Before marketing content, businesses need to master the native “languages” of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

Editor’s note:  This is part two of our continuing series on content marketing and explores the importance of understanding the unique social media platforms before sharing.

Translation Scenario

You’ve just published a blog post that features your educated opinion on an industry trend, which is also receiving media coverage. In your post, you include a gripping visual graphic, reference one or more news sources that have reported on the issue along with your take and value added experience on the subject.  Now, you need to market the post to your social media fans and followers.  Let’s use last month’s post as an example of how the promotion would play out on various social platforms:

Blog Post: “Is Your Digital Content King or Court Jester?”

The article discusses content’s renaissance and its critical role in positioning leadership and industry authority, which has a cascading effect on social media engagement and search engine visibility. The post features an eye-catching image which complements the theme and helps to visually tell the story.

Step 1. Size of the post:

The post is somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 words, so the first and most important order of business is to home in on the key content areas you will feature in your social sharing. These snippets are meant to pique enough interest in your audience so they will click-through and read the post.

Step 2. Understanding each social platform’s “language” and culture:

Understanding each social platform’s “language” and culture is mandatory if you want your posts to get any attention.  Here we identify the top three platforms; how our blog post might be promoted on each; and questions to ask when creating micro-content on each platform¹:

        Facebook – The biggest social network on the planet with more than 1 billion users worldwide, boasts an estimated one out of every five page views in the U.S.

Facebook Post: Is Your Digital #Content King or Court Jester? 3 steps for ruling the digital realm – Use phrases with search volume, implement tags, and #goodPR. Read more 

Questions to ask when creating Facebook Content:

• • Is the text too long?

• • Is the post interesting in any way to anyone?

• • Is it provocative, entertaining or surprising?

• • Is the photo striking and high quality; is the logo visible?

• • Is the call to action in the right place?

Twitter – 500 million users worldwide.  Users post 750 tweets per second, which are no more than 140 characters in length.

           Twitter Post:  Is Your Digital #Content King or Court Jester? 3 steps for ruling the digital realm:  

Questions to ask when creating Twitter content:

• • Is it to the point?

• • Is the hashtag unique and memorable?

• • Is the image attached high quality

• • Will it resonate with the Twitter audience

          Pinterest – helps people create visual collections of things they love.  About 68% of the platform’s 49 million users are women. The site boasts four-times the revenue click-through than Twitter and 79% of Pinterest users are more likely to purchase something spotted on Pinterest than on Facebook.

Pinterest Post: Three steps for ensuring princely prose for effective search + social #contentmarketing

Questions to ask when creating Pinterest content:

• • Does my picture feed the consumer dream?

• • Did I give my boards clever, creative titles?

• • Does every photo include a hyperlink?

• • Have I included a price where appropriate?