YOUR SECRET WEAPON FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

Before you read any further, try this quick experiment. Go to YouTube, type in “how-to” and hit enter. You’ll be inundated with a glut of videos ranging from every imaginable topic. This is to illustrate how incredibly popular “how-to” videos, blog posts and articles have become on the internet.

“How-Tos” have something in common, they are useful. Thinking in terms of “usefulness” can be a powerful tool for improving your social media strategy. Being useful to your audience is a simple way to ensure that you’re doing the most important thing when it comes to social media success, providing value. 

Value for Value

Even if you’re giving your content away for free, it’s important to remember that the audience is paying for it with their time and attention. In return for that time and attention you’d better provide them with value or they won’t be a return customer!

Something I (this post was written by social media strategist – Steve Kandray) come across regularly on Twitter and Facebook is opinion posts and sales promotions. While both of these types of posts have a place in social media strategy, they are generally used far too frequently.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to use a normal post idea as inspiration for a “useful” post. For example, instead of posting “What’s your favorite cocktail? ” with a picture of a good looking drink you can create or find an article about places that make great cocktails nearby, or create an infographic that shows how different cocktails are concocted.

A few years ago we came across a video from Kimpton Hotels that was a “how-to” about in-room workouts. It’s a perfect example of “useful” content. Rather than just posting about their hotel’s workout facility or asking about what types of fitness people are into, Kimpton went the “usefulness” route and gave their audience value.

Usefulness Checklist

Here are some questions to help you get into a “usefulness” state of mind.

1) What can you teach your audience?

2) What do you know about your product that your audience doesn’t know? 

3) What knowledge do you have that you may be taking for granted. 

 

Like anything else,  “usefulness” shouldn’t be the only tactic in your social media arsenal, sometimes it make sense to be informative or entertaining. Adopting a usefulness mentality takes some extra effort, but after you get the hang of it, your social media results will speak for themselves!