Hey! Everybody, this is Steven and I am helping you create something awesome today.

Today, we’re talking about social media content strategy. I’m going to teach you to dominate social media, it doesn’t matter if it’s 2020, 2022, 2025.

The method that I’m about to give you is going to be a game-changer for your content and how you build an audience and deliver value for them.

Now, this is something I usually teach in my one-on-one coaching sessions and workshops. So, what I’m going to give you here is a very powerful strategy that can help you understand what you need to be doing when it comes to growing in the various online platforms.

Grab a pen and paper, you’re going to want to take notes on this. So the method we’re using is called ICED, like iced coffee. So this acronym is I-C-E-D stands for:

I –Stands for IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE

C –Stands for CLARIFY THE VALUE YOU OFFER

E –Stands for ENGAGE WITH THE COMMUNITY

D –Stands for DELIVERY TREMENDOUS VALUE

You need to start by identifying your target audience. Regardless of what platform you’re in identifying your target audience is very important, and then you need to research and understand what their expectations are.

That is going to be essential for you growing in social media and being able to dominate in your niche. If you fail to identify who people are, what their values are, what their habits are, what the culture is, how can you serve them properly?

If you can’t answer some very specific questions about who your ideal target audience is. You’ll be trying to serve everybody and thus serve nobody. So identifying your target audience is essential and is the first place to start.

Let’s move on to C, clarifying the value. You need to clarify your ability to deliver value to that specific audience. You need to do everything to eliminate the ambiguity, eliminate the guesswork, and make this simple for people.

What do you offer?

Why should I follow you?

Why should I trust you?

Why should I come back?

You need to be able to answer these and by the way the statements, I work hard isn’t good enough. I think I make quality content or I make quality content.

That’s not a reason. That has nothing to do with what we value or we care about.

It’s not specific enough, that is too vague, that is too generic and I guarantee you, generic and vague is probably the reason why many are struggling when it comes to your content and building an audience.

Get crystal clear on what people can expect from you. Make it abundantly clear and obvious to them. Next is E, Engage. People neglect the power of engagement. Regardless of social media platforms when I go and I look up people especially people who say that they’re struggling with their social media, I go and I immediately go to the comments and I see no interaction from the original post.

Whether this is YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. I see no engagement with the actual community of people who took the time to comment. I see people writing articles, I see them getting 10 or 12 comments and there are no replies to any of them which is not okay.

So if you want people to commit to you, why aren’t you making a commitment to them especially in the early phases when you’re growing? There is an excuse you can make to some extent when you’re large enough and you feel overwhelmed by that, that’s fine.

But you could always task that out to people and if your concern is… well, I want it to come from me, then you should still prioritize doing some of it especially after the initial post, if you have time and you should also consider the fact that, a team can advocate on your behalf and engage with the community from a team account.

Because, they would rather be acknowledged by somebody and know that you at least facilitate that than just be left with no interaction, no engagement, no acknowledgment at all. 

Replying to people matters and by acknowledging them, that is how you build loyalty with them. That’s how you build confidence with them, Okay and I think that this is something more of you could stand to do. 

You also need to engage not just with the content that you post, but you need to be part of the community around the type of content you produce. Whatever the players are doing in your niche or in your overall, the culture of what you do. 

You should be there and you should be a player and you should be probably one of the most interesting and engaging people in the community because that’s how you’re going to make a name for yourself and that’s going to make people curious about you and that’s going to build your reputation. 

And finally, D, Deliver.

Deliver on the promises that you made.

Deliver on what people’s expectations are.

Deliver maximum value, deliver tremendous value to people.

That is essential with anything that you’re creating because you’re asking for people’s time, you’re asking for the time out of their day, you’re asking for five or 10 minutes that they can give to their personal development to their workout routine, to their spouse, to their boyfriend or girlfriend, to their kid, to the job. 

This is five or 10 minutes of their life that they’re never getting back. Why spend it with you, you have to justify that. You justify that by making the value very clear and then delivering on those expectations that were set. 

You deliver by engaging with people who give you that time. You deliver by making sure that there’s an alignment between the audiences that you’ve identified and then who you are and what the content is that you deliver. 

This is why the ICED method is so powerful because it makes you more intentional about your actions by identifying who you’re serving, clarifying what you deliver for them and how you give them value. 

By engaging with them and listening to them so that you can make sure you are continuing to clarify that properly, and that you’re in alignment and that you’re better prepared to deliver for them on the promise that was made. 

This is very straightforward, if you can master the ICED method then you can dominate social media In whatever platform you choose, whether it’s Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok.

It doesn’t matter because this is about how you treat people. This is about how you set expectations and how you deliver. This is about how you create alignment between you and the audience that you want to follow you. This is about giving them a reason to commit to you and the content that you provide.

So I have a question of the day for you and I want you to leave this in the comments section in as much detail as possible and I want more of you to respond to this and to ask people questions about this, even challenge them on this.

So the question of the day that we’re going to go with is,

Who is your target audience and how are you going to serve them?

Because I want you to kind of take this as an exercise where you can communicate these thoughts clearly and put them out there in a meaningful way.

And then I want you through the comments to give each other some feedback on whether you think that was a clear message or not.

So that’s what I want you guys to do, go out there and create something awesome today.

Take care.