Blast Your Social Media from OK to Outstanding With Content Categories (Part 1)

This is part one of a two-part blog series covering the benefits of content categories, and how easy it is to implement them in SmarterQueue. Jump to Part Two here

 

When you’re adding content, it can be a pain to set a date for each post so that your different types of content are evenly spread out. Wouldn’t it be great to just add all your content to a categorised library, choose the best time for each category, and let it do the rest?

Enter content categories in SmarterQueue.

When your posts are categorised into separate libraries, you can be sure that you’re sharing the right mix of posts. SmarterQueue’s analytics let you understand the best times to post from each category, meaning your followers are always receiving relevant content. Categories mean you save time AND increase engagement. What’s not to love?

The 80:20 Rule

According to the Pareto Principle, in most cases, 20% of the work generates 80% of the reward. Your social media profiles should reflect this ratio as well.

When applying this idea to social media, this means that 80% of your return comes from 20% of your content. This 20% should be promoting your business, while the remaining 80% is value-added content that your audience will find both interesting and relevant.

Value-added posts are most likely to take the form of articles written by thought leaders, influencers or experts on the topics that your audience is most interested in. The goal of these posts is to inform, educate, or even entertain.

Twitter post showing value-added content
A value-added post

Promotional content is self-explanatory. This content exists to promote your brand or your products and services. Self-promotional posts might promote product features or benefits, including links to your website, or may direct your audience to a special deal.

Twitter post showing promotional content
A promotional post

Content categories in SmarterQueue allow you to separate your content into value-added and promotional. Then, you can quickly check your content ratio to ensure that every post achieves its strategic goal.  

Content ratios in SmarterQueue

Post Smarter with Content Categories

What’s more, content categories also let you separate content based on WHAT to post and WHEN, to increase your chance of posting something useful at the right time.

Create a content category for longer articles to share when your audience has more time to read. Organise your inspirational posts into a separate category to share on Mondays. Take part in Twitter’s daily hashtags, like #mondaymotivation and #throwbackthursday by creating categories for each, to post on the day in question.

Now that your content is efficiently categorised, look to your analytics in SmarterQueue to find your best posting time. With this information in hand, you can schedule each category at its unique optimal time. For example, if you know your customers buy more on Mondays, schedule the majority of your promotional content to post then.

SmarterQueue's Category Analytics
SmarterQueue’s Category Analytics

Ditch the Content Spreadsheet

Many social media managers already use content calendars to organise the what and when of their social media strategy. However, it is hugely time-consuming to create a spreadsheet every week. Creating your content and imagery, setting time slots, and uploading this into your scheduling tool can take hours!

Add timeslots to your SmarterQueue schedule

In SmarterQueue, scheduling is as easy as drag-and-drop. Select a content category, choose the profile(s) to post to, then drag your timeslot onto your preferred day and time.

(Part 2 of this blog will explain how to organise your categories and set up scheduling in SmarterQueue).

The SmarterQueue Difference

Of course, recycling evergreen content is a smart idea for anyone using social media. But, not every post can – or should – be posted multiple times.

This is where SmarterQueue stands out. Other category-based social media tools require you to choose whether a category will contain evergreen posts or one-time posts. This design limits the benefits of a calendar, forcing you to duplicate your schedule for one-time posts and evergreen.

In SmarterQueue your content categories and schedule offer maximum flexibility; you can decide for each individual piece of content whether it will be evergreen or one-time. Fill the same category with both one-time and evergreen posts without having to use separate schedules.

Evergreen settings in SmarterQueue

Wrap Up

SmarterQueue’s content categories allow you to visually organise your posts and optimise your schedule to achieve the perfect mix of content that your audience wants to see. It really is the easiest way to do social media. Properly.

The second part of this post covers how to set up a schedule using your content categories in SmarterQueue. Check it out now!

Courtney Apps

Courtney Apps is a business owner, MBA, and never met a dessert she didn’t like. She is the owner of Upstream Digital, which specializes in web design, branding, and social media for small business. She lives in North Vancouver, BC.