Content is important. That’s the message that Tara Hunt, author and social media speaker, hammers home in capital letters in a blog post today.
Hunt makes good points for companies that are considering wading into social media waters and start doing all that modern customer engagement and social monitoring that is so hot right now. There seems to be new social networks becoming popular every month and it might seem like there is pressure to create a presence on all of them. Should you maintain a Google+ page as well as Facebook? Should I plug my blog’s RSS feed into a Twitter account? Is Pinterest worth joining, or is it only good if your company decorates cupcakes with polka-dot icing designs and then photographs kittens licking them? These are questions we’ve all asked ourselves.
Businesses involving fun pastry designs and kittens are best cut out for social media.
Consider carefully the social networks you join, because once you’re there you’ll have to consistently create content for your audience. It has to be good content too, because your audience will think less of you if you don’t seem relevant or interesting. Hunt advocates for detailed content planning around social channels before you ever open that account. A common refrain you might hear from colleagues is that it takes “just a few minutes” to open an account or to make a post. But planning the content, consistently maintaining it, responding to the user-generated comments on it, and so on quickly turns into hours of your day.
Creating good content is a skill, Hunt rightly points out. Keeping up a great Facebook Page isn’t something the guy in accounting can just add on to his other duties. It’s best to choose carefully the channels where you want to engage your audience and then create a content plan around how you’re going to feed that space.