The power of social media and content marketing integration: How they go hand-in-hand
By Lawrence Dy It’s not uncommon to confuse social media and content marketing but while they’re far from the same thing, they do go hand-in-hand. With an estimated 4.89 billion users worldwide (Statista), social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn can help your brand gain exposure in front of an incredibly broad and varied audience. On the other hand, content marketing is the tool you use to create posts that help you get that audience interested in what you’ve got to offer.
Social media is an important communication channel. Ensure you create content that connects with your audience by downloading our free “White-label social media checklist” now.
In this article, we’ll discuss how you can leverage social marketing and social media content writing to keep your audience engaged in your brand, as well as how to develop engaging content for social media that converts.
Table of Contents
- The benefits of social media and content marketing integration
- How to create engaging content for social media posts
- Developing a combined social media and content marketing strategy
- Writing content for a combined social media and content strategy
- Best practices for an engaging social media and content marketing strategy
- Frequently asked questions
The benefits of social media and content marketing integration
Integrating content marketing with your social media efforts is arguably one of the best ways you can maintain a loyal and engaged following online, but it also comes with a full host of other benefits.
1. Increased brand awareness and visibility
Content marketing and social media content writing gives your brand the power to create social media posts that resonate with followers and target audiences. Engaging content for social media posts that invoke an emotional response, whether that’s joy, excitement, nostalgia, or something else, is the most likely to be shared by followers and other viewers. This type of content for social media posts can heighten your brand’s exposure beyond your immediate network and could help you to gain new followers who may convert to buyers in the future.
2. Enhanced credibility
Utilizing content marketing in your social media posting strategy can help to position your brand as a thought-leader in its industry. This goes for whether the content for social media that you post is an infographic or video that’s shared within the post itself or a teaser that’s linked to long-form content on your website.
Over 51 percent of social media users are more likely to share videos with their network than any other type of media (Wyzowl), so plan your content calendar accordingly.
3. Improved customer engagement and interaction
Social media and content marketing provide your business with a platform to interact with your customers in real time via likes, comments, and shares. By taking the time to respond to comments and questions on your social media posts you can show your audience that you’re listening and that you value your customers’ feedback. These conversations you have on social media increase engagement and can work wonders for your overall SEO strategy.
4. Higher website traffic
Posting the right content for your social media following can increase the volume of your website traffic. Share links and call your followers to action often, providing them with reasons to buy, subscribe, or learn more by visiting your website.
5. Greater insight into customer behaviors
Social media platforms provide you with invaluable engagement metrics, giving you a deeper understanding of your audience. This data can be used to analyze and tweak your social media post strategy and your content strategy for other mediums, ultimately leading to increased engagement and brand awareness.
6. Reputation and crisis management
Effective social media content writing goes beyond simply marketing a product or service; it’s also a great public relations tool that you can lean on to boost your brand’s image or handle crises that may come along. Social media in reputation management efforts can include writing posts to address negative press you’ve received or responding to reviews from individuals who’ve interacted with your brand in the past.
How to create engaging content for social media posts
Your social media channels can only be as great as the content you post so strategy is key. While the right content for your social media posts can bring you plenty of followers, engagement, and brand exposure, the wrong content can have the opposite effect. Use the following techniques to develop an effective strategy for your social media content writing and don’t be afraid to tweak it or completely overhaul it as you learn more about your followers and their behaviors.
Understand the audience and platform
A one-size-fits-all approach to content for social media isn’t likely to serve your brand well. Knowing what age group to target, as well as the type of content marketing to invest in, can go a long way when it comes to garnering engagement.
As of 2023:
- Adults aged 25 to 34 make up the highest number of Facebook users while females aged 13 to 17 are the lowest demographic (Statista)
- Users aged 18 to 34 made up the majority of Instagram users at 61.9 percent (Statista)
- 38.5 percent of Twitter users are aged 25 to 34, which is the platform’s highest demographic (Statista)
- 60 percent of LinkedIn users are aged 25 to 34 (Statista)
That said, age isn’t the only thing to consider each platform. Here are a few other important statistics from 2022 and 2023 that can help you determine what type of content for social media posts is more likely to garner high levels of engagement on the most popular platforms:
- Over 77 percent of Facebook users are also active Instagram users (Hootsuite)
- 69 percent of consumers report making a purchase based on personalized Facebook advertisements (Facebook)
- 50 percent of Instagram users report visiting a brand’s website after viewing Stories (Instagram)
- 91 percent of active Instagram users admit to watching videos and reels weekly (Instagram)
- 90 percent of Instagram users follow a brand and 70 percent are open to seeing video advertisements (Instagram)
- Twitter users rely on the platform primarily for news and current events (Hootsuite)
- YouTube is the second-most visited website worldwide (Hootsuite)
- 57 percent of LinkedIn users are male (Statista)
- LinkedIn ads have the potential to reach nearly 15 percent of the world’s population (Hootsuite)
Incorporate visual elements
Visual media like photos and video can make your content stand out in a sea of status updates. Incorporate design elements such as graphics, infographics, and memes to increase the viral potential of your posts and make your content more shareable.
Focus on storytelling
Use your social media to weave a narrative about your brand and its mission or values, share case studies, or even tell personal stories when it’s appropriate. The stories you tell over social media will help your audience feel a stronger personal connection with your brand and build trust—something 81 percent of consumers say they need to feel before buying from a brand (Edelman).
Use calls to action
Calls to action (CTAs) are a crucial part of your social media strategies. The purpose of a CTA is to entice the reader to follow through with an action, such making a purchase or sharing their contact information, so it’s important to use the right words in your CTAs. That means providing your readers with a specific instruction and a valid reason to follow it.
Examples of CTAs you might use in your content for social media posts include:
- “Tag a friend who needs to see this!”
- “Let us know in the comments.”
- “Click the link in our bio to learn more.”
- “Visit our website to shop now.”
Developing a combined social media and content marketing strategy
Whether you’re figuring out your own social media content writing or considering white label social media management, a clearly defined strategy that incorporates engaging content for social media with various other content forms in each creative brief is imperative.
Review your branding
Before taking a deep dive into your content marketing and social media post strategy, complete a quick audit of your company’s branding. You need a cohesive brand identity and guidelines that’s reflected in all of your marketing efforts, including your website, your social media channels, and any other mediums you’re using.
If you don’t already have one, prepare a brand kit to guide any internal or external marketing teams responsible for creating social media content on behalf of your brand. Your brand kit should include:
- Your logo and guidelines for its use
- Approved color palettes and fonts with directions for use
- Customer personas
- Examples of your brand’s tone and voice
Define goals and objectives
Before you can implement a strategy and create content for social media posts, you need to understand why you’re doing it in the first place. Take time to clearly define your objectives and goals, giving special consideration to measurable metrics such as follower counts, clicks, and engagement.
Determine post frequency
How often you post to your social media accounts depends on the platform and your audience. While experts recommend posting to your Instagram feed and TikTok account between three and five times per week, platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter may grant you more success by posting at least once per day (Hootsuite).
Create a content calendar
Gather your social media ideas at the start of each month and organize them according to your predetermined post frequency in a content calendar. If you’re using several social media platforms, consider following a unique calendar for each platform. You could also hire white label social media management services to create engaging content for social media and ensure posts go out at the best times.
Measure your success and adjust your strategy
Most social media platforms provide metrics for its business account holders. Utilize these metrics along with comments and feedback from your audience to measure the success of your social media campaigns. If your social posts aren’t performing as well as you’d hoped, tweak your social media post strategy, wait a month, and re-analyze your metrics.
Writing content for a combined social media and content strategy
While images and videos may capture the attention of your audience on social media, social media content writing is the bread and butter of your posts. Furthermore, expanding on your social posts through the creation of long-form blog posts, articles, case studies and guides can drive traffic to your website and convert loyal followers into long-term customers.
1. Keep it concise and impactful
Social media captions can be chock-full of valuable information without being long-winded and with the right writing style, long-form content can be, too. The best social media content writing uses concise language to convey important information, avoiding extraneous phrases or filler words.
Craft headlines that grab readers’ attention and whether you’re writing a long article or a short social media caption, make sure that every word you write provides value to your audience.
2. Use relevant hashtags
Hashtags allow social media users to search for and discover content that’s related to a specific topic and thus, they’re a critical aspect of writing content for social media posts. By using hashtags that are relevant to your brand and the content of your social post, you can increase the likelihood of users who don’t already follow your brand viewing your content. Because of this, hashtags are one of the most important aspects of your social media post strategy.
You can find popular hashtags by hiring keyword research services to find them for you, or by heading to Instagram and searching for the topics that are most relevant to your post and have the largest reach.
3. Incorporate keywords
In addition to adding hashtags to your captions, you can use keywords to improve your post’s SEO and increase its overall reach. Use relevant keywords and ensure your post is public to achieve the highest possible search engine ranking.
4. Utilize user-generated content
You don’t always have to spend time writing content for social media. User-generated content is a great way to build credibility for your brand and increase engagement. This content can consist of anything written or created by your customers and audience, such as:
- Reviews
- Testimonials
- Photos and videos
Best practices for an engaging social media and content marketing strategy
Your content marketing and social media efforts help to heighten awareness of your brand, foster community with your audience and ultimately, drive traffic to your website, which in turn results in higher sales. Here are some best practices to help you create an effective social media post strategy for your brand:
- Share valuable and relevant content: While there’s nothing wrong with sharing the odd joke or meme, it’s important to make sure the things you share are valuable to your audience and relevant to your brand identity.
- Encourage conversation and engagement: Social media is about community so it’s essential to encourage conversation. Ask your audience to comment, share with friends and engage with your content in as many ways as possible. Always respond to your comments and messages as quickly as you can, whether they're positive or negative.
- Use multimedia content: Images, videos and infographics are far more engaging than text alone. Use a variety of media types to keep your content fresh and interesting.
- Leverage social media advertising: While you don’t have to promote every post, paid advertising on social media platforms can be an effective social media post strategy that enables you to reach new members of your target audience.
Frequently asked questions
How can I create engaging content for social media?
Creating visually appealing posts that tell a story using concise language and invite your followers to engage or take other actions with specific directions is the best way to build a solid social media post strategy that engages your audience.
How do I measure the success of my social media and content marketing efforts?
Utilize analytics tools on social media platforms to determine whether you’re gaining followers, likes, shares or comments. Combine these metrics with honest feedback from customers and followers to determine the overall success of your social media and content marketing campaigns.
