN EDITORIAL CALENDAR
• SECTION VIII. POWER UP YOUR MARKETING PLAN
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR