Content

In Social Media Marketing, Content is King. There are so many different content types that it would be impossible to list them all.  Instead, I have segmented content by whether it is Produced or Spontaneous, and whether it is created by Internal or External resources.

• Produced Content is  professionally  created content by Internal resources like your marketing department, or External resources like your agency, your customers, or your partners.  Much of this content will be generated by your “traditional marketing”  team and can be leveraged as part of integrated campaigns.
• Spontaneous Content is typically created “on the fly” and is typically more informal. Spontaneous Content can be created Internally or Externally.

Since Social Media Marketing is so content intensive and requires “fresh” content, an editorial calendar can be very useful to ensure a steady stream of compelling info.

Examples

Produced Content:

• Press Releases using a Social Marketing PR Template
• Messaging & Positioning Templates
• White Papers
• Analyst Reports
• Product Demo Videos
• Product Images
• Product Performance Benchmarks
• Blog post written as part of a editorial calendar
• Competitions / Contests started with produce content
• Wiki Entries (e.g. Wikipedia) or Directory Entries (i.e. category specific or general)

Spontaneous Content:

• Blog posts (your blogs)
• Message Board  posts
• Blog comments (other blogs + responses to comments on yours)
• Google SideWiki comments
• Q&A postings
• Ad hoc customer videos (e.g. at a tradeshow or in the street)
• Product reviews
• Competitions / Contests sustained with produce content
• Tweets or Retweet of an interesting article
• Customers sharing images of your products online