Social media is increasingly becoming a tool for businesses to use for marketing and promotional activities as well as pushing out relevant content for existing and potential customers. It seems a natural place for businesses to explore since social media is as effective a way to reach consumers as television, radio, newspapers and company websites. The habitual use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others is currently at 71 million Americans and is only expected to increase throughout the coming years.

The growth of mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablet computers) continues to grow and dominate the way in which the internet and social media websites are accessed, particularly by younger consumers. Over a ten-year period (2003 – 2013) the number of traditional media users (TV and radio) have grown 11% and 9% respectively while internet usage has increased 30% and broadband users by 452% in the same period. Wi-Fi and smartphone users, not even measurable in 2003, will drive the future of media.

Understand the Power of Multiple Marketing Platforms  
In order to capitalize on the growing power and influence social media has on content marketing, you have to understand what is available and how it is used. Many businesses fall into a belief that posting a few occasional “tweets” on Twitter or updating a Facebook page constitutes social networking. If this is the case, you need to rethink your take on social media marketing and its importance in getting your message out.

When you work to create content necessary to market your products and/or services you have to think big in your approach. This means you have to go where the people are and move from a myopic to broader view of available platforms.

You Have to “Pay to Play”  
Getting content on more than one media platform requires you to adopt a “pay to play” attitude. For example, Facebook provides a facility that can take your postings and turn them into broadcast ad that can reach a specific audience and number of Facebook users based on your budget. These types of social media campaigns are becoming more common as posts and page updates on social media is being viewed as one of the top communication forms for marketers.

Your ability to capitalize on social media marketing doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your current media approaches. It requires a reprioritization of your dollars and efforts to fully take advantage of social media as a tool for your content marketing efforts.

Create a Strategy for Social Media Success  
With a better understanding of social media and the potential to add to your bottom line as well as your need to broaden your approach of your content marketing efforts, creating content for social media begins with a game plan. You need to adopt a strategy for social media content marketing success that begins with defining which platforms reach the types of customers you want and moving on from there.

Once you have created a plan, you can hire a Writer from Content Runner to produce it for you. This will afford you free time to manage other tasks. Having your social media content written and scheduled ahead of time will  ensure that your readers and followers are supplied with all the latest news about your business; and hiring a Writer through Content Runner will ensure that the content produced is concise, well written and exactly what your business needs to secure a loyal following.

Content written for social media platforms should conform to the style and content rules respective of the platform. Use of the tinyurl in Twitter, as an example, is a great way to get beyond the 140 character limitation on the site and direct traffic to your content. Harnessing the power of social media to create a multi-dimensional content marketing approach is what you should  be looking to accomplish.