The phrases, "Wow! That brand does amazing social media work" and, "the content that brand is able to publish is so smart" are thrown around a lot in both agency and client offices worldwide. We use them as brands to emulate. We monitor their successes through competitive research. Heck, we even make massive amounts of PowerPoint slides about them. But what does it mean to have a "good" social and content marketing practice and strategy?

First, I should probably define what I mean by content marketing. Content marketing is what a brand publishes throughout its marketing channels. It is focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent material to attract and retain an audience in order incite some brand-defined action. This is, of course, my own opinion, but through my many years of experience I have learned and observed a lot to make this feel pretty accurate. 

Let’s break it down into four key strategic pillars: 

1. Social media and marketing is no longer executed as an isolated standalone campaign. 
It's not someone's pet project. It isn't the Facebook “like-driving” advertising campaign. It isn't hopping on to the latest trending hashtag in the hopes of getting seen, heard and retweeted. It's bigger than that and encompasses more. For social media campaigns to truly be a success, they are baked into the very core of all marketing strategies. When working with IKEA as the strategic account lead, a key consumer insight and issue was that customers took to social media to discuss their woes with putting together furniture with missing or hard-to-understand instructions. Our solution was not only to implement a social customer service program, but to launch an ongoing YouTube video campaign showing step-by-step instructions for how to put together each product in their portfolio. The results were astounding in that customer service issues around this topic were decreased by 20 percent, we updated their social customer service program, and we had a content library of how-to videos to publish across the brand’s digital ecosystem.

2. Social is an organized marketing center of excellence, operating from the center.
Similar to the above, social helps hold all of the marketing pieces together and is a real driver of success. Think of it as the glue of marketing. Brands and companies with social media built into their heart and core tend to be those reacting in real-time and producing exciting creative with great ease and insight. 

3. An identifiable and consistent voice can be observed across platforms.
Cover up the logo on the platform you are engaging with a brand on – is it unique? Can you relate to it? Does it sound vanilla or like any other brand? How is it carried across platforms? Is the voice tailored, unique, yet consistent, on Facebook? Instagram? .com? Tumblr? As the Relationship Era of marketing continues to flourish, this consistency in look and feel is greatly important to a brand's success. 

4. A firm content strategy and architecture. 
What is the stickiness of a brand’s digital presence? Is something more offered than just a product or a service? Consumers are hungry to learn more from brands, and even engage with them, when they produce something relevant and of value. We are in a time where just selling products isn't enough; we also need to sell our value and intelligence. 

The bottom line is that social and content marketing are what make a company's heartbeat, and success tick. Now is the time to figure out what your stickiness can be and exploit it. Just selling products isn’t enough. We also need to sell our value and intelligence. Social and content marketing really are extensions of the personal aspect of any company and it needs to exemplify characteristics and traits that people want to engage with and can relate to. When planned, executed, measured and optimized correctly, a well-planned social and marketing strategy can take brand loyalty to the next level.

By Billy Boulia, integrated marketing director at Allison+Partners.