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The Right Content Strategy to Keep Your Audience Engaged


Question: What is the right content strategy to keep your audience engaged on social media?

Answer: The 80/20 Rule. 

So there's really a few things that you need to know about the world of social media marketing. 

Quick fact: there are over 300,000 status updates, every 60 seconds on Facebook alone. 

What does that mean? That means there's a lot of stuff going on on that platform.


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Obviously you are probably aware that there's algorithms in place that decide whose posts get seen by what people and when and all of that stuff. 

So it's very, very important as a business owner if you are trying to 1) reach your customers and your audience online, but 2) grow that as well. 

That's why it's so important that you have a good content marketing strategy in place for your business. 

So let's think, what are some different reasons that people go to Facebook or Instagram to spend time?

Why are people on Social Media

Studies show someone will spend an average of three to four hours per day on social media, whether that's Facebook or Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, you name it. 

It's a lot of time that people are spending on the social media platforms, but why are they there? 

Well, a study done in 2019 showed that 88 percent of Facebook users said that they were using Facebook to stay connected with family and friends.

88 percent!

So they're there to just live their life on social media and connect and stay in touch. Right?

Only about 20 percent are on social media to connect with businesses or brands. And then even less people are on social media specifically to shop or buy or make purchasing decisions.

So with all of that, we have to stop thinking about our businesses on social media as this is a lead generating marketing function.

Why Develop the Right Content Strategy

You really need to start seeing social media as a strategy for building brand awareness and getting more people familiar with your name. 

So how do you do that with social media content?

It's really effective and it's been shown over years, not just by me, but by lots of different businesses and social media experts you name it, that people to see content from businesses that they can relate to. 

People don't  like being oversold to when they're on social media. 

So you have to be sure to appeal to your audience's desires. 

If they're searching for things that they're interested in, then guess what?

Your content needs to match that. So that's where the 80/20 rule comes into play. 

What is the 80/20 Rule in Content Strategy?

What the 80/20 the rule is this: it's the ratio between how much content you're creating versus promoting.

That is what your audience is wanting versus not wanting. Or you could say the type of content where you are becoming more relatable and building a relationship in connection with your audience versus trying to sell to them. 

So within the 80% of the 80 20 rule, your content needs to really be focused on building brand awareness, or building a relationship with your audience, so that they become more familiar with your name.

The 80/20 Rule: Engagement Posts

The way that you can do that is through creating different types of content, such as engagement posts, asking questions, running polls, doing research.

You know, asking people what they want... 

You could also include in that some different things like gifts, memes, and funny pictures that are relevant to your business, but stuff that people are actually engaging with, right? 

Creating topics for discussion within your posts, posing questions or sharing a topic and letting people answer it in the comment section, that's an engagement post.

It's one of the best ways that you can generate new eyeballs to your post.

The 80/20 Rule: Education Posts

Another form of content that falls within that 80/20 rule is educational and informative posts where you're adding value, you're sharing content and information with your audience that maybe it's information that they didn't know or they already did know. 

This that you're reading right now, or listening to, this is educational and informative content. I'm teaching you stuff without asking you to do business with you. 

I'm just sharing information with you. I'm adding value to you and your business. We need to have more of that in our content as well. 

So maybe you're sharing tips or you're giving the inside scoop to a certain proprietary process that you have in your business or something along those lines, right? 

Then another type of content that you can share within that 80 percent rule is content that is telling stories.

The 80/20 Rule: Story Posts

Story posts would be creating fictitious characters and giving a story of what the customer journey has looked like or can look like.

Maybe you share real stories. Again, just trying to connect your audience with your message. 

So that's the sum of what is in that 80 percent.

The 80/20 Rule: The Promotional Percentage 

Then the 20% is really where you get the opportunity to focus on promoting your business, creating a call to action, where you're telling people what you want them to do next. 

So whether that's giving you a phone call, sending you a message, whatever it might be, only 20% of your content needs to be based on promotional. 

And again, you're probably asking, well, why am I on social media all the time then? Or why am I creating all of these posts? If I'm only going to ask people to do business with me one or two times in a week? 

Well, that's the thing. People do business with PEOPLE, right?

They have to feel comfortable with you and feel there's some type of connection. And that's what the 80 percent content does for you. 

So that is the 80/20 rule in a sum.

Using the 80/20 Rule to Create the Right Content strategy

I sometimes they get asked the question of well, how many posts in a week should I do if I'm doing this 80 20 rule? 

I tell people if you're new to Facebook or Instagram and creating social media content start with at least one post every single day of the workweek. 

So Monday through Friday, that's five posts. Okay.

If five posts are being created on Facebook and Instagram through your business, then four out of the five posts will fall into the 80 percent bracket. 

And then one of the other posts would be promotional. 

And that my friends is the 80 20 rule in content creation. Now you have a better understanding why that's important but also, now you have a plan to go and implement this into your strategy.

I want to hear your feedback. I want to know how this helps you. So make sure that you join my free Facebook community so that you can share how this helped you.


Hi! I’m Danielle and I’m from the Land of Oz, a.k.a. Kansas! I’m a mom of 2, married to an awesomely funny dude, I have owned a Toto dog in my lifetime, and in case you’re wondering… yes I’ve walked the yellow brick road.

I am also a seasoned social media and digital marketing coach for local small businesses and I have a passion for empowering and educating people to take more ownership of the marketing efforts for their business.

Make sure you join my Free Facebook Community for live trainings on topics like this and how to best utilize social media to grow your business!

Connect with me on Instagram and Facebook here!

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Inside you will learn exactly how to:

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  • Spend less time creating posts and more time making money.
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