Seven Success Factors for Results-Driven Content in Social Media

Communicating with the right audience is the foundation for achieving great results on social media. But what exactly you communicate is also a crucial factor for success. In this article, we explore some success factors and considerations for result-driven content.

As with anything else, you need a plan for your content before you start creating. Take insights from our Art Director, Totte Annerbrink’s, best practices for success.

1. Relevance, timing, and timeliness are important factors

To get high engagement from your audience, create relevant content and communication on social media while staying “up-to-date” with the message conveyed - keep trends, global events, seasons, and holidays in mind. A clear example is Dbjourney, who, following the world news about the container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, published a post on Instagram engaging followers by writing “Dreadful blockage… This is the last time we let our intern drive the delivery boat. D_b_ name a new boat name below #dbjourney”.

2. Test your content over a longer period

A lot of the content you create needs to be tested over time to understand what works well and what doesn't. An example is music, which can yield different results at different tempos. You can test a music track with 110 bpm (beats per minute) or 80 bpm across two ads to evaluate which tempo people interact with more, and continue with that tempo. Be bold in trying new creative approaches according to your resources and budget so you can develop your content, which is key to results in today's changing media landscape.

3. Highlight messages in the content text

Your customers are exposed to between 6,000-10,000 messages per day, and the average attention span is 1.7 seconds on social media. Your ads often have more than one message. Therefore, you should break them down and possibly highlight your key words with a strong color or small movements for added effect that makes it stand out. This also makes your content easier to consume, allowing your messages to capture your audience's attention. We remember only 10% of what we read and 30% of what we see. If you then want the audience to click through to your website, highlight and clarify your call-to-action.

4. Recycle your content on social media

Be smart with your resources by reviewing your existing material to see what can be reused. Creating new content takes time and resources. Translating material you've previously created allows you to easily reduce both cost and time, enabling more creativity for producing more varied content. If you face a tight deadline, you can reformat old infographics with new data or use a split-screen to convert existing material into a new format.

5. Separate your communication based on the product

If you have multiple products tailored to different knowledge levels or people, it's recommended to separate the content as these are targeted to different audiences. You can still use the same core idea and create different ads. Work with different tempos, colors, and music to create two entirely different feels. If you have a longer clip, break it into several short sequences to make the content easier to consume.

6. Test new channels in your media mix

It's challenging to know which channel works best for your content, so you should test your audience. Each social media user has an average of 8 accounts used daily. Your audience may interact with your content in different ways depending on the platform, as they use them for different purposes. Say they start the day scrolling through their Instagram feed on their way to work and click on LinkedIn with their first coffee at work. At lunchtime, they search Pinterest for inspiration for a new lamp for the living room, and so on. View your media mix as a game board and see how they work together. We’re getting more data than ever now, so ensure you can measure your data to learn your audience's user behavior and be where the audiences are.

7. Work with large elements

You have 1.7 seconds to capture your audience's attention, and visual effects can help you maintain engagement with your audience. To stand out among other ads on social media, experiment and dare to use bold colors, enlarged words, zoomed-in details in the image, and effective music.

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