Creating Engaging Local Content with Social Media Data

There are so many components involved in a strong marketing piece. It needs to be searchable, shareable, linkable, relevant and of value. There also needs to be a reflection of your brand identity and voice so that it continues to bring in customers. Most importantly, it needs to provide value to your customers above and beyond other online content.

Although this is important for any content you wish to publish online, it is vital to any content you plan to promote locally.

What Is Local Content Marketing

The internet has democratized business in a way that has not been seen before. Content marketing is now one of the most important and valuable components of any marketing strategy for businesses small and large. It allows for small businesses to compete alongside with larger rivals. One important asset that many local, small business have is the ability to hyper-target customers based on a geographical area.

Rather than create marketing campaigns to target everyone, you can simply create a campaign that only targets the audience that you really want to attract. This might be based on demographics, buying habits and other components. In addition to those factors, you can narrow the field even more by targeting a specific geographical area through local content marketing.

With so much information online, local content helps you to be found much faster by potential customers. This can help you to increase brand awareness, generate shares on social media, bring links to your website, and increase your organic traffic of relevant consumers. This helps you to cut through all the noise.

Graphic from http://cdn.poweredbysearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/How_important_local_seo_is_for_your_business.png

However, to really gain the benefits of local content, it is important to create stellar pieces that stand out. This is not just using content writing services to develop well-written and engaging pieces, although this is important. It is also about finding relevant and interesting topics. One way to find this is by looking at social media.

Know Your Goals

Before you look for topics to include in your campaign, whether you hire online content writing services or do it in-house, you need to know the goals of your campaign. This is true for any marketing campaign you plan to run, whether traditional marketing, digital marketing or mobile marketing. The more specific an objective you develop, the better plan you can create.

For local marketing, there tend to be a few main goals:

• Attract customers
• Stand out from the competition
• Develop relationships with local businesses and organizations
• Create a positive reputation in the community
• Be discovered organically in social media and search engines
• Increase links to web pages

You might wish to achieve more than one of these goals. However, you do not want to have a list a mile long of what you want to achieve, as this can make your program less structured and more scattered. Instead, try to focus on one or two main objectives for your SEO content writing program and build from there. This keeps your campaign focused and structured, helping you build much stronger content.

Mining Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for marketing. It provides a place for interacting and engaging customers. It also has data from which you can mine invaluable information to build your local content strategies. You can see what is trending in your area to see what information might be relevant to potential customers. It might also tell you what problems customers continually face so that you can create content that shows how your product or service solves these issues.

You also have a chance to see what type of information local businesses, organizations and government agencies find important. This can help you to develop content that flatters them so that they will link to the site and/or share the information on their sites.

There might also be specific information in the social media posts that can be mined. For example, you can find the most geo-tagged Instagram photos to create content about the most popular places in the area. There are tools online that can help you to mine the data so that you can use it for your content.

Graphic from https://adigitalboom.com/instagram-reveals-2016s-top-data-infographics/

To mine geotags, you set up a radius and find out what coordinates are tagged the most. It might take time, depending on the service you use. However, ultimately you have the raw data from which to build a post. For example, you will know which business has the most check-ins on Facebook or the most Instagram posts. Then, you can create a post detailing this. It will be relevant to locals and visitors alike, so it has a high chance of being shared.

When you create a post, be sure to determine what aspects you might need permission for. Anytime you use Instagram photos in your post, you will need to get permission from the person who originally published the post. The same might stand for Facebook or Twitter posts and other content created by others.

Potential For Sharing

When you mine social media for your local SEO content marketing, you have some incredible sources for sharing. Any information you develop about local businesses or organizations will most likely be shared by that organization, expanding your reach. Additionally, it helps you to build better relationships with local businesses, which is beneficial for future endeavors.

Another key place for sharing potential is when you include photos or other data from people’s sites. When you reach out for permission, you can also ask them to share the post once it is published. Many people will be happy to share the post with their friends and family, which expands your reach even more.

This might take some work on your end. You might need to reach out to the relevant businesses and organizations. If you write something about a business or organization, it might be beneficial to let them know ahead of time so that they are ready to repost it — and so that it builds a more positive relationship between you. There might be other areas where you could share the content, such as local government websites, community organizations, local hotels, tourist information boards and more.

For example, if you create a post about the most-Instagrammed restaurants in the area, then you might reach out to the photographers, the restaurants, and local tourist boards so that they will include a link to it on their information sites for visitors and locals to find. This effort increases the reach of the post and ultimately benefits you.

Why This Matters

When you create posts about the local area that includes information mined from social media, you will develop content that has key elements:

• Shareability
• Relevancy
• Value
• Interesting

These components increase your visibility in the area in which you do business. Even if the article is not directly related to your business, it will help you to build a relationship with the local community. This, in turn, helps to bring in business. This is because people ultimately shop based on their experience with a company. Their recognition of your company based on the interaction online will inform their decision when deciding which company to patronize.

Social media data is an untapped source for engaging local content that can be the difference for your SEO content marketing campaign. Even if you use content writing services that are not based on your location, they can use the data they find on social media sites to find topics of interest to your clientele. This makes it easier for them to be of value which increases the shareability of the content.

Get Started

Ready to start your own local content based on information mined from social media? Here are the steps to follow:

• State a goal
• Create a plan
• Decide the best strategy
• Mine social media data
• Look through the data for the most relevant pieces
• Create a post of value
• Ask for permission to use data when applicable
• Outreach to local businesses and organizations
• Post the piece and promote it
• Watch others share it

This will help you to build your reach and increase your engagement with potential customers. It does more than just show that you are good at your particular business niche; it also shows that you are a part of the community. This broadens the awareness of your brand, which helps you to bring in more potential customers. Additionally, you will build important relationships with local businesses, officials, organizations and more. This could help you in the future in a variety of ways.