By TyllahFebruary 02, 20220 comments

How to build authentic active social campaigns! (50 tips included)

If you enjoy this content & want it to stay free forever, please consider donating to Touched By Ty’s creator fund.

If you want a visual overview of this article, Check out this Youtube Video!

_______

As a full time content creator, I completely understand feeling overwhelmed and confused about what type of content you should create, when you should share, what will make money and just the entire process of creating and publishing content altogether.

You are not alone in feeling this way, many small business owners and creatives I meet often feel lost and confused on how to move forward in this journey. Many also feel so discouraged that they quit creating content for months at a time. While I do not believe that this is the best solution, I do understand why this happens.

Creating content is an art form that must be studied, a skill that must be nurtured, and a habit that must be maintained. For many, it doesn’t come natural and it requires extensive effort to become one of the best in the digital space. Lucky for you, I am happy to share what I know and help you get on track to build the community you’ve always dreamed of.

To get started, there are 5 main areas of content creation this article will cover and 50 tips and insights you can expect to leave with today. With that being said, let’s dive right in - we have a lot to review today!

5 areas of content creation:

15 types of content you can create
10 tips to figure out what types of content to create
The 5 content resource banks you need to create
10 tips to repurpose and recycle content
10 strategies to boost engagement with content

Sidenote: Everything within this article, pairs with the Content Marketing Tool Kit I made for you. This tool kit includes resources for email marketing, content creation, content planning, strategy development and more. Grab your Content Marketing Tool Kit today!

15 types of content you can create

Being a content creator is such a vague description of what you do when you take a step back and look at all the types of content that there are. Knowing this makes it significantly easier for you to understand that you don’t have to be a master of every type of content. Nor do you need to be on every single platform that exist to leave a lasting impact.

You need to find your content lane and stick to it. Trying to do too much as a 1-2 person operation, can be overwhelming, draining, and completely drain the fun out of this process.

So, to help you get started here’s 15 types of content you can create:

Blogging: regardless of what you may have heard online, blogging is not dead. In fact, blogging is one of the best ways to generate website traffic from search engines and establish yourself as an expert online. Blogging is also a 100% free marketing tool available to every entrepreneur regardless of budget because it only requires a bit of research and time commitment.
Email nurturing: Email nurturing gives you an opportunity to build a sense of community because email communications is considered one of the most intimate forms of contact. Through email marketing, you can share stories, reviews, company updates, invite them to events, cross promote platform content and sell products.
Educational content: Teaching your audience how to complete specific tasks helps you build trust and establish authority as an expert. Educational content also increases the shareability of your profile and expertise, which can help you rapidly grow online, increase referrals and increase your online sales. Keep it simple, you don’t have to give away all of your knowledge, just enough to appeal to your ideal customers.
Tip based content: Dropping bite sized tip based content to help solve simple problems is the KEY to online growth. You could do something simple like explaining what software you use, showing how to set the software up, where you buy specific products, how you use google to find resources and more. No content is truly too simple, you always know more than someone watching you.
Hack style content: Sharing hacks with your audience helps them solve things they may not have initially recognized as problems. Which can be very lucrative for you, because people will start to see that you want to help them reduce stress and make life simple for them. Teaching people how to live a more simple and fruitful life with more time to themselves is an art, one you can quickly learn to.
Fun fact content: Sharing fun facts shows your audience that you stay up to date on everything happening in your industry. Don’t be condescending though, just share your content and be friendly. Be sure to portray that you just want to help keep them informed, especially because tones can be misread online and you want to avoid any room for confusion on your purpose for sharing this. Also, this can help show people the value in booking with you or buying from you, as you are apparently up to speed on everything there is to know in your industry.
Myth busting: Myth busting means that you address things considered to be the norm in your industry and you provide alternatives to this. You can also use this as a way to showcase why previous norms were harmful and share more safe alternatives, which helps you create that sense of community. Keeping your audience informed and explaining why they should switch to something new and it actually adding value to their life offline, is the easiest way to build a lifelong relationship with people who love your brand.
Engaging weekly lives: Going live weekly whether via twitter spaces, IG live, Tiktok live, Twitter live or any other interactive live feed gives your audience a chance to engage with you in real time. When you only focus on sharing content to your feed, your followers may wait 5 minutes to 5 hours for a response from you. However, going live means you can answer their questions in real time and build a stronger bond, which means they’re more likely to buy from you rather than continuing to postpone their purchase.
Podcasting: Everyone doesn’t have time to watch youtube videos, read books or blogs, or be on social media to see everything you’re doing. But EVERYONE can enjoy a podcast episode that helps them solve their problems. You can make this simple by taking the audio from your youtube videos and turning
Lifestyle content: lifestyle content focuses on appealing to consumers desires and indirect marketing. Influencers and celebrities have mastered the aesthetics required to see long term success with this. However, plenty of”normal” people have begun tapping into this thanks to tiktok.
Product & service review content: Product and service reviews can help bring in new audience members regularly. Especially when you’re constantly reviewing new types of tech, new beauty products and focus on things with high search volumes in the moment. While your current audience members will be interested in this, so will new people who are hesitant to invest in what you’re reviewing. This could also lead to company sponsored content because companies will begin to see the value in your audience.
Day in the life / Vlogging: Vlogging allows your audience to get to know you as a person, outside of being just a business owner. This can humanize your brand and show the ins and outs of what it takes to run your business. Social media doesn't always show us what it takes to be a business owner, but you can with vlogging and it can make people feel more connected to you.
Behind the scenes content: Millennials value transparency from the brands they want to shop with. This can be a great way to provide that transparency, answer questions they’re afraid to ask and showcase how your brand abides by the ethics you claim via your website.
How to / step by step content: Dropping tips and gems is great, but actually showing people how to use those tips and gems is even better. Being able to teach your audience how to do something step by step helps them naturally view you as valuable. You will become an invaluable resource once you start teaching people how to complete a task step by step and become more willing to share your routines.
Twist on trends content: Following trends online is a great way to join in on what’s happening in real time. But you know what’s even more creative? Adding your own twist to these trends, it’ll make you more memorable. A great example of this is when a trend starts on tiktok and creators take it and add a new piece to the audio or a new step to the dance. We also see this quite a bit on Twitter, especially during the #Blackhogwarts trend a few years back.

10 tips to figure out what types of content to create

Tip 1: Ask your audience what they want + keep asking even when the response is low.

You have to commit to surveying your audience regularly, no matter what. Also, get creative, don’t just do the same type of survey every single time. Sometimes you can use the tools that the platforms provide and sometimes you should make it a game for your audience so that they don’t know it's a survey. Get creative and try as many methods as possible, take the time to research the different types of surveys too.

Tip 2: Make a list of 25 relevant competitors

Studying your competitors regularly can help you find inspiration you never knew existed. This doesn’t mean you copy them, but you should pay attention what they’re doing, what’s working for them, what strategies they use and the types of responses they’re getting. You can also use Semrush to check how much website traffic your competitors are getting, where it’s coming from, what keywords they’re using and more. Semrush can also help you find common competitors you may not know exist once you create a profile and enter your own site.

Tip 3: Use answerthepublic.com to see what questions are being asked in your niche

When using “answer the public”, you can enter in keywords or phrases and the site will produce a content map. In this map, you’ll see questions people are asking frequently and more relevant topics related to these questions. This tool gives you direct insight and access to what your audience needs and how you can best present it to them.

Tip 4: Use the tool Keywords Everywhere to identify the popularity of certain topics and searches in google

Keywords everywhere is a popular tool for running ads, because it shows you the cost per click (CPC) and popularity of said keywords. Additionally, this tool gives you direct insight into new topics your content should cover, questions your audience has and how you can provide clarity on something your competitors are missing.

Tip 5: Review your analytics, what’s been the most popular content you’ve shared? Why? How can you replicate this experience for your audience?

Take the time to create monthly analytics reports. Download your analytics from social media regularly to fully see what the best types of content are for you, the best times to share content, the impact the types of content you share have on your sales and identify what it takes to replicate these results regularly.

Tip 6: Figure out where the bulk of your followers came from. Why did they follow you? How do you know?

You can use twitter analytics for this, you can go back years at a time to review your content, profile clicks, most engaged post and more. You can also do this with a Facebook business profile. I don’t believe that Instagram made this an option yet, but hopefully they will one day.

Tip 7: Start tracking your content results regularly

You need to create an excel spreadsheet for content tracking. In this excel sheet, you need to document what was shared, when, what time, results are 24 hours, results after 48 hours, engagement, conversions, and any other data relevant to your KPIs and metrics. This is the only way to determine what is effective, what’s not, what can be improved and what you should stop doing altogether.

Tip 8: Go to your customers pages and note what they’re discussing regularly

Regularly visiting your most engaged customers profile pages and paying attention to their struggles and how your brand can positively impact them can be a great way to improve your content. When you start creating personalized content, your responses become significantly higher, as these accounts likely aren’t the only ones struggling, they may just be the only ones admitting it via the internet.

Tip 9: Try to find relevant marketing case studies for your niche

Case studies show you what;s working, why it’s working and who its worked for. You also get a chance to learn about the environmental conditions and tools required to make a process, system or strategy work within your business. Here’s two examples of marketing case studies: How Handles scaled from 0 to 121 locations with Hubspot + How Fractl earned links from 931 unique domains for Porch.com in one year . If you enjoy these case studies and learn something new from them, then you now understand how valuable case studies can be in developing your marketing strategies. Continue looking for them, compiling lists and studying them - they’re free resources your business can use to piece together strategies that already work and exist.

Tip 10: Commit to trying different types of content until you figure out what works best for you.

When you try something new, you should commit to it for 90 days. So, every new strategy, new type of content, new marketing tactics should be tried and documented for 90 days. This is the only way to truly determine if something is meant for you and if it will produce the best results for your brand. Don’t be so quick to give up when you never really gave something a chance to begin with.

The 5 content resource banks you need to create

Content Idea bank: A content idea bank is a centralized location where you brainstorm content topics, concepts, identify their value and the purpose of them. This is an area where you place all of your content ideas, no matter how grand or small they are or what monetary investment they require. You can always come back to this bank later when you acquire more funding or assistance with content creation. Also, keep in mind that brainstorming ideas regularly can help you overcome creative blocks when you genuinely are struggling with creating content. Your content idea bank is a pot of gold if you spend time adding to it weekly or even monthly.

Title bank: If you blog, write books, create freebies, podcast, or create youtube videos regularly, creating a Title bank can save you time when you’re getting ready to publish new projects. A title bank is similar to your content idea bank, except this bank is solely dedicated to a special place for your click worthy titles. This can also help you come up with ideas for your newest content and keep you on your toes for fresh ideas. You can use title generators for blogs, videos and books to get ideas about how to structure titles. You can also compile list of the most popular content out right now in your niche and create titles similar to whats already been published.

Hashtag bank: For platforms where hashtags are important, you want to avoid using more than 5-7 hashtags per post. You also want to make sure that you create hashtag groups for different content pillars. Keeping this information organized is where a hashtag bank can help you, it’s a place where your hashtags are placed in groups and organized by topic so you can just copy and paste them into your captions once you’re ready to post. This can save you time, help you become visible in hashtags and allow you to better track a hashtags effectiveness.

Content strategy bank: content strategies are not one size fits all, especially when you get into cross posting on multiple platforms. The strategies you’d use for twitter are going to look different when you’re ready to share that content for instagram. The same can be said for tiktok, facebook, reddit, quora, and any other platform you plan to prioritize. Having a content strategy bank allows you to see all of your strategies in one place, in case you need a reminder or if you want to tweak your strategies as your account progresses and new platform features are released. Also, even when you’re using one platform, you can have multiple strategies. For example, on instagram, you can have a separate strategy for IG Tv, Going live, Reels, and creating feed post. They may all share the same content, but the frequency they’re shared, the timing, the captions and the hashtags can all differ. That’s how a content strategy bank can help you.

One-liner content bank: Using platforms like facebook, Twitter, and Instagram means that all of your content doesn’t need to be longform. On your IG stories, you can share a graphic that’s one line and get great traction. Since tweets are limited in character count, some of the most popular and highest converting tweets are only one line. To help make sure you mix it up, a one liner content bank gives you a place to organize all of your bite sized content in one place. With this, you can create filler content that’s relevant, on brand, and can potentially increase engagement when used appropriately.

10 tips to repurpose and recycle content

Tip 1: Save all of your highest converting content in a document + links to it

Saving all of your highest converting content in a document with links to it, allows you to ensure you’re replicating this style of content consistently. While you can continue to reshare this specific content, you will now have the opportunity to reshare content that shares similar formats, copy, and call to actions. This better helps you understand what works best for your audience and what will help you meet your sales goals significantly faster.

Tip 2: Save all of your highest engaged content in a document + links to it

Saving all of your highest engaged content in a document with links to it, allows you to go back to it later and add to the subject while also resharing that content again. Every time you return to it, you can drop new gems and tips you’ve learned, share new resources and better showcase your growing expertise. This is especially valuable if you gained a lot of followers from this one piece of content, they will find even more value in an updated version of this with additional resources. You can do this bimonthly or once quarterly and continue doing it as you learn new methods and tricks. If you do this regularly, you will NEVER run out of content and ideas - i guarantee it.

Tip 3: Save all the comments with questions on your content + screenshots of the questions

Saving screenshots of questions means that you can return to these questions when you have time to create content centering them. You can also use these comments in youtube videos, IG carousel posts, blog posts, tiktok videos and more as talking points to show that audience members really do have these questions. This is also a great way to keep your audience engaged and make them an integral part of your content creating strategy regularly.

Tip 4: Commit to continuously learning and building your expertise

Every quarter, you should commit to learning 2-3 new strategies and techniques relevant to what you do. This will keep your content fresh, your audience engaged and also help build your confidence as a business owner and content creator. If you aren’t constantly learning, you’re also only making your business journey harder. There is ALWAYS something you do not know, so you should make it a point to learn as much as you can without becoming overwhelmed. Continuously learning also ensures that you have new things to share with your audience to keep them educated on your industry as well.

Tip 5: Be prepared to turn high demand content subjects into Youtube videos

Outside of being a great way to build a passive stream of income, youtube can be used to create a visual resource library for your audience. By creating youtube videos around high demand topics for your audience, you can also use this as a point of reference for your customers. For example, when you drop a new product you could have a youtube video explaining how to use this product. Now, when people buy it you can create thank you cards with QR codes to take them directly to this video. When people inquire and ask questions, you can also direct them to these videos. Running a youtube channel has more value than just trying to go viral, it is also a great place to share your expertise for audience members who need a bit more visual assistance than short form content via social media can provide.

Tip 6: After recording youtube videos, download the audios and turn them into podcast episodes

The wonderful thing about youtube videos, is that they can also double as podcast episodes. All you need to do is download the audio version of your videos and upload them to a podcast host and now you can get almost twice as many streams + increase platform visibility. Doing this also means your audience will get additional push notifications about your content from Apple podcast, spotify, iheart radio, pandora and where ever else you upload your podcast at. The more organic push notifications your audience gets about your content, the better. They need to see you and your content 24/7 and when you’re putting that value in multiple mediums, they’ll be more likely to consume it.

Tip 7: Use Otter.AI to turn podcast episodes into Blog post

Once you publish your podcast episode, upload the audio files to Otter.AI and now you can turn your audio files into blog posts and articles. This is the easiest way to get blog content regularly because even 10 minute youtube videos produce pretty lengthy blog posts depending on what you’re discussing. Otter does provide a free account and paid version as well + some additional tools. Once you download the file, all you need now is headings and images. Always double check spelling and grammar, then you’re golden.

Tip 8: Regularly use your blog post text snippets as captions and working pieces for tweets

When I create content, I plan for my blog first. The reason being that social media is only a space for me to share bite sized pieces of my longform content. Doing it this way also ensures that I can copy and paste small pieces of my content into captions and tweets, which saves me time throughout the week and money when hiring a social media strategist. I hardly ever sit down to write tweets for twitter anymore because everything I want to share is already pre written and published in my blog.

Tip 9: Don’t always focus on creating new content, sit down weekly to review what you’ve already created and brainstorm how to find new ways to use it.

Learning how to repurpose, recycle and reuse your content will save you so much time long term. If you’re always trying to create fresh content, that’s why you’re stressed out. You need to learn how to use old content in new ways, especially during your busiest times in business, it’s the only way to stay afloat. Also, keep in mind that if you’re growing your following consistent;y, new followers haven’t seen what you shared a week ago, let alone what you shared 3-6 months ago. So, don't ever hesitate to share old content again or find new ways to share old content and apply it to your new campaigns.

Tip 10: Learn how to diversify platform visibility

Your content should be available on as many platforms as possible. Don’t overload yourself but you should try to be visible anywhere you can maintain. This is why I explained how you create youtube videos that can be turned into podcast episodes, and then into blog posts for your website. This content can also be used to create bite sized content for Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter. You can create 40+ pieces of content from one youtube video if you plan it out properly, I go over that in this freebie.

10 Tips to boost engagement with content

Tip 1: Learn how to be social on social media

Social media is for being social, so you can’t just post your content and logoff. ESPECIALLY, when you’re actively trying to grow your platform. You need to engage with others and this means creating a dialogue that sparks interest in starting a conversation with you. This means sharing funny memes to add to the conversation, dropping additional gems to add to the already going conversation, giving compliments and congratulations to your peers, and remaining visible in relevant comment sections. Doing this daily can help you grow overtime, especially if you are engaging with relevant accounts in your niche.

Tip 2: Focus on building an email list and start sending them weekly updates on your content

If you’re not into email marketing, you should be. You can easily grow an email list from all of the platforms you use and then send them weekly content newsletters of what you’ve done on each platform your company is on + invite them to join you. This is a super easy way to keep them engaged and updated on what your company is doing via social media.

Tip 3: Get into SMS marketing and sending them weekly updates on your social media campaigns

Similar to email marketing, you can do the same thing with SMS marketing and the updates can be a bit more frequent here. With SMS marketing, i’d send 2 updates weekly on the type of content you’ve shared via social media. Take it a step further and segment your list based on how they subscribed and then send them personalized updates for the platform they found you on. This can easily be done with an SMS plugin, some are even free for up to1500 sms marketing messages a month.

Tip 4: Join facebook groups dedicated to your niche and that your customers are in and share your value added content here (avoid spamming and sharing sales posts as they’re unlikely to get engagement).

The key to success in facebook groups is to engage as much as you share content. Plenty of facebook groups exist for multiple niches that encourage creators to share content that is helpful, fun and educational. This is a great way to drive traffic to your pages and website. However, don’t just join groups for your niche, go to the groups your ideal customers are in as well. For example, as a marketer you wouldn’t just go to groups about marketing. You’d go to groups about other types of business and look for posts of people complaining about low sales. You’ll see this alot in beauty groups, small business groups, crafting groups and almost any group with hand made products. This is your time to shine, especially directly in comment sections of the post where people are complaining.

Tip 5: Get into the habit of logging in online for 5-10 15 minute increments a day to engage, even when you aren’t sharing your own content.

The key to grow consistently is to engage consistently with your audience. Engaging with your audience on their platforms helps them remember you and get used to seeing your brand on their TL and in their mentions. When you master this, you’ll better understand them as people and not just as customers. You should do this everyday for a couple of hours, but break the hours down into 15 minute increments throughout the day. Doing this allows you to engage with different accounts, different types of content and keeps your feed active for when new people visit your profile.

Tip 6: Make a list of 100 relevant accounts to engage with regularly

Making a list of 100 accounts you engage with regularly, keeps you visible in front of their audiences. If you can get to a point where 100 accounts bigger than yours are speaking with you and sharing you on their timeline regularly, you’re gaining free exposure consistently. These are not accounts owned by large influencers, but instead other small business owners, creatives, your followers and people who share content you genuinely care about. If your ideal customer follows them, then they should be on this list.

Tip 7: Learn how to actually create engaging content

Creating engaging content means that you identify content pillars and clusters. You create things that help your audience, add value to their life, make them laugh and compel them to share what you created. This means you may blog, make videos, make tiktoks, share tweets and more. There is no one way to create engaging content either, but to get started you need to know who you’re talking to, what problem you’re helping them solve, how you’re helping them solve it and what the ideal outcomes are from sharing your content. I go over this more in the How To Create Content Guide.

Tip 8: Start sharing more content that asks your followers to share opinions and talk about themselves

People love talking about themselves, their experiences, their problems and the solutions they’ve found. If you consistently give your audience space to do this, they will. This helps you directly learn more about them and their needs, while also giving you free ideas for more content you can create that you know without a doubt will appeal to them. So, get in the habit of regularly asking them questions relevant to your niche, you’ll be surprised at the answers you recieve.

Tip 9: Prioritize networking to get access to larger and newer audiences

When networking, instead of networking up, try networking laterally. So, instead of pursuing accounts with 100,000 followers, try pursuing accounts with 3,000-20,000 followers instead. You’re significantly more likely to get a response from smaller accounts and they’re also more likely to be excited to engage with you and network as well. This can be especially helpful when you haven’t hit the 1,000 follower mark yet. And considering the average twitter account has 700 followers, this tip is one you should start using immediately.

Tip 10: Accept that it will take time to get the following and engagement that you want.

You will not have 10,000 followers overnight, it’s just unrealistic. You may go viral and get lucky, but even that isn’t guaranteed. You should create content with the expectation to grow consistently, but going viral isn’t something that you can truly determine. Going viral also doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be exposed to your customers because you can go viral and get harassed and bombarded with negativity instead. So, instead of focusing on going viral, start creating content and focusing on connecting with like minded professionals and your target customers. This mindset shift will make you significantly happier and take you a lot further than the latter.

If you finished this article to the end, then be sure to share it on twitter and tag me @Touchedbyty. Let me know what your favorite tip or hack was and if I taught you something new today! Also, comment down below and tell me how this positively impacted you and your business.

As always, I am happy to bully you into success so be sure to come back to twitter and get your regular dose of daily bullying from #TheMarketingBully !

Tags: content Marketing

How to build authentic active social campaigns! (50 tips included)

5 areas of content creation:

15 types of content you can create

So, to help you get started here’s 15 types of content you can create:

10 tips to figure out what types of content to create

The 5 content resource banks you need to create

10 tips to repurpose and recycle content

10 Tips to boost engagement with content

Be the first to comment

Connect With Us

Contact Us

Located