Be Intentional! 3 Forms of Content and How to Use Them

Making content online can be confusing and rigorous but understanding and implementing the specificity of what kind of content you plan on posting could save you so much time. Just from conceptualizing and drafting, hours or even days could be spent before production, where most of the time should be given to. There is a more efficient and effective way to create and reach your audience, and this is through the 3 forms of content. 

When you search “Forms of Content” in google, you’ll get the technicalities of the different types of social media posts (Short video, Static, and etc.), but what I’ll be writing about are the 3 forms of content to assist you in your Content Marketing Goal. 

Before starting your Social Media Campaigns, it’s important to establish the purpose of it. What are you trying to accomplish? Who is it for? How are you going to reach your audience? Several questions arise just from the conception of your social media plans or before the creation of your content. This is why it’s necessary to understand the motive behind it, indicating the angle of your content and how you’re going to reach your audience. Here are the 3 types of online content that you should include in your SM plans:

Audience Building

This type of content is one that is relatable to your audience, it is easy to engage with and includes little to no promotion of whatever you’re trying to offer. The purpose of this content is to increase your following and build a community that WILL listen if you do offer your product. Take a look at Ate Girl’s executions of audience buildings.

Great understanding of the behavior or who your target market is crucial for this type of content. Be sensitive to what matters to your audience, remember that you are not your audience, what you think they are is different from the truth of their identity. An example of this is that the border between humorous and offensive is a thin line, it is better to have some sort of market testing or reviewing internally before finally posting these kinds of material. 

These are some possible topics to bank your future “Audience Building” content form for.

1. Trendjacking
2. Memes 
3. Emotional Appeal

Brand Building

Companies struggle with establishing their brand online because it is difficult to connect to a “company” without personality. Brand building is all about setting the reputation and image of the business/person that can have a relationship with your target market. Take a look at Redbull’s Instagram. They rarely show their product; instead, they fill it up with athletes, exhibitionists, dancers, and many more.

They may not have a single face, but they depict one adjective, “extreme.” Ask yourself, “What do you want your target audience to feel or stand by?”

Brand-building content transforms your audience into a community, giving them something to stand for or with. Nobody wants to avail of a service or buy a product from someone who says, “I just want to make money.” It is crude, distasteful, and cheap. An example of this would be Seek Discomfort Clothing; yes, they sell clothes, but what they give you is a stand of what you believe in.

Using the brand they built beforehand, the Yes Theory boys continue to develop the community and offer their principles to others through clothes. Unlike the “audience building” content form, this one focuses on “who” is the establishment, so it is necessary first to establish the identity of your business.

You may also use these topics in building your brand: 

1. Informative Postings
2. Tips and Tricks
3. Tutorials

Product Promotion

Now, we move on to the last form of content, product promotion. The point of this form of content is to showcase your product. Sounds relatively simple, does it? But to stand out, we’d have to get a little more creative than just “showcasing the product.” Several marketers nowadays protest against the excessive show of the “product” on their social media pages, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to promote it. Creatively, several ways exist to promote your product without overly advertising the existing product. To understand the inner essence of this, we have to dissect the meaning of “product”; it is the solution to a problem, a need. Take a look at what we did for Soliman Paroli Optical.

Instead of showing what the product is, we showed what happens if you don’t. Instead of highlighting the product, we’ve come to highlight the problem. 

Here are some possible topics to bank your product promotional posts on: 

1. Customer testimonials 
2. True Value
3. Product Reviews

Conclusion

Understand that one does not better the other. The use of all of these 3 forms has to have a balance in your SM Campaign. Establishing the purpose and form of your content can save you so much time and change the way you make Social Media plans. Once again ask yourself this question “What do you hope to accomplish?”. 
If you understand the necessity of content creation and the cruciality of digital marketing, consult us on https://digital.emerge.com.ph/lp/digital-marketing/