GOLDEN RATIO FOR SOCIAL MEDIA: HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

August 07, 2021 | Fox Tales

Let’s face it- social media marketing in 2021 can be a challenge! It might look easy (everybody spends so much time on Instagram anyway, right? How hard can it be?) but trying to stand out from the clutter, keeping up with competition, and monitoring and posting about changing trends can be exhausting. Tackling social media for your brand or business can be hard. Whether you want to increase followers on your page, generate leads for sales, or simply create awareness for your brand, having a clear strategy for the content you post on social media is very important! To make it easier for you, we’re happy to share an easy, implementable formula to help you plan your content strategy for your social media pages- the 30/60/10 rule.

The 30/60/10 rule a guideline that outlines the perfect blend of the type of content that brands should be posting on social platforms. It is a social media marketing technique that can help you maximize your social media impact by leveraging engaging content, sharing information from non-competitive businesses within your industry, and promoting your own products and services.

According to the 30/60/10 principle, your social media content should be distributed in the following ratio:

30% of your content should be owned by your brand or business,

60% should be curated by content,

and the remaining 10% should be self-promotion which features a call-to-action for your audience to act upon.

Here’s what you need to know:

30% Owned Content — Owned content refers to content created by your brand where you are not directly selling anything to your audience. Owned content can include any content you create and publish on your own and is a good way to showcase your brand personality. What is your brand story? What’s the purpose behind your product? Why is your service beneficial to customers? What should your audience know about your brand? All this content can be clubbed under owned content. It should account for about 30% of all your social media content, and needs to be authentic to your brand tone, voice, and personality!

You might be wondering why owned content isn’t taking up a huge chunk of your strategy. The reason is that you don’t want to make your brand look “self-absorbed”.  You want to keep your audiences engaged, and if you ONLY speak about yourself, you are limiting your growth potential and risk losing your customers attention.

60% Curated Content — Curated content means posting material that is not created by your brand but collected from other sources. Curated content includes articles, listicles, videos, memes, or other content relevant to your industry or product that your audience would find valuable. Since curated content makes up more than half of your social media presence (according to the 30-60-10 rule), you need to make sure that the content you share is relevant to your specific audience. It should be useful and insightful- providing real value to your target audience.

This is your chance to show that you know your audience and understand what they need, positioning yourself as a knowledgeable, helpful source of information.

The end goal to posting so much curated content is to position your brand as the beacon of your industry. By posting this kind of content early and often, you can create an environment where your followers can see that your brand is an authority on the topic at hand.

10% Self-Promotion — The last 10% is the most important part of your social media strategy, and the part that you probably want to post about the most- self-promotion. This type of content includes actually “selling” your product or service to your audience directly. It should include a clear call-to-action and highlight your offerings clearly. Sale announcements, product posts, deals, free trials, instant quotes- all these self-promotion tactics should make up this part of your content strategy.

The nice part about this portion of the content strategy is that the “digital ask” to your audience will not feel as awkward and ‘salesy’ if you’ve been building trust and credibility from your audience using the first two parts of the strategy! Use the remaining 10% to unabashedly promote your brand and products to your audience! As always, remember to remain true to your brand voice and tone.

That’s the golden ration of social media marketing for you! Using this 30-60-10 technique, you can create a content strategy for your brand that works and keeps your audience engaged. With the rapid rise in social advertising, members of the audience sometimes adopt the “ad-skipping” mindset while on social media- where they skim over anything that is too promotional. Therefore, brands now must be more intentional about adding value to their audience’s lives through the content they post on social media. By using this principle, you can begin to build trust in your brand that can be leveraged for that 10% of self-promotional content.

Remember, social media is a marathon, not a sprint because building trust takes consistency and time. Using this blend of owned, curated, and promotional content for your brand can help you get ahead in this marathon!

(The Author of this article is Nikita D’Souza, Sr. Social Media Manager, Bombay Fox)