How to Grow Your Audience Engagement
Posted by Ka-Lok Ho
Being relevant to your customers does mean understanding your customers needs, but when it comes to content it also means understanding the needs of your audience on each platform.
Have you ever seen a meme or irrelevant video pop up LinkedIn, and asked yourself, am I on Facebook right now, have I fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole again?
This topic is somewhat debated, but my position is straight forward;
Create original content for each channel without reposting the same material.
By reposting, you are giving your customers a reason to not follow you; why would they need to follow you on Instagram if they’re going to see it again across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn?
The counter argument being, ‘some people don’t follow us on Instagram, so it’s safer to post a piece of content everywhere, so the people who are Facebook-only will also see it.’
Case in point – perhaps they’re not following you on Instagram because they know they’ll also see it on Facebook. What about new customers that have discovered your brand and decide to look at your content, why sign up for your email list if they’ll see it in your other feeds anyway?
The issue isn’t just seeing the same content over and over, but each channel your brand resides should have its own specific purpose.
Think about how you use Facebook vs LinkedIn vs a blog – are you looking for business advice on Facebook? Are you looking to be redirected to a long form blog when you’re browsing Twitter? Are you posting relationship and baby photos on LinkedIn?
Your customers expect to see different things when logging onto those channels. Your brands’ content strategy should reflect this. The better understanding you have of each platform and your customers needs per channel, the more value you can provide in creating higher engagements.
I love McDonald’s, I have no professing so, and every time I visit a new country I like to visit their McDonald’s as they always have country-specific menu items, and in some countries even location-specific items. I’ve had a wasabi burger, a red bean pie, and a McCurry burger just to name a few.
So imagine each platform you have a presence on is a chain of restaurants. It doesn’t matter which one you go to, you have a pretty good idea of what the experience will be, but you’re going to a specific location to get your McCurry burger. If each location offered exactly the same thing, you would never visit the one that’s a bit of a drive away, why would you when you could go down the road to your local spot as it’s all the same anyway.
Create once put everywhere is a lazy mindset. It’s a cheaper ROI I understand, but in the end you’re hurting your brand content and not serving your customers.
Be original. Be a McCurry.
Note: like every rule, there is an exception to be broken. In a future post we will talk about how to utilise micro-content.
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