Is your social media content designed to meet your goals?

A lot of businesses’ biggest road block to an engaging social media presence is knowing what to post. But, to know what should and shouldn’t make it onto your profile, you need to define why you’re using social media for your business in the first place. There are a lot of different reasons to remain active on Instagram, LinkedIn and other social platforms. Identifying what those reasons are for your business will guide what you share on your profiles and, ultimately, help you understand whether or not social media is helping you reach your business goals.

What is your social media for?

Not every business uses social media for the same reasons. Identifying why you’re on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok will make filling your posting calendar with strategic content that much easier.

Sales and Lead Generation: These social media profiles are expected to deliver product sales or new leads through a website, the social media platform itself, in person shopping or another channel.
Awareness: Posting for awareness keeps a business top of mind, encouraging followers to choose the brand the next time they need a similar product or service.
Validation: In this situation, a potential customer discovered your business through another channel, like word of mouth or organic search, and is looking for more information.
Customer Support: A lot of businesses use social media to respond directly to customers’ questions and concerns.

Of course, there are other reasons to post to your accounts, like employee engagement or public relations. For the sake of this conversation, we’ll be focusing on communicating with customers and people with the potential to become customers. You may also be using social media for a combination of the reasons listed above.

What should you post on social media?

With a better understanding of why you’re using social media in the first place, you can start to brainstorm what types of content will help you meet these goals.

Sales and Lead Generation

For (almost) immediate sales and lead generation, your content should heavily feature your products and services. You’ll want to take advantage of tools like Instagram Shopping and use clear calls to action. Try sharing:

Awareness

When you’re trying to create awareness, your content can have more variety and be less focused on calls to action for immediate conversions. Encourage engagement with features like polls and consider repurposing content from other channels. Feel free to let some personality show through using:

Validation

Potential customers often want to see more information about your products and services than is available on your website. Social media profiles are generally more up to date than websites and other customers may be tagging you and sharing their experience with your offerings too. In this situation, share:

Customer Support

For small businesses, customer support might be just one piece of your purpose on social media. However, it’s not uncommon for larger enterprises to have dedicated accounts for support. Regardless, if your accounts are answering customers’ questions, post about: