We are well into 2016 and it is becoming clearer and clearer every day that social media marketing and content marketing are synonymous. Content marketing can obviously exist without social media, but your content marketing campaign is no longer complete unless you include social media. It is very important to stay on top of the key content marketing tips for the the top social media sites.

It’s crucial to remember that social media requires a fully developed effort from content marketers. If you’re going to grow your presence and maximize your content marketing strategy, it is best practices to focus your social in everything. You need to emphasize the importance of driving leads to these platforms both on-line and offline. Everything you do needs to revolve around driving people to your social platforms. Otherwise, your content marketing efforts won’t have an audience.

Skim Facebook newsfeed to tell your story

I recommend you write your text for skim readers. There is no limits on length of Facebook posts, but it is best practices to consider the decreasing attention span of users. A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information showed that people have an attention span of 8 seconds. When applying that to Facebook posts, the first three to four words of your update are crucial to grabbing your audience’s attention.

When choosing content types for your posts, take time to analyze your business and audience. For example, if you want to drive traffic to your blog, the link format likely would work well for you. On the other hand, if brand awareness is your main goal, images and videos are a better fit. When you post a link on Facebook, it creates the metadata automatically and this can be edited. All you need to do is change the description metadata to fit the post description and suit the current context. Facebook is a personalized newspaper. If you want to reach the modern consumer, you need to put your content in their newsfeed.

Tweet your story in 100 characters or less

You should share a variety of content on Twitter. Your text should be short and sweet. A simple type of tweet is great for updates, news, quick facts, and asking your followers questions. Tweets that are 100 characters or less tend to get higher conversions. It helps a lot to highlight your message with a picture that will add an impact to your tweet. Photos stand out more, getting more impressions and more engagements on your content. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a video would speak millions. Videos, if integrated into your message, could drastically improve your ability to put your message in front of the right audience.

People love facts and figures. Use statistics that support the arguments you’re making in your content. If your post mentions any publications, industry influencers, etc., make sure to mention them in your promotions. They will be honored and there’s a good chance they’ll share it, so you’ll reach all their followers too. Add a hashtag to boost its reach, and give a clear idea of what the link is leading to. When creating a Twitter content marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to devote your time and resources into using a strong image.

Tell your visual story with Instagram

For content marketers, Instagram can be puzzling. That’s because most content marketers aren’t super savvy at visual content marketing. This is about to change, though. The industry is clearly heading in the direction of more visual content and less text-based content, which means you need to study what successful brands are doing on Instagram and other similar social platforms.

It is very important to use quality images on Instagram in order to accurately portray your story. Storytelling is a powerful tool in all marketing. When it comes to Instagram, you are given the same storytelling opportunities. By using visual content, you can create an experience for your customers, clients and followers so they feel engaged and valued. Hashtags have become synonymous with social media and can be used on virtually every network to find, track, share, and participate in topics of interest. On Instagram, hashtags are the best thing since sliced bread, connecting users to images they might be interested in.