Developing & Sharing Content
Although there are many aspects to creating an attractive and successful online presence, content can really make or break a brand and set them apart from the rest. Content can take a brand from boring to exciting, from irrelevant to relatable, and from mediocre to stellar. Content can be expressed in many different ways through a brand’s social media. Oftentimes, content is created from images, videos, gifs, articles, captions, blogs, and other media outlets. However, at the heart of each piece of content development, lies the principles of the consumer. When creating content, the consumer’s values must always be at the center of the development; if the content isn’t reflecting what the consumer and potential consumer want to see and what they find attractive, then the content can be more negative to the brand than positive. Content must always be relevant, clear, attention-grabbing, and attractive. It is often best to brainstorm content and implement smaller content pieces first to evaluate how consumers react to it. Content should produce an emotion for the consumers that connects them to the brand, whether it be a feeling of loyalty, excitement, inspiration, or more. Content should also remain consistent from piece to piece. Inconsistent content can confuse, frustrate, and can distrust within the company’s perceived reputation. For example, when Reebok changed their logo content, they received a lot of negative feedback on how the change in content affected the brand recognition and overall image of the brand because it did not remain consistent with past content. Here is the original and redesigned logo:
Producing good content also means posting relevant content and knowing the difference between what’s appropriate and what’s not, when is good timing for content, and what the trends are and what they mean. For example, in 2014, DiGiorno, a popular frozen pizza brand, realized the twitter hashtag #WhyIStayed was trending and quite popular. So, before researching, the brand used the hashtag to tweet a clever tweet about pizza:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/digiornos-pizza-whyistayed-tweet_n_5790504
Little did they know that the hashtag was a serious hashtag intended for victims/survivors of domestic violence to tell their story and empower one another. This lack of relevance, poor timing, and failure to research trends made DiGiorno look heartless and careless. It also did not resonate well with followers or potential followers.
Being a social organization has everything to do with the principles of effective content design and sharing. As a social organization, you are in control of your content and how it effects your brand image; therefore, you are in control of creating content that resonates with your following, attracts new following, engages your community, and inspires others to take action. This means knowing when is the best time to post content for your followers, what kind of content best suits your followers, what kind of content your followers engage and interact with most, which of your previous content pieces worked and what did not, and what are current content trends.