You’ve just published a piece of content that, in your humble opinion, is pure genius! The information is great, the graphics are off-the-chart gorgeous—the thing is an informational and aesthetic masterpiece; and undoubtedly it will generate large numbers of leads and even larger sales.
But as time goes by and website visits don’t skyrocket, some doubt creeps in. You begin to wonder if the content wasn’t that stellar afterall. In fact, you convince yourself of that “fact” and start thinking about how you’ll need to adjust the next piece you release.
Stop right there! Before you go making a bunch of unnecessary course corrections, you should first take a few minutes to determine whether the problem is poor content or poor targeting. In many cases, it will be the latter. You see, content can be better suited for either search purposes or social media purposes. Understanding why you would create one type of material or the other can be key to your content marketing success.
Search vs. Social Content
When it comes to maximizing consumption of your materials, there are essentially two types: search content and social content.
Search content
Search content is created with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. Its goal is to rank highly in a Google search because not only does a top organic ranking increase your chances of being found, but it also creates the perception of your content—and by extension your company and your offerings—as high quality. Search content should be keyword rich, designed to engage and educate your target personas, and be as “evergreen” as possible.
Social content
Social media content is designed to be shared on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Its goal is to get attention and introduce new audiences to your organization and to your products and services. Social content tends to have a much shorter lifespan - just a few days in most cases. It should be eye-catching, interesting, and easy to share.
Using the Right Success Metrics
The key difference between these two types of content is the type of action they are capable of driving. Search content is meant for people who are looking for information related to something of direct and immediate interest to them—a product or service of some kind. When well-crafted, search content can drive people into, or further down, your sales funnel. Consequently, measures of its effectiveness can include things like form fills, downloads, emails, phone calls, etc.
Social content, on the other hand, is meant for people who are most often looking to be entertained. Of course there can be an element of education in there as well; if nothing else, a consumer has been taught that your company exists. But in general, it’s about entertainment. As a result, the success of a piece of social media content should NOT be measured in terms of leads generated. Likes, retweets, follows, and sharing are the stats you should be looking at.
Getting Your Content Ducks in a Row
There’s a whole science to designing inbound marketing content around the consumer’s intent. If you’re attempting to drive leads with social content or create a social buzz with search content, you’re likely to be disappointed.
As a leading Colorado content marketing agency and Hubspot Partner that’s been helping people connect with their target audience for more than two decades, we have an in-depth understanding of what it takes. If you’ve got questions about your inbound marketing strategy, we’d love to talk with you.
