Content Strategy is Just one Part of your Social Media Strategy

Back in 2001 Forrester Research asked people why they returned to a website and the overwhelming answer was ‘content.’ It’s still true today.

Success in online PR and social media depends on the quality of your content. It’s about engaging people and the key to engagement is discovering what your audience thinks is good content. It's not up to you to decide what to publish. Your content strategy should be based on what your audience needs and wants.

In social media people are creating, reading, saving, tagging and sharing content. If you don’t produce the kind of content they value, it won’t get re-published or shared.

How do you know what kind of content to create? Listen and observe.

In the past we had to rely on agencies to have a ‘bright idea.’ But when you really listen to your audience, content opportunities easily spring to mind.

Example: A mortgage company discovered that young mothers in their first home were very concerned about the housing market and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. They were looking for information in language they could understand. The company saw that they could write articles and do video interviews with their experts in a way that would answer the questions of concerned young mothers.

Example: A natural soda company that makes ginger products saw lots of discussion on Twitter about the health benefits of ginger. Immediately ideas started to flow about how to participate in this conversation – studies, recipes, articles, videos.

Example: a non –profit involved in drug rehabilitation found out that women turn to blogs for information, advice or recommendations. (2009 BlogHer Social Media study.) And what they value most is a review or comment from someone who has used that product or service. Since women are the ones who most often call the rehab centers – a wife, mother or sister of the addict - it was obvious that they needed to create content around the stories of women who had saved their families with this program and get it to women bloggers.

Telling your story online in the right place to the right people gets results. But you need a well-thought out content strategy based on solid research to get those results.