Competition on social media platforms is more cutthroat than ever. Trends change in a heartbeat, and people’s attention shifts quickly. Gaining new followers and keeping your existing ones has become more daunting.
Nowadays, a proven marketing strategy is for brands to collaborate with a social media content creator. Apart from their following and online influence, their ability to produce stellar content can drive awareness and engagement for your brand.
If you’re thinking of hiring a social media content creator, this article will guide you in getting everything right.
What is a Social Media Content Creator?
A social media content creator plans, creates, edits, and shares content across social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. The content produced must be entertaining, informative, or persuasive to engage the target audience.
Content creators play a crucial role in social media marketing as their content promotes a particular brand or business, connects with customers, and drives sales via social media.
“Content” in social media can be:
- Blogs or articles
- Visual content (e.g., images, videos, infographics, GIFs, presentations)
- Interactive content (e.g., polls, surveys, questionnaires)
- Newsletters
- Web copy
Social media content creators must be well-versed in the latest trends and requirements of each platform. They must conceptualize content tailored to the current audience's preferences and interests, as well as to the voice and vision of the brand they represent.
Social Media Content Creator vs. Social Media Manager: Are They the Same?
No, they’re not the same. While both strive to build a strong and relevant social media presence, they differ in focus and responsibilities.
Social media content creators focus on producing visual and text content for the audience to consume. Their goal is to captivate and engage people to follow the brand or retain existing followers’ attention using high-quality content.
Meanwhile, social media managers focus on marketing strategy planning, performance oversight, analytics, and daily account management. This is more of an “all-around” role responsible for defining how the brand must present itself on the platform.
Top 6 Platforms for Social Media Content Creators
Here are some platforms that are popular among social media content creators:
1. Facebook
With over 3 billion users across countries and different age groups, Facebook stands as a leading platform for content creators targeting a broad user base, particularly leaning toward older demographics. Popular content types here include written posts, blogs, videos (live-streamed and recorded), reels, photos, and stories.
2. Instagram
Similar to Facebook, Instagram also boasts billions of active users worldwide. It started as a trendy platform for posting “IG-worthy” pictures and video clips. In 2021, it introduced short-form video content called “reels,” which became highly popular among the Gen Z audience.
3. X (Formerly Twitter)
X lives up to the idea that “brevity is the soul of wit.” Every tweet is limited to 280 characters, forcing users to convey views and opinions in a fast-paced and easily digestible manner. Users may attach videos, photos, or links to enrich their tweets and captivate their followers.
4. TikTok
TikTok’s surge in popularity is largely due to its short yet addictive video content covering everything under the sun. TikTok has over 150 million users in the US alone, making it a perfect platform for content creators to attract followers.
5. YouTube
YouTube is best for sharing long-form video content. Popular video posts here include “edutainment” content, comedy sketches, daily vlogs, product reviews, how-to guides, and unboxing videos.
6. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the social media network for professionals. A creator can produce compelling content like tutorials, articles, analyses, or reviews to connect with industry, academic, or research professionals.
What are the Benefits of Having a Social Media Content Creator?
Content creators possess the knowledge, skills, and expertise to help your brand grow on social media. Working with them offers the following benefits:
Effective and Consistent Content Creation
Social media creators have the necessary knowledge and experience to efficiently produce content for your brand. They make the most of productivity tools like AI writing assistants, collaborative workspaces, and automated tools to streamline content creation workflows.
Content creators make everything faster and easier, enabling your brand to consistently share useful, informative content to customers. Studies have shown that consistent posting across platforms can increase revenue by around 23%.
Enhanced Content Creativity, Uniqueness, and Variety
Content creators can provide new perspectives and ideas to help you generate original and fresh posts that will resonate with your audience. Many creators are also capable of providing “out-of-the-box” ideas that can help your brand stand out from its competitors.
How to Find a Social Media Content Creator for Your Brand
Finding the right social media content creator who can understand your vision and goals can be daunting.
But we’re here to help. Here’s our five-step guide that you can follow.
1. Define Your Goals
There’s a reason why you need a content creator. Perhaps you want to boost your lead generation, attract new followers, increase post engagements, or increase social media brand awareness.
It’s important to specify your goals as they’ll guide you in choosing the right content creator. Needless to say, your creator must have the experience and skill set to achieve your goals.
2. Devise a Marketing Campaign Plan
Before you hire a content creator, it’s important to have at least a “rough” plan of what your campaign will be.
Some crucial aspects of the plan include:
- The start and end date of the campaign
- The frequency of content production and posting (e.g., daily, bi-weekly, weekly)
- Campaign theme
- Brand guidelines, narrative scripts, or blog outlines
- Success metrics
- Compensation for the creator’s time (e.g., upfront payment, installments, free products, commissions)
Of course, provide some room for the content creator to apply creative freedom and be prepared to adjust your plan, if necessary.
3. Look for Potential Social Media Content Creators
This step requires a little effort.
It’s tempting to simply pick a trending influencer. But remember that popularity is not everything in this role; creativity and knowledge are more important.
To start the hunt, prepare a list of prospective content creators by:
- Posting on social media platforms and announcing that you’re looking for social media content creators. You can easily create posts using Highperformr’s customizable templates and Social AI Copilot.
- Using freelance apps like Fiverr or Upwork: These sites have top content creators you can consider.
- Searching for hashtags: This will point you to specific content made by creators trending in your niche or industry. For instance, if your brand is in the e-commerce niche, try #ecommerce or #digitalentrepreneur to find potential creators. You can also use branded hashtags on TikTok or Instagram if you prefer a more popular creator.
- Auditing competitors’ handles or pages: It’s completely fine to enlist content creators who have partnered with your competitor before. You can scour the competitors’ content creators and check out their followers or commenters. You’ll likely spot a creator that also specializes in your niche.
4. Pick the Right One From Your List
It’s time to select the best content creator from your shortlist. And when we say the “best,” it means following these points:
- Portfolio: The ideal creator must have a rich portfolio of high-quality content produced in the past. Check if their style and approach match your preferences and objectives.
- Followers: Remember, quality over quantity. A creator might have thousands of followers, but those are useless if they’re inactive, inorganic, or bots. What you need is a creator with an active and solid following that creates traction for their posts.
- Integrity and reputation: Avoid creators with problematic issues that might harm your brand. Some creators might be popular, but for bad reasons, so beware of that.
- Online presence: Pick a creator who can commit to regular postings that will keep your followers engaged.
- Trend-savvy: You need someone who's always on high alert for recent trends in the niche. Check the creators’ previous posts and evaluate how relevant their content is to the latest trends.
Once you have a creator in mind, connect with them by sending a direct message or email. Give them an overview of your brand and campaign as you send an invitation to collaborate. Expect that some social media content creators might refuse your invitation, so ensure to always have multiple options on hand.
5. Track Your Performance
As you collaborate with content creators, it’s crucial to monitor progress and identify possible areas for improvement. For this endeavor, you need actionable and insightful analytics from a social media management platform that will cover all the bases—tracking trends, top posts, low-performing content, and intuitive performance metrics.
Power-Up Social Media Content Creators’ Impact On Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Once you enlist the help of content creators, you can maximize their impact on your brand’s growth and success with a one-stop, modern social media management platform that streamlines B2B marketing workflows like Highperformr.
Highperformr offers top-notch features for automated social publishing at scale. The platform is AI-native and the Social AI can help creators plan and schedule posts ahead using AI-powered suggestions and ready-made templates.
Get ready to ramp up your social media marketing strategy with Highperformr. Sign up today!
