9 Content Marketing Tips From Shareable Brands

There are numerous ways a brand can encourage more shares on social media. The smart brands understand the value of brand storytelling since the public is always hungry for a good story to share. In our previous blog post entitled, Social Advertising and the Selfie Brand, we discussed the dangers of being a brand that fails to provide value to their audience by their seemingly self-absorbed social media branding efforts. If a brand focuses their attention on a content marketing strategy that provides branded content on social media which either entertains, engages, educates, or all three, today’s social media audience will be more likely to share that content. There are numerous examples out there of companies who truly understand how to properly manage their social media for business. Here are examples of some of those brands and nine content marketing tips to help make your brand’s story more conducive to sharing as part of your overall social media marketing strategy:  

Content Marketing Tip #1: Display Company Culture

Over the years, Southwest Airlines as a brand has become synonymous with stellar customer service and a positive company culture to match. It is by no surprise that they love to give their hardworking employees shout-outs on social media. This is one of those content marketing tips which can sometimes be challenging for brands to showcase on a regular basis. Those brands like Southwest displaying company culture correctly and consistently reap the rewards of passenger loyalty.

Content Marketing Tip #2: Express Your Brand Personality

Every brand has a personality, but some brands are just better than others at expressing it. When one thinks about the company, Intel, which attributes come to mind? Innovative? Intelligent? Visionary? It would be too easy and cliché to showcase a bunch of shiny Intel computer chips or laptop computers on social media. Intel decided to express some of their creativity through a tweet featuring another quick-witted, creative visionary by the name of William Shakespeare. The tweet received over one-thousand retweets and favorites combined. Out of all the content marketing tips we could share, expressing your brand personality should be near the top of your list.

Content Marketing Tip #3: Promote Good Causes

From a PR standpoint, it is always vitally important that a company associates itself with good social causes. It is equally important from a branding standpoint to make sure that these social causes align well with the attributes important to the brand. Honda and their partnership with the Do Not Text and Drive campaign is a prime example of the importance of having brand alignment with a social cause.

1 in 5 teens will text while driving. This phone wallpaper will remind you to stop. http://t.co/v17AyNlJ8Q pic.twitter.com/nBikQOuct1

— Honda (@Honda) April 28, 2014

Content Marketing Tip #4: Share Customer Success Stories and Testimonials

There is no better place to gain credibility and get validation from happy customers than by marketing through social media. For many brands, such as Weight Watchers, getting a conversation started on social media is an extremely important way to get eyeballs focused on their brand rather than the deluge of competitors in their space. Posting success stories like Weight Watchers frequently do on their Facebook page has been very effective for client retention and the recruitment of new prospects. Who doesn’t love to share a happy ending? Testimonials require a great deal of behind the scenes coordination to execute compared to some of the other content marketing tips. In the end, it will all be worth the effort by the brand.

Content Marketing Tip #5: Demonstrate Your Brand Creativity

Oreo has been producing some of the most creative and interesting content marketing over the years. In the following video found on YouTube, Oreo introduces us to an imaginative world where the inspiration behind their creme filling comes from. The Oreo brand uses social media to express the creativity of their brand, attracting a wide-ranging demographic with their fun and nostalgic creative content. Content marketing tips requiring a creative team to produce high-level, sophisticated content can be challenging for brands lacking an internal creative team or agency assistance. Companies that can showcase their creativity like Oreo have a much easier time keeping their social media community engaged and interested in the brand on a daily basis.

Content Marketing Tip #6: Use Your Brand as a Vehicle to Educate

Lowe’s produces these 6-second DIY Vine videos which show how to recycle/repurpose simple household products into brilliant ideas for the home. For instance, the following Vine video uses stop-motion to illustrate how an ordinary cupcake pan has the potential to make better flowers than they do actual cupcakes.

Cupcake pans: great for making cupcakes, even better for making flowers. #Vine #lowesfixinsix https://t.co/k3WLkzbHUj — Lowe’s (@Lowes) April 17, 2014

Content Marketing Tip #7: Provide Brand Inspiration

There is no better example of a brand that understands the new age of advertising then Red Bull. They recognized early on the benefits of thinking and acting like a media publisher. Red Bull is now a content marketing machine with a full content marketing empire. Due to the brand’s relentless commitment to their content marketing strategy, Red Bull has transcended their energy drink category and the extreme sports arena it sponsors and has become the epitome for living the courageous life on the edge. Each and every day on social media, the brand is inspiring ordinary people to strive for more and athletes to reach for greatness.

Content Marketing Tip #8: Show Behind the Scenes of Your Brand

Ever wonder how your favorite ice-cream is made? Ben and Jerry’s takes away some of that mystery through Instagram video by taking their fans on an inside tour of their Flavor Lab and showing the process of mixing, chopping and blending their way to a pint of frozen goodness. Allowing your customers behind the scenes is a great way to get people thinking about your brand, talking about your brand, and ultimately, placing your brand at the forefront of their consideration set when faced with a purchase opportunity.

Content Marketing Tip #9: Showcase Brand Sponsored Events

Chipotle is a brand that has been a true trailblazer when it comes to producing great content. Chipotle shares photos and videos from many of the community events they sponsor across the country. Not only does such content serve to promote the events themselves, but have been great vehicles to raise awareness of the Chipotle message of healthy eating, community, and understanding where your food comes from. Chipotle’s annual Cultivate Festival is a great example of the brand bringing the public together with good eating, music, farmers, and chefs.

How effective is your brand’s content marketing efforts? Are you producing branded content worthy of a conversation? Are your fans and followers sharing your content? If your content is not getting shared, it is very possible that your content has not been providing true value to your social media community.

If you are interested in learning additional content marketing tips, we encourage you to reach out to our social media agency, ImagiBrand, where we will work closely with you on developing your brand story and/or daily social media management services to make sure that story is heard and seen every day on social media.