Social Media (noun): websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
"Create and share content".
"Content."
It is no secret that social media is the tool of choice for most small business owners and almost every marketer in North America. Whether it’s a contest on Facebook, a customer testimonial on Instagram or a product shot on Tik Tok, the types of content being shared is endless and more channels for said content are popping up every day (check out Clubhouse for the most recent platform to come on the scene). The true value in these platforms is not the platforms itself, but what content gets shared on these platforms. It all boils down to.. content.
Deciding what, where, why, and when to post your content is NOT easy, but it should be.
Today we will cover the what in that equation. (Click on these for more on the where, why and when of the equation)
Here are five social media types inspired by successful brands in our own (Atlantic Canadian) backyard!
Company’s Culture
One of the greatest features of social media is the ability to give fans of your brand a behind-the-scenes look into your people, your processes, and your products.
East Coast Lifestyle, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, recently released an amazing behind the scenes look into their warehouse. Check out ECL founder @AlexMaclean's IG account. He knows what it takes to win at the Instagram marketing game.
Product shots
It’s not enough to just promote your product on social media, you have to make it interesting and engaging.
What Trailway Brewing of Fredericton, New Brunswick did in this post was leverage their (excellent) product design and turned it into an easily digestible, very engaging piece of social media content!
Customer Shout-outs!
In marketing the goal is to have as many "brand evangelists" as possible. These are loyal "followers" of your brand and they will be quick to share their love for your brand as often as they can.
One way to get your customers to show you love, is to show them love first!
Fitworks Equipment of New Brunswick has really tapped in to this strategy! They see their customers success as their success and they are more than happy to share their results with their network!
This makes for an extremely engaging social post but more importantly it shows that they care for their customers and will create a deep, lasting, bond!
Customer testimonials
Want to help someone understand what it’s like to work with you? Testimonials are the answer!
O.C Maillet of Bouctouche, New Brunswick leveraged their longstanding relationship with Moosehead Breweries by having a professional testimonial produced. This type of content doubles as a behind the scenes look at what it’s like to work with O.C Maillet.
Best of all, this content can be distributed on multiple platforms and can be used well into the future.
Holiday posts
The best part about holidays (besides the gifts), are that they are predictable! Predictability is a marketer’s best friend. If you can predict it, you can (and should) plan for it!
Greco Pizza of Truro, Nova Scotia made a fantastic Valentine’s Day post complete with an engaging graphic and a “Call-to-action” that gets the comments section filled up (which makes the post available to be seen by more and more people)!
For a list of all the holidays in Canada check here (including, National Cereal Day)
So, there you have it! Five types of shareable content (from Atlantic Canada) that you can refer to the next time you are planning your social media campaign.