by Makenzie Bonham
Marketing Director for Burnett's Staffing, a Texas-based recruitment firm founded in 1966.
While blogging is a great way to attract and inform an audience online, it will ultimately take much more than the intermittent yet informative article to win over social media users.
When your 1,000-word post about decision making, performance and productivity is on a social media stream next to a raccoon scaling a 25-story building, your content begins to appear monotonous to the average internet user. It’s not that your written content is unappealing; it’s that the post’s content is often packaged and posted in the exact same way every time, in written form accompanied by a stock photo.
As the marketing director for a staffing agency, I’m familiar with the challenges that come with breaking through the noise in today’s digital and social media landscape. Below are a handful of ways to transform your basic blog into a captivating piece of social media content.
The Motivational Quote Or Educational Statistic
When posting on social media, you want your communications to resonate with your audience and followers. Add an attention-grabbing statistic at the beginning of your post, or tie in an inspiring yet relevant quote at the end of your blog. Then share the quote or statistic on Twitter (on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday) while adding the hashtag #MondayMotivation, #WednesdayWisdom or #ThursdayThoughts. Shorten the blog’s URL, and don’t forget to include the statistic’s source or who the quote is from originally. Take this even further by creating an eye-catching visual for the statistic or quote you use.
The 15-30 Second Silent Video
There’s no denying that video has an unprecedented spot on social media platforms. Silent videos have been increasing in popularity, but they aren’t solely for CNN’s breaking news. Gather the main key points from your blog post, and turn them into a short video. Include the post title, and implement branding into the video as well. But be sure not to give all the post’s detailed information upfront.
The Interesting Infographic
Infographics are an effective and concise way to integrate data and illustrations. Take the fundamental text from your blog, and condense your factual information into a handful of simple sentences. Combine the textual information with correlating graphics. Design the layout of the infographic so that each piece of information can be easily read. You want to be able to guide the reader through the graphic from one piece of information to the next.
Finally, incorporate branding and the source of the information, and edit the infographic’s image size for the intended social media platforms.
The Vlog And The Podcast
If you don’t have the resources for in-house video editing or graphic design, you can record a vlog based on the article’s original content to be uploaded to YouTube. Alternatively, produce a podcast on SoundCloud as an audio-only version of you discussing the blog post’s main topic.
To captivate an online audience through social media, you need to provide content that adheres to multiple learning styles: auditory, visual and tactile. Perform A/B testing to determine which type of social media posts your online audience prefers. And before you publish and post more content in blog format, keep in mind that your audience will be searching for something more captivating once they realize the #MPRRacoon made it to the roof safely.
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