Crafting an effective B2B social media strategy can be as satisfying and strategic as preparing a well-planned meal. While the need for consistent content creation is clear, many businesses struggle to keep up. We’ve drawn inspiration from the diverse culinary traditions of Africa to create an analogy that will help you understand how different types of content can feed your B2B social media presence and achieve your marketing goals.
Setting the table
In African cultures, animals hold significance in ceremonies. Different animals are used for specific events depending on the cultural occasion. For example, a chicken is generally used for day-to-day meals, while a goat is used for specific gatherings that may include family members and friends. During certain traditional practices, a goat is prepared as a symbolic offering to introduce a child to their heritage.
Conversely, cows are usually prepared for larger gatherings such as funerals and marriage ceremonies, where family members, friends, and neighbours eat them on the day.
At Firejuice, we help companies in Africa with their social media content strategy. We have found it helpful to compare African culinary customs as metaphors for the varied sizes, efforts, and impacts that different forms of content can take.
Three types of content dishes
Chicken content
At Firejuice, we help companies in Africa develop a robust B2B social media strategy, taking inspiration from a culinary analogy: chicken, goat, and cow content.
Chicken content is small in size and quick and easy to create and consume. This is because preparing a chicken is easier and less time-consuming than preparing a goat or cow. Chicken content includes short and to-the-point pieces of information that are concise and easy to understand.
Chicken content is ideal for keeping the social media presence active as it only requires a little time or effort from the audience. Just as one would get drumsticks, breasts, and wings, creating different dishes, chicken content manifests as social media posts on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter featuring images or quotes.
Goat content
We refer to goat content as medium-sized content that requires more attention and effort than chicken content. It involves time, planning and preparation, usually involving research on the subject matter.
Just like how one can prepare various dishes from a goat that feed more people at traditional events, you can create different types of content, such as webinars, blog posts, podcast episodes, and interactive meetings like Zoom sessions.
The content created from this category encourages interaction and engagement, which may involve live discussions and Q&A sessions. Goat content strikes a balance between being concise and comprehensive, making it neither long nor short.
Cow content
At Firejuice, we define cow content as content that provides an in-depth analysis of a particular topic or subject matter. Its primary objective is to educate and inform readers. In African culture, cows are a symbol of wealth and a reliable food source; hence, they can feed many people, as in traditional African weddings.
Cow content provides a lot of material, such as books, eBooks, and online courses, that can educate a large number of people. Unlike chicken or goat content, cow content has a longer lifespan and remains relevant and valuable for an extended period.
Using AI to help with content
Should you use AI to help you write content? Absolutely. But the trick is to lead it instead of letting it lead you. You’re the expert, and the AI is supporting you.
We find the key to getting good help from an AI tool is to know how to prompt it properly, and here, we like the basic five principles explained in this video by AI consultant Mike Taylor:
- Give the AI direction by briefing it to write something in the style, tone and format that you want it in
- Specify the format you want the answer in, as in how many paragraphs
- Provide examples of the type of output you would like
- Evaluate quality by running the simulation multiple times – don’t just settle for the first answer.
- Divide labour, meaning split the task into smaller parts to ensure better outcomes.
Following these principles will help you write marketing content, but it can’t do it all for you. We add a sixth step that we call “humanise,” meaning you, as the person doing the prompting, should review the content and tweak sections that don’t sound on brand (or too overcooked—a typical AI issue).
Know what content dish to serve
A clear B2B social media strategy can be the missing ingredient for unlocking growth in the tough African business market. Think of your marketing content as different food dishes made for various occasions requiring varying levels of effort.
With social media content, the trick is knowing what you can cope with, preparing that meal, and ensuring it is tasty! Then, crucially, ensure you eat every last crumb by using and reusing the content across every platform available and in as many formats as possible.
Taking an intentional approach to content strategy allows a business to tell a holistic story of its work and sustain the effort over time. It’s no use building a content engine that stops running when the consultant or marketer leaves. A culture of content must develop inside the business.
Transform your B2B social media with Firejuice
A clear social media strategy can be the missing ingredient for unlocking B2B growth in your African market. Firejuice offers tailored social media expertise by coaching your marketer or partnering with you to manage your social media for you as your part-time marketing coordinator.
Our approach at Firejuice isn’t one-size-fits-all for helping businesses define a content approach. We craft strategies that align with your unique business goals and target audience. Work with us to transform your B2B social media presence in Africa.