So, you’ve got something to say. Or maybe you’ve got something to sell. And even better, you’ve got a cache of content all ready to get your business noticed!
…now what?
It’s time to build a content map. That is, it’s time to decide what sort of path you want to lead your followers down to make those sales.
What is content mapping?
Originally, “content mapping” was part of building a simple sales funnel on a B2C site. In 2023, you can use content mapping to plan your social media output and bring people in through what you post.
Content mapping involves understanding the personas of your followers and working out what kind of content they will respond to. Each piece of content is like a stepping stone leading to the next.
Why is content mapping important?
Content mapping takes the randomness out of posting.
No matter how great your content is — be it personalized reels, carefully curated highlights, or daily posts — it must take the user on a journey toward engaging with your brand. Otherwise, it doesn’t do its job well.
Additionally, content mapping forces you to take a look at the content you have ready and “fill in the blanks,” working out what’s missing so you can then create original content to complete your story.
How to map your content
There are five steps to mapping your content on social media.
- Work out who your followers are. How many new followers do you have weekly? What are the gender ratios of your followers? What are their interests? You should create a few “follower profiles” based on the information you will use to build multiple intersecting maps. In reality, these are buyer personas. They’ve been used as part of marketing since Ogg started selling furs around local caves. Or, almost that long.
- Create awareness for each of these personas. This is where highlights come in on Instagram and where a landing page comes in on a website. Who are you? Why should these specific followers be interested in you?
- Now, create interest. Keeping these personas in mind, make your product or service look cool. Have fun. This will probably be most of what you already have in hand in terms of posts, so it’s just a question of interspersing them among the rest of what’s needed for that perfect content map.
- Engage! This means getting interactive and drawing your followers in. Polls, replying to comments, and creating content that’s genuinely useful, like product how-tos, are all great options.
- Retain. This is kind of the “everything else interesting” bucket. You should answer questions that come up a lot, show people using your product, and test or tease new products.
Content mapping tips
The most important thing to remember with content mapping is that you aren’t building one map. You have to draw in all the follower demographics you’ve identified. Unless you’re some kind of online 99-cent store, it’s unlikely they’ll be all that different. But to get the most out of content mapping, you should give the same amount of thought to 18-year-old students scrolling your 11 am Instagram stories when they wake up as the bored, mid-30s office workers scrolling on their coffee break. You can’t do everything in every post, though. Create content with each of your demographics in mind.
Finally, content mapping doesn’t come above creating good content or posting it at the right time. All the usual rules apply, you’re just creating a sales funnel for the modern world.
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