How do you create the best content for social media? Which platform gives you the best return on your efforts and spend? Which is just your flat out favorite?
Social media is an ever-changing landscape – from the introduction of native video on virtually every platform to the growth, surge, and ultimate disappearance of other platforms altogether (Vine, we’re looking at you…), it’s hard to know what to expect from social as a whole.
That being said, having a strategy in place for your brand’s most lucrative platforms is essential to success in the digital age. And as video creators, that led to one burning question: how does video fit into companies’ long-term content strategy on social?
We hit up some of the biggest brands to see what their social strategy looked like and ask them:
How are you creating engaging content on your favorite platform?
Wendy’s on Twitter
My favorite social platform for my work at Wendy’s has to be Twitter. It’s where our voice is best articulated and where we’re able to build relationships and earn new fans of the brand. We’ve been able to capture one of our most memorable brand moments, Where’s the Beef?, and turn it into a modern interpretation of who we are and how we have consumers’ backs through Tweets.
Our team has been able to build out a robust social customer care team, responding to consumers around the clock. Twitter has been a great partner for all of our unique plans and really anything we’re looking to do. We’ve leaned heavily into the platform for some of our most successful campaigns that reach outside of social, like the We Beefin’? mixtape.
Meredith Ulmer
Social Media Manager at Wendy’s
Toms on Instagram
My favorite platform is Instagram. Since Instagram is a strongly image-driven platform, the most compelling content is the most visually arresting.
To start, ask yourself: would this post stop someone in their tracks? In addition to beautiful content, it needs to be able to speak to your core audience. To be successful, the second question you should ask is: what does my core audience want?
Minh Bui
Social Media Marketing Manager at TOMS
Salt Social Media on Twitter
My favorite social media platform is Twitter. It’s the most fun to play with. It’s the platform for influencers, bloggers, customer service departments, etc., because it’s an open platform that allows you to talk directly to anyone. Literally anyone.
I don’t post on Twitter, I chat on Twitter.
I have a client whose marketing is built on community involvement. We use Twitter to chat with individuals talking about their city, the events going on in the surrounding areas, and to interact with local businesses. If they post something, we comment on it, give advice, or roast them. We engage, and they engage back. You can tell they love it, and we love it too. That’s how I believe Twitter should be used.
Christina Erazo
Social Media Marketing Consultant & CEO of Salt Social Media
UnMarketing on LinkedIn and Instagram
For business: LinkedIn. It’s really morphed in the past few years where it can truly be social media. For most of its existence, it wasn’t. It acted as a virtual resume and recruiter Rolodex. Now, with the improvements in the newsfeed and content sharing, things can travel and travel fast if it’s compelling and relevant. It’s the same rule as any platform, but new for LinkedIn.
For personal use: Instagram. It’s the most positive place in social media for me. Twitter seems to be slanted toward what’s wrong with the world and Instagram is mostly visuals of what’s right (however much it’s staged or manufactured.)
Scott Stratten
Founder at UnMarketing
Shop Marketing Pros on Facebook
With all the changes, I’m surprised to say that my favorite social platform for business is still Facebook. I’m not opposed to change; I actually tend to love and crave it, but with Facebook, that might be one of the things I like most: it’s ever-changing. Frustrating, but true! I like variety also and Facebook offers that.
As a business owner, I’d recommend finally getting on board with video. Try doing a short 15- to 30-second video teaser about your most recent blog post. Include the link to the blog post in the post or in the comment. Tell your viewers in the video where to find the link. Facebook doesn’t want you leaving Facebook, so post a video and then include the link.
The video is to intrigue your listener and make them want to click to go to your blog. Just be sure your Facebook pixel is installed so you can run some retargeting ads to your blog visitors!
Kim Walker
Co-Owner at Shop Marketing Pros
SnackNation on LinkedIn
LinkedIn! While we can’t ignore the platform’s arguably poor UX/UI for consumers, we can absolutely applaud the highly-engaged and high-intention audiences it garners for people and brands.
Our approach to LinkedIn content creation is compartmentalized into two strategies: 1) paid media from our brand account and 2) organic content from our thought leader, CEO, and Co-Founder Sean Kelly.
For paid media, we hyper-target and push creative that evokes an “I must have this” or “I must be this person” emotion. Questions such as “Are you a top-performing X?” in bold typography with beautiful lifestyle imagery tend to perform well.
For organic, we post raw, authentic, educational and informational pieces that Sean is truly passionate about as a professional and individual. We’ve learned that LinkedIn is the channel where people follow people, whereas Instagram or Twitter is the place to follow entities further from your reach, like celebrities, big brands, or witty handles. This strategy has proven brand affinity and brand awareness lift. We use a diversified format mix of videography, written posts, LinkedIn articles, and practice agility when it comes to jumping on the latest platform offers (highly recommend employing this mentality across all channels for both your brand and its leaders).
We’re also one of the first accounts to beta LinkedIn Live! Engaging content on LinkedIn is all about being authentic, breaking the fourth wall, and making your users feel they’ve gleaned an insight they hadn’t had before.
Alysse Burroni
Director Of Brand Marketing at SnackNation
BambooHR on LinkedIn
It’s hard to have one favorite social media platform. They’re all really so different, and they cater to people’s different needs.
But if I have to pick just one, it would be LinkedIn, which is crazy to me because only a few years ago I couldn’t stand LinkedIn. I think it took them a little while to find their footing after the merger with Microsoft, but I’ve been very impressed with the new features they’ve rolled out over the last 18 months.
One of the things I love most about LinkedIn is there are real people on the platform. Now, of course, every channel has bots or people who abuse the channel, but LinkedIn does a fantastic job of making sure its users not only use the channel, but follow the rules for what content works on the channel.
I’ve found the best content for LinkedIn is content that helps people excel at their jobs. At BambooHR, we do our best to publish content on LinkedIn that sets them free to do great work. We post infographics, how-to blogs, quizzes, and education videos that actually help people learn. (We also have a fantastic creative team that makes my job pretty easy!)
Tyler King
Social Media Manager at BambooHR
eos on …all of them!
Creating engaging content for your audience is all about learning who your followers truly are and what they enjoy.
Testing and learning various forms of content, along with using data-informed strategies, helps when coming up with concepts for the content that lives on our social platforms. Our followers are an essential part of the eos brand, and our community is so engaged that it’s a priority for our social team to effectively communicate our product messaging along with creating content our fans and followers love.
All of the social media platforms we use are an important part of the eos brand, and we make sure we deploy relevant content to each platform since every audience is unique, especially our Instagram community since they’re very engaged with everything we do.
Sierra Dennis
Global Social Manager at eos Products
Bonus: HelloFresh on Instagram
My favorite social media platform is Instagram without a doubt. I’m a very visual person, so I’ve always been drawn to the idea of capturing someone’s attention with a striking photo. Instagram allows you to test the waters when it comes to creating content. Whether it be playing around with the copious amount of features in an Instagram story or posting a simple banner to your feed; the platform is always changing, and it keeps me on my feet.
When creating content for Instagram, I start by insta-stalking my favorite brands or influencers on the channel. I analyze every little detail and see how I can adapt it to my current projects. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s a fun ride along the way!
Gregory Carter
Senior Associate, Content and Social Media at HelloFresh
Start using video on your favorite social platforms. Give us a call and see how we can help!