As a digital marketer, the phrase “content is king” is very familiar as it works like a mantra and often repeated within the circle of internet marketers. It stemmed from an essay Bill Gates wrote back in 1996.

"Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting"

Now, after more than two decades, it is safe to say Gates was spot on and content is ruling the internet. Most notably in social media platforms.

Social media has flourished so much over the last 20 years thanks to the creativity of countless content creators out there.

Audiences prefer high quality, original & engaging content about things that matter to them. Gone are the days where people are shoved with irrelevant content they are not interested in. They don’t want to see annoying ads, banners and pop ups, and of course to avoid spams in their inbox.

So, there’s no surprise that brands are spending more money every day to get valuable content out there to engage with their audiences. On top of that, marketers are tasked with a tough job in implementing proper strategies using social media analytics to ensure the published content are optimized.

But how do you do it?

Segment your content type based on the reception from your audiences.

Never assume your audiences love a single type of content. A good digital strategy is to gather valuable social data from your audience and then break down how each content type is performing.

With a good social media analytics platform, you can effortlessly identify how your audiences are reacting towards all the content published on your page. For instance, a brand may have poured most of their resources into producing a video content for its audiences. But, with the social data gathered, they then learn that their videos aren’t really performing as expected compared to their normal static image postings.

Now with useful insights, you can diversify your resources and focus on churning out content your audiences love.

Refine your buyer persona 

What’s a buyer persona? In simple terms, it is a detailed description of your target customer.

Once you have segmented your audiences based on the types of content they like, you should now study and understand them further.

Learn who your audiences are. Identify the demographics of your target audience. I.e: hobbies, interests, education, age, gender and other key factors.

With this information, you have the advantage to better tailor your content marketing to the right people whom you want to buy your products or services. Remember, your content must resonate with your audience to gain their attention. Therefore, content creators should take extra effort to ensure the right message is delivered to the right group of audience to maximize the expected social media marketing results.

Benchmark & compare your content performance against competitors

Sometimes it is wise to hit the pause button, and to do a quick analysis on your closest competitors and other industry players to understand how your content is doing.

You can compare their engagements and shares with a social media analytics platform. Besides, you can also identify the types of content and campaigns they are running to gain more results. Do a comparison of key metrics over a 30 day period on social media to understand some of the short term strategies your competitors implement.

With this insight, you are able to refine your marketing efforts to better cater your target audience and most importantly, always stay one step ahead of your competitors by establishing a strong brand positioning

Timing when you publish your content 

In the online space, timing is everything. Whether it’s a new viral content or riding the trend, as a content marketer, you need to time it right. In fact, even the best content will fail to gain engagement if there’s no one to see it.

Hence, why it is crucial to post or share your content at the right time. But let’s be frank. There’s no rule that indicates what is the best time to post your content. The optimum time may vary depending on the industry, social platforms you are using and also due to other factors.

Some marketers employ a different strategy based on the data they gather from other pages and competitors. They analyse and benchmark the engagement received per post based on the post distribution hours using social media analytics platforms like Adqlo.

The data they gather are then translated into their content publishing strategy to ensure their posts are published at the right time to have the best chance of gaining a lot of engagements.

Conclusion

Successful content marketers use an array of helpful tools and data to improve their content marketing strategy. Social media analytics platforms like Adqlo provide time saving and hassle-free analysis for marketers. You get to focus on insights that matter and shut out the rest of the noise that may hinder your content development and marketing efforts.