Do you know what type of content works and why?

We’ve been working on this for a while. Helping people to understand what types of content are most effective at engaging their audience and spreading their message (and of course delivering a business ROI). We have found that within content, there’s like a Maslow’s hierarchy in terms of what’s easy/basic and what needs more work but provides the greatest benefit (to both the publisher and the readers).

We have tested this (initially) on our own behaviours and then rolled this out with our corporate clients and individuals that we have been mentoring with their social media.

In the low-value B2C space, selling trainers, wallets, clothes, social selling probably isn't the answer. Consumers make decisions based on brand, lifestyle, fashions etc but in the complex B2B world of highly considered purchases social selling almost certainly is the answer and how you publish, what you publish and where you publish it is a cornerstone of this and we have seen this hold true in every instance.

Whether it’s enterprise software companies selling £250k+ projects or SME consultants selling time & materials, for people with huge networks and for people with small networks, for people who are young and old…it always works. This hierarchy always holds true.

This doesn’t mean that if I publish a personal post it will necessarily outperform your business post…but what it does mean is that my personal post will ALWAYS outperform my business post as will yours.

1. ADVERTISING.The lowest level of value (and often the highest cost) is advertising. Promoting a post, buying in to someone’s newsfeed gains little traction (and requires little effort, change or commitment).
2. OWNED MEDIA. Posting content about your business on your business’s owned media (profiles) requires no trust, engagement or empathy and that’s why even large audiences seldom engage with the content (except for staff or interested parties).
3. CAMPAIGNS/CO-BRANDING. This places your content on another brand’s profile which may introduce you to a new audience in theory. The reality is that the audience isn’t listening to the corporate profile most of the time so it won’t be seen.
4. ADVOCACY. This is more like it. Getting your staff (or friends) to share your content on their own personal profiles is usually much more effective than paid or owned media. This is because you have a huge amount of credibility with your friends and family.
5. AUTHORING. When you as an individual share your own created content about what you do and what you company does it gives your friends an insight in to your working life…and usually they are pretty interested in this. It must be YOU speaking though as your friends know you and will spot if someone else has written it. However, your friends are less interested in your job than they are in you.
6. HUMANISING. This is where you as an individual tell your story. Here’s what I love, here’s how I feel, here’s what matters to me…this is always the best way to engage an audience and get them to read and believe what you say. People buy people.

The reason getting engagement maters is because it enables your message to spread beyond your immediate connections. Just look at your own newsfeed, it will be crammed with things from people you’re not connected to because people you are connected to have engaged with those posts. This is exactly what will happen to you when you manage to engage your audience.