How to fill (the ever growing) Social Media content funnel

Creating content for a multitude of social media platforms is always challenging for brands, whether you’re a large corporation or a local shop. Often, even small companies are on at least three platforms — and most of these platforms offer several different formats: text, stills, reels, shorts, shopping, and more.

Navigating all these formats — plus the expectation that you post at least once a day — can feel overwhelming. Here are my top tips for adding quality content to the funnel:

Start with employees

Do you have a co-worker who wears or uses your products in a fun or creative way? Anyone who can teach customers how to use your product or give a peek into how it’s made? Someone with expertise who could provide thought leadership for your industry?

Nobody knows your product better than the people who contribute to its success everyday. Here’s how to turn your coworkers into content creators:

• Keep an eye out for folks who want to contribute. You can ask in both large and small ways: from an all-company Slack message calling for talent to one-on-one conversations where you ask, “What’s exciting you these days…?”
• Have them sign a waiver for any social content they create that’s published by your company. Signing once can cover all social media content, and this ensures that you don’t have to remove that content if the employee leaves the company.
• Of course, it’s important that employees don’t appear to be customers. But that doesn’t mean you need to write a boring disclaimer. To make it clear, start a video with “Here at company name…I get excited about….” or “So excited about our new…”
• Always make sure their manager is okay with the time they spend creating content.

Nurture brand ambassadors (aka customers who love your brand)

I love UGC (user-generated content) for its authenticity and breadth of representation. You can show how real customers of all ages, locations, and ethnicities use your product. Here are my pro tips for sourcing UGC:

• You can repost content from anyone who posts with @yourcompany. Always give credit and link to their account. Most people post @ to get a company’s attention, so chances are they will be delighted!
• If you have a low cost of goods product, surprise them with a free product or discount. Always do this if you plan to boost the post or use it as an ad. If you’re going to make money off of a customer’s content, always ask permission and give them a reward.
• The next level is to request content from your most socially active customers. You can create a Facebook group, invite interested customers to join, and ask for content there. Or you can use a brand ambassador platform, like Brandbassador or another top platform. These tools allow your customers to create and repost your content and earn points or cash for completing “tasks.” Ambassador programs are amazing amplifiers and can help fill out content calendars for platform-specific content. Just ask for Tiktoks, Pins, YouTube shorts or whatever your specific need is, and customers who are active on those platforms can create content.

Bring in influencers

Influencers are great for reach, high-quality content, and authentic representation. There are three ways to engage an influencer: reach out and work directly with them, use a self-serve platform, or opt for a fully managed solution. I’ve done all three, and the benefits of using a platform is that they manage the contracting and payments, which can be very cumbersome.

• Originally, brands started using influencers for reach. They had lots of followers, which meant marketers could introduce their brand from a trusted source. If reach is your goal, make sure the influencer’s following is highly engaged and matches your target demographic. Good influencer platforms will show you if there were any spikes in follower growth (which could be a red flag that they purchased followers). It will also highlight the location, gender, age, and even interests of their followers.
• If your goal is quality content, there are so many wonderful content creators to work with at all different price points. With ambassadors, you can’t call all the shots on content, but with an influencer you can request something very specific. For example, if you have an outdoor product and they are known for their travel photos and videos, ask for something active. I’ve hired cookie decorators, DIY experts, mountain bikers, stylists, and more. to create amazing content.
• If you’re going to post content about specific topics or holidays, it’s important that you have authentic representation. For Black History Month, you could hire a Black artist. For Pride campaigns, hire well-known LGBTQI+ influencers to create content or be a guest poster. But don’t make the mistake of only hiring these representatives during certain occasions. Extend their contributions so you’ve got diverse and inclusive content all year long. For kids’ products, hire family influencers to showcase how your product is used by children and parents. And if you have a young marketing team, hire some influencers over 50 to show breadth of appeal.

Keep in mind with all the content you need to create and the short shelf life of content, you don’t need to be on every social media platform. Even large brands are starting to limit the number of platforms they’re on.

Make sure you’re focusing on the right platforms for your target customers, that will help you reach your goals. Hopefully this has given some places to start when filling your content funnel.guides.