We won’t dance around the truth - developing a solid online content strategy is hard work. When it comes to content strategies for content creators, the same rules apply when it comes to optimization and maximizing views, engagement, and revenue as they do for a business with an online storefront selling products or services.
The key is knowing your audience well and ensuring that the content you’re putting out is relative, entertaining, and valuable to them. You want your followers to enjoy your content, share it with their friends, and keep coming back for more.
This requires a lot of behind-the-scenes trial and error work. Fortunately for all the content creators reading this, we have nine of the top tips for improving your online content strategy this year.
Here’s what you need to focus on if you want to see a serious improvement:
1. Create Content Visitors Will Want to Share Right Away
It’s actually pretty challenging to get people to share your content. Nearly every second of the day, social media users are publishing upwards of 216 thousand Instagram posts and 217 thousand tweets. How do you compete with such an overload of content to make followers and even non-followers stop in their tracks and really feel the need to pass your content along?
The objective here is to create content that’s worthy of going viral. This means your content should evoke some sense of the following:
- Social currency
- Triggers
- Emotions
- Public appeal
- Practical value
- Relevant stories
Of course, even if you hit all the notes above, people still may not share your content. It’s honestly hard to predict what the average individual will see as share-worthy, but you’re guaranteed to make waves by curating content that really adds value to your followers’ lives. So, focus on resonating with them on a deeper level - and make every piece of content count.
2. Update and Repurpose Existing Content
Speaking of making all your content count, another effective way of improving your online content strategy is by combing through your existing content to see what you can update or repurpose.
Start by looking for the content that has had great success in the past, and capitalize on it. For example, take your best-performing blog post or video and turn it into something else of value, like a behind-the-scenes special or an exclusive look into how you first learned about the subject matter you specialize in or even a tutorial on how you created a work of art.
It’s also a good idea to update existing content that maybe didn’t perform so well the first time around, but is still relevant to your following now. Rather than reinventing the wheel, look for ways to breathe new life into the content you already have, so you don’t burn yourself out looking for brand-new ideas all the time.
3. Make Sure You Have a Strong Social Media Presence
This should be a no-brainer. However, it should still be noted that having a lot of followers on social media doesn’t necessarily equate to a strong social media presence.
A strong media presence comes from providing real value to your followers and the brands you work with (if you work with any). This means you’re well-known for the subject of your content - an authoritative source, if you will. Your followers trust you, and new followers begin to immediately trust you as you demonstrate your knowledge, expertise, and insight in regard to what you’re all about.
So, don’t just post pretty pictures - show the digital world how you get your hands dirty to do what you do and why they should choose your insight over the competition.
4. Embrace New Social Media Platforms
You already know all the popular social media platforms because you’re likely already generating content on them. However, you shouldn’t get complacent because people, in general, get bored more easily now than ever before.
Plus, there are new social media apps and platforms popping up by the minute, and the newer the platform, the less competition there is. Smaller content creation platforms, like TrueFanz, tend to have higher engagement rates compared to larger ecosystems like Instagram, making them the perfect way to reach new audiences.
So, consider becoming an early adopter of new social media platforms and watch your online content strategy improve drastically.
5. Engage With Your Followers Consistently
It’s not enough to put out relevant and valuable content. Your followers want more. That’s why it’s important to engage with them as much as possible to maintain trust and build relationships.
The more you engage with your audience, the more you’ll build your brand loyalty, increase shares, create partnerships, and build a strong community. This means answering their questions, continuing the conversation about relative topics, and showing them that you relate to them and share their thoughts and feelings on various levels.
6. Start Taking Advantage of Email Marketing
You may think that as a content creator, you don’t need an email marketing campaign at all as part of your online content strategy - and you couldn’t be more wrong!
As mentioned earlier, people are hit with loads of content from all angles all day long. Plus, the algorithms on social media channels are ever-changing, meaning your content is front and center one day and MIA the next. By creating an email newsletter campaign as an online market strategy component, you’ll be able to garner a list of subscribers who you can email directly with more content.
More importantly, you can use your email marketing as a way to alert your subscribing followers of new content coming out of the various platforms you’re working with. This will ensure that they seek you out rather than scrolling until your profile pops up which will, once again, increase views and engagement rates.
7. Put Out More Video Content
Videos have become a serious marketing trend, and they’re not going anywhere. Virtually every content creation platform allows content creators to post videos —even LinkedIn.
This is because video content is the easiest type of content to digest, and is therefore consumed in great numbers. Put simply, Genz makes up for 40% of all consumers, and these kids grew up on phones, tablets, and other smart devices — and video content reigns supreme for them.
For more perspective, according to a 2019 survey, the Gen Z generation spends upwards of 3.4 hours a day watching videos online. Of course, they’re not the only ones, as everyone else has followed suit in our increasingly digital work. This opens up a serious window of opportunity for content creators and brands alike hoping to extend their reach to newer audiences.
8. Become Familiar With Back linking
Backlinking has everything to do with search engine optimization (SEO), and if you have a website as a content creator, then back linking applies to you.
Back linking is essentially linking one website to another. However, what you really need to know and understand about it is that it helps search engines “crawl” your website. In other words, it helps Google navigate your pages with ease. It also helps users on your website navigate with ease, which is equally important.
For example, if you’re writing blog content on the topic of fitness, and you’re specifically talking about running, you can backlinks to another post that talks about running shoes. This keeps your visitors on your page for longer, which is beneficial to your SEO.
Of course, you’ll also want other authoritative websites to backlink to your website, which is tricky, but it goes back to providing the best content possible. There are several layers to back linking, and as a content creator with your own website (and the intention to sell products or services), it’s something you’ll want to become very familiar with.
You can learn everything you need to know about back linking here.
9. Analyze Your Metrics and Results
If you’re not creating key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking your online content strategy results, then you’ll have no idea if you’ve made any progress. Most social media platforms have their own set of analytics tools to help you measure your metrics and results within a given time period, so it’s necessary to become familiar with them all.
It’s also important to set new goals over time. For example, let’s say one of your goals is to increase your follower count by 1,000 in one month. If you can accomplish this in less than one month, then you’ll want to increase the follower count for the next month.
Essentially, you’ll need to track and measure everything from post engagement to social shares to get a clear picture of how well your online content strategy is working for you. This allows you to see what’s working and what’s not - and where you need to make adjustments.
Remember, improving your online content strategy is an ongoing job. Fortunately, TrueFanz makes content strategies for content creators a breeze as we have tons of never before seen features and our own suite of analytics tools.
