How to Align Social Media and Content Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business

No single marketing channel can survive in a vacuum. All channels are linked to each other in some way. After all, the main goal for all marketing strategies is the same — to promote a product or service and generate leads.

Social media serves as a great medium to distribute content. On the other hand, content marketing is an excellent way to educate and engage your target audience about your product.

On the surface, social media marketing and content marketing are two different strategies. Many companies even have different teams handling these initiatives.

But if you look closely, social media and content marketing always work in tandem. That’s because they complement each other well. To make the most out of your marketing strategy, you need to align your social media and content marketing efforts.

Ways to Integrate Social Media and Content Marketing

Before we get started, let me say that it’s not difficult at all to align your social media and content marketing strategies. But it does require some advance planning.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind to align your social media and content marketing plans:

1. Define Your Brand Voice

The words and the tone that you use to communicate with consumers shapes your brand personality. Your brand voice is a big factor in determining your public perception.

In a nutshell, your brand voice is how you manifest your core brand values into public communication. Because it represents your brand’s digital identity, it’s important to maintain a consistent brand voice across all communication channels.

To find your unique brand voice, you need to look at your target audience and how they communicate.

For instance, if you audience base is mostly corporate professionals, it’s advisable to use a professional tone. Or if it’s millennials, you need to be able to use millennial lingo. Basically, it’s about increasing relatability with your audience.

If you have different teams handle your website content and social media channels, you need to keep them on the same page. Create a style guide that outlines the dos and don’ts.

DiGiornio believes in keeping their brand tone casual and loves to add some humor in their content. As you can see in the screenshot below, their style stays consistent across their website and Twitter handle.

digiorna social media content marketing

Image via Digiorno

2. Use Retargeting

Producing content for your website takes a lot of time and effort. You need to understand that not all of your website visitors will read your content. Only a fraction of your visitors will engage with your content. And even a smaller percentage will actually convert.

There is a good chance you may not get to see them again. That’s where retargeting comes in. Through retargeting, you can reach out to consumers who have previously visited your website.

They’re already familiar with your products and brand. So, you can tailor your messages in such a way that your content drives them to the next stage of the sales funnel.

But how can you target tailored content to a specific audience?

Using Facebook, you can find out which users have read a particular blog post. Based on those insights, you can micro-target those users for specific campaigns.

In the screenshot below, Expedia is clearly targeting users who have previously looked for last minute flight deals. Or they are possibly targeting users who have clicked on an article that is related to last-minute travel plans.

singlegrain social media content marketing

Image via SingleGrain

3. Repurpose Your Content

Social media is a very visual medium. That means you can get creative with the kind of content you publish. Videos, memes, GIFs, infographics, and podcasts are some examples of the types of content you can experiment with.

Creating fresh, high-quality content takes a lot of time and effort. But there’s a smart shortcut you can use to produce more content. You can repurpose your content.

Simply put, this means taking your existing content and changing the format in which you present it. For instance, you can design an infographic with the statistics from your blog post. Or you could take the gist of the topic and spin into a meme.

For inspiration, take a look at Moz’s YouTube channel. Every Friday, they publish informational videos for their “Whiteboard Friday” video series. In all of their recent posts, they have given a link to a related blog post.

youtube social media content marketing

Image via YouTube

Similarly, in their blog posts, you can read a detailed transcription of the video. They’re presenting the same information in both text and video formats. By doing this, they provide give their audience the option to pick between two different ways of consuming content.

4. Link Your Website and Social Media Channels

To redirect your website traffic to social media or vice-versa, you need to link your site and social media handles. On your website, add social media buttons in a location where users can spot them easily. It is recommended to place them on the top right-hand section of your site.

az social media wiz social media content marketing

Image via AZ Social Media Wiz

In addition to this, you should add a link to your website on all of your social media handles. Linking your site and social media handles can increase your brand awareness and visibility. It also makes it easier for potential customers to find more information related to your brand.

Similarly, add social sharing buttons to your emails. This can help you build your social media presence and get more leads. And, best of all, it’s a simple tactic that doesn’t require much effort.

Conclusion

Your social media strategy and content marketing plan aren’t mutually exclusive. Both are content-centric and are aimed at spreading the word about your brand. So, it’s obvious that they will overlap.

If you want to amplify your marketing efforts, you need to make sure your social media and content marketing plans work in-sync. I hope the strategies mentioned above help you align your social media and content marketing plans.

In what other ways do you integrate social media into your content marketing efforts? Please share your insights in the comments section.

Shane Barker

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant who specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.