At the end of the day, we are all fighting for the attention of our specific audience.  You can buy it briefly, but not permanently.  From MySpace to Snapchat, our need to let people know everything we are doing, and believe, is increasingly growing.  Everyone now gets a microphone and platform, not just the few.  It used to be enough to just post a crazy political post or the amazing food you just ate, but now we have access and the need to document more and more of our life online, and more and more of our life is lived online.  Snapchat started the world of stories; Instagram and Facebook followed.  Stories allow you to create a daily log of whats going on in your life.  It's time to come to this reality.  This isn't just happening, it has happened.  If this is how we, as consumers, behave, businesses should be right in the mix.  Below are 3 ways your business should be creating and publishing content for your consumers.

 3 Keys You Need to Follow to Reach Your Intended Audience:

1. Don't just create, document.

It can be a grueling task to have to collect and create content daily.  Of course you can schedule your content out, but it still takes time.  Find ways to capture the process of your everyday life, how you do business, and the daily grind, good and bad.  Learn to provide value to your consumers instead of consistently trying to sell them.  People want to see authenticity, not just the polish you put out.  

2. Speak the language of your audience, not your own lingo

Just because your industry deems that term to be the right term doesn't mean your audience is using it.  For example, most people I talk with daily want to rank higher on Google. What they don't care about is SEO, Alt Image Text, etc.  Help them diagnose their problem and provide answers with tangible solutions.  Be a resource to your people, not just a salesman.

3. Use Every Platform

Which social platform is best for your business?  Having too many will be too much work, right?  Well, if you're looking for the easy, less effective way, just put up a billboard.  Find out where your potential audience is and be there.  Invest your time and money listening to the needs of your people, and provide the answers.  As new social networks become popular, learn how to best communicate with your audience on them.  For scheduling across multiple channels use social software like Hootsuite or HubSpot.

Social Media is no longer a part of your "marketing strategy", it is your marketing strategy.  It used to be about reaching people where they are, now it's about moving into their community and starting to engage in conversations. 

Listening and responding to people talking about your brand on social media should be an integral part of your digital marketing strategies. Download this free ebook for some tips on how to monitor your social accounts efficiently.