In Craig McBreen’s recent blog entitled Why content marketing will make your small business sexy on businessesgrow.com, he indicates that there seems to be a colossal shift taking place among the purportedly new social media term of content marketing. McBreen states that creating an emotional attachment has become easier than ever due to the current emphasis on social media marketing applications that involves sharing a personal story. It’s not just straight forward advertising of the benefits of your goods and services that attracts followers on your social media presences, but how well you are expressing who you are, what you do and how your values, ethics and actions can make a difference in the lives of your customers!

Mission Statements Have Gone the Way of the Mosaic Browser

In the article, McBreen claims that firms could delve into logistics to analyze traffic; discover which search words are being applied by their customers the most; as well as the highest level of demands for specific content demands… but there is an essential failing in just relying on number-crunching in a successful social media strategy. He believes that telling the story of the brand is critical to winning that all important engagement.

McBreen states that peeling back the layers and discovering the essence of a company in order to make them stand out really rocks. The days of crafting Mission Statements and About Us pages have gone the way of the Mosaic Browser. Now that companies everywhere are relying on social media to draw in their customers, they need to tell a deep and meaningful story about themselves and how they can positively impact the everyday existence of their customers… er… strike that… friends!

Become a Rising Star in the Social Media Firmament

Differentiating your brand is now more feasible than ever, and McBreen believes that content marketing is the key that will unlock the social media gateways for online marketers. The momentous factor in this case is the ability for your company to stand out from the crowd, and he points out the four most important strategies that must be incorporated in any effort to make your business a rising star in the social media firmament.

1. Concentrate on the Content

Establishing a powerful and impactful strategy for content is more important than even maintaining a blog, according to McBreen. He states that micro-content can easily be generated in the form of posting existing PowerPoint slides; reposting social media comments; and even using a digital camera to do brief interviews with interesting people in your industry that you meet – or even going as far as shooting a mini-documentary (or mega-commercial) about something that your customers will find interesting. A caveat needs to be added here that in many cases a poorly (and cheaply) produced video can actually be counter-productive to the online image of your brand, so approach this last suggestion with a very large grain of YouTube salt.

2. Express the Personal Side of Your Brand Identity

Your follower-customers want to deal with companies that they know and trust, and the best way to achieve this level of relationship is to drop the brand façade and show that your company is a team of hard working real people. Supporting acknowledged, relevant charitable associations can help cement that bond.

3. Highlight the People behind the Brand

Every company has various individuals on payroll who are especially knowledgeable about an aspect of the business that is of interest to customers, so shine the light on them! Allowing them to communicate directly to your social media followers and sharing their wisdom and knowledge will attract the throngs who are thirsty for detailed information and insight!

4. Expand Your Evangelist Base from In-House

As you highlight particularly guru-ish staffers, you can also showcase your own personnel to evangelize your brand. You’ll find that not only can they be just as effective as your best follower-advocates, but they can also display your brand from a unique “insider’s” perspective.

Author Bio:

by Hal Licino

Hal Licino is a leading blogger on HubPages, one of the Alexa Top 120 websites in the USA. Hal has written 2,500 HubPage articles on a wide range of topics, some of which have attracted upwards of 135,000 page views a day. His blogs are influential to the point where Hal single-handedly forced Apple to retract a national network iPhone TV commercial and has even mythbusted one of the Mythbusters. He has also written for major sites as Tripology, WebTVWire, and TripScoop.