It is not a new sight to see businesses all over social media nowadays. Social media has become more effective and budget-friendly marketing place in this era. Why is it more effective? With billions of daily active users and features to target the right audience, it is easier to reach people on social media than go door-to-door handing out brochures to strangers without getting any feedback or result. However, if you are a business owner, with the rise of social media use for business, you should already be aware that you are not the only one using social media for your business – your competitors in the same industry may do the same too. This can be quite a pain in the neck if you don’t act fast, but don’t worry; there will always be more ways to overcome this. After all, marketing is an endless game that will keep evolving and improving as time goes by. In today’s article, I’m going to share with you something that may help you ‘reinforce’ your social media content strategy in order to compete with your competitors. After conducting some research on social media, I have come up with a strategy to rethink social media content strategy using customer behaviour and good cause approach. How? Keep reading this article to find out!

Understanding customer behaviour and its relation to content

First, before using this approach, you need to understand deeply about your customer behaviour and why it is important for your content strategy. What does ‘behaviour’ mean in this context? It is the way your target audience uses social media platforms and their purpose of using them. Let’s say they are using Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. Now let’s break down their purposes of using those social media platforms:

Facebook: Communicating and discovering

Facebook Messenger: Communicating and bonding

Snapchat: Interacting and bonding

Instagram: Bonding and discovering

YouTube: Discovering and taking action

Twitter: Discovering and interacting (which leads to bridging)

Now that we have their purposes, let’s go to the next part…

Identify your content categories

When doing this research, I have categorised important content types into several parts.

Identity:

• The type of content that reflects who someone sees themselves as
• The type of content that depicts who someone wants to be
• The type of content that is related to someone’s hobbies or personal interests

Information and purposes:

• Educational content
• Information, news and events
• Tutorials

Emotional content:

• Humour content
• Sympathetic content
• Motivational content

This step is done to understand what type of content performed best for the behaviours on social media I have mentioned above. Now that we’ve got content categories arranged well. Let’s go to the next step!

Elaborate how content works

From what we have gained above, let me elaborate how content works. On social media, content may evoke reactions from those who view it. Instagram, for example, is a place to communicate, interact and share bonds with friends; therefore, many people on Instagram like content that is entertaining and related to their hobbies and their interests. Humorous content is also advisable if used on Instagram. The same approach also applies to Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. When it comes to funny, useful and valuable content, people are enthusiast to share with their friends. However, not all social media platforms can hold the same value. YouTube, for example, is a place where people discover things, but not fully and necessarily communicating. People usually go to YouTube to look for information, tutorials, news and events. When they have gotten enough information or found what they were looking for, they will take action about it. I, for one always look for information on YouTube before I visit a restaurant or buy something. For example, when I want to purchase lipsticks online, I will always go to YouTube first to find a video where I can see that lipstick swatch before I actually purchase it to make sure the colour matches with my lips.

Social media is a place where everyone shares with each other. Aside from businesses, social media can also be used for non-profit organisation where people can share kindness and awareness for a good cause. Depending on how we want to use it, social media can make or break your brand. Therefore, make sure you create and choose content wisely.