The Future of Content is Social
As a creator, I like to think about content in social contexts.
Majority of young people online spend their time on social platforms, engaging with content that speaks to their social curiosities, and participating in conversations that they would not normally participate in.
The days of coming on social media to beg your friends to read your blog and leave comments are gradually fading into memory. We are in an era where content exists as a social entity or product, often formulated in the heat of things. And as such, the content creator of this age must consistently pay attention to making the content he creates as sociable as possible.
Needless to say, this isn’t a call-to-action to start turning every blog title or post into a social media caption or update. It is a call to start thinking of your content as a social tool that serves the purpose of driving engagement in a sense that is valuable to the brand or product it represents.
How does this work in the real world? How should social media managers and content creators approach content creation for social consumption? How can brand managers hack social engagement for the brands they manage?
1. In the real world, humans treat content with the same brutal honesty they treat most other things. If your social content is a brilliant insight but is hard to comprehend, it is useless to the average member of your target audience. And they will generally ignore it or gloss over. If content doesn’t address a user as a human being with a need for that content, it may as well be irrelevant to the user.
This is why content creators need to think of their audience when creating their content. You cannot simply decide that because a particular content appeals to you or sounds right, then the audience definitely needs it. Especially when you’re creating for social platforms.
2. When approaching content creation for social consumption, you should definitely think about the social platform you’re creating the content for, the impact you expect it to have, the form content normally takes on that platform, and expected reaction from the audience.
These help you define how your content will sound, look, and feel. But it also helps you determine what it will tell the audience to do and whether or not they would do it.
3. Brand managers tend to approach content creation from the perspective of the brand identity, the brand voice, values, and goal. But the truth is that the members of your audience do not really care about your brand anything if it does not solve a fundamental problem for them or offer them some relevant insight or entertainment.
Yes, it is important to maintain brand values and tone and voice, but it is more important for your audience to relate to these things. Creating content isn’t a perfunctory role. Approach content for your brand the same way you approach Tiktok challenges and with the same effort put in. Make your brand content so valuable that even people outside of the target audience can find occasional satisfaction in it.
We have witnessed a global pandemic that forced us indoors and opened up new channels of relaxation and entertainment through social content for us. Also, we have come to realize that information/content overload is a real thing too.
If you want to succeed in this new normal, you have to put a human in your strategy. Humanise that social strategy and content creation process. Think of your content as a social element and watch it become more relevant to the people you’re creating it for.
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