Types of Content by Social Media Outlet

How does a company establish a successful media campaign strategy?  Content of course!  But the real question is, what makes good content turn into great content?  Is it the offering of a coupon that can only be found on a particular social media platform?  Or offering friendly advice and a useful tip?  The answer actually depends on the industry and the target market they are trying to reach.  Not all pieces of content are created equal, nor should they be.  Some are more lighthearted, such as a funny quip, or a humorous picture.  While others are intended to inform the company’s followers’ of what is happening, what is going to happen, or what has happened with the company.

Not only is the type of content important, but also how often you’re sending out information. Too many messages, and the people who are following you may get annoyed and decide that your content is not worth the informational clutter, nor the constant notification sounds alerting them of another “useful” message. Too little content, and they may lose interest all together, or even worse, forget about you. The key is to strike a balance amongst type of content, the frequency, and the time you push the information to your platform. The combination of the three will help to foster brand awareness, yet encourage dialogue, and hopefully grow a company’s fan base.

Both companies that I’ve been analyzing have some sort of a fan base, and both have some sort of content that they are pushing out on various platforms. However, each one has a different approach to the matter and most likely different results from their strategy.

Industrial Finishes

Industrial Finishes, as stated in previous posts, utilizes Facebook and YouTube as their main platforms to send content to its followers/subscribers. However, the content is just that, it’s content. It’s nothing great, but a physical social media presence is being obtained. With that being said, at least they are online and trying.

As of this post, there has really only been two posts that seem to be strategic. One of the more recent posts is great. It offers a solution to a possible problem, letting the Facebook follower know who to turn to if they need help. The rest of the content being distributed is more focused towards brand awareness, with not a lot of consistency to it. On Facebook for instance, the majority of posts are random and hold very little availability for conversation to happen. They do post about once a week though, which keeps their page fresh.

As far as YouTube goes, the videos again are random and do not target any one specific group or market. Yes, they do show videos of the car shows that they have attended, and some of the amazing paint jobs they do, but there is no real message being presented to any particular audience. Plus they’ve only posted 13 times in the past year. That may seem like a lot, but with the content that they are uploading, it really isn’t that much.

To me, they are not fully engaging their potential to reach the masses. They don’t seem to have a particular marketing strategy in mind, but rather just keeping a digital presence. They could without a doubt start offering content that is more engaging and that allows for more dialogue. For instance, project videos on YouTube. I’m sure there are both future and current clients that would enjoy watching a start-to-finish project that Industrial Finishes is working on. The ability to interact and offer content that is both intriguing, yet subtle enough to market your services seems like it would be a winning combination. We’ll have to wait and see if future marketing strategies can make a difference.

Territorial Seed Co.

Territorial Seed Co. definitely has more opportunities for engagement with their followers. They push content out through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram almost every other day. They provide a mix of content that mainly includes open ended questions in their product promotion/special deal, the useful gardening tip, and of course the informative tweet or post that lets their followers know what is happening at Territorial Seed Co. This social media strategy not only gives their followers time to consume the content given, but also time to interact with Territorial Seed Co. if they choose to.

Though they may use other social media platforms such as YouTube and Pinterest, their frequency on these sites are not as prevalent as that of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Their last YouTube video may have been done over 4 months ago, but the relativity of the how-to is available whenever someone searches for it. Once someone searches for a video and finds Territorial Seed Co.’s video, they are referred back to Territorial’s website. So even though they don’t post as frequently on YouTube and Pinterest, the content being presented does not expire and holds value to the customer.

To me, Territorial Seed Co. is doing a great job in connecting, interacting, and keeping their followers engaged. They offer plenty of useful content, but at the same time, they do not over promote specials and products directly. They are subtle and let the viewer take the lead in whether they would like to find out more. The one thing that I do find though, is that they (for lack of a better term) regurgitate their content across all their platforms. Granted, I know not everyone will have all the social media accounts that are available to them, but for those that do, the information becomes redundant. Other than that, I applaud Territorial Seed Co. and their efforts toward great content.