The Three Ts of ContenTTT Creation – Type. Tone. Timing.

When it comes to content creation, there are a few very important criteria to consider.

Your content creation process should not be a fly-by-night approach in the hopes that it resonates with your target audience. Effective content creation and promotion builds off of a carefully laid out content strategy.

In order to begin developing and optimizing that strategy, there are several considerations that need to be taken under advisement. Among those, one of the most important is going to be the Three Ts – Type, Tone, Timing.

While the Three Ts is not the only component that will factor into your content strategy, it is going to be a vital component with regards to development, delivery and consistent optimization.

Type

First and foremost, you’re going to want to figure out what type or types of content resonate most with the audience you are trying to market to on social media.

Early on in your social business strategy, you should have identified a target social client persona. This is the audience to whom you would like to share your message. It’s not some broad range of demographics – this is a specific person that you envision as a qualified prospect.

Image Credit: Shutterstock. Used under license.

Look at your historical engagement rates specifically  with that group of users. What kind of content resonates most with them? Aggregate data might suggest that you only share images, because they generate significantly higher engagement rates, on average.

You should be looking at your own content and, more importantly, the content with which this audience is most likely to engage, and build your upcoming strategies with a focus on these types of content.

If links or text-based updates outperform images for your audience, modify or update your strategy accordingly.

Tone

Should you share content with a casual, airy tone of voice, or should you be more professional in your tone? Again, you’ll want to see exactly what tone of voice your target client persona tends to be most responsive to and focus your efforts there.

While social media is all about being social, people are social in very different ways. Of course you want your brand to be personable online, but sometimes that personality is a professional one sharing important information in a more serious tone. That said, there is also as much of a chance that your audience will be most responsive to and engage most with a friendly, laid back brand persona.

The key here is trying out different approaches and seeing where you’re finding the greatest results. Keep in mind, however, that it is your prospects’ opinions and engagement rates that should dictate how you position your brand, not necessarily the overall sentiment.

Timing

When are your prospects online? When are they most likely to engage with your content?

You’ll want to share content enough over the course of the day or week that your audience in its entirety is given a chance to engage, but you’ll want to reserve those calls-to-action and more important content for the times of day when your target client is online and ready to engage.

Image Credit: Shutterstock. Used under license.

Just like the tone of your content, this is going to take a little bit of trial and error. Take the time necessary to test content at different times of the day and figure out when you’re best suited to share business development-oriented content. Maybe you have great engagement at three in the afternoon, and only a small rate of engagement before nine in the morning. But if you see that the morning engagement is coming from the audience you are trying hardest to reach, that’s where you’ll want to focus your efforts.

Conclusion

Two things are quite clear: first, you should not rely on aggregate data to tell you how to structure your content strategy. When you’re first getting started, that might be a useful approach, but you will want to pay attention to the performance of your own content in order to determine how you will optimize your strategy moving forward.

Second, the most important thing to consider when developing or optimizing a strategy according to the Three Ts is your target client persona, not just the audience in general. This optimization process should be done with your business in mind. In order to do that, you will have to consider your target client and what they want to hear from you.

Try out the Three Ts the next time you conduct a content strategy audit and see what you learn about your audience!

Have you found a Three Ts strategy that works? Tell us about it in the comments below or on Twitter!