Yesterday, Mike Flanagan, CEO of TMP Directional Marketing, wrote an article, “Content: The Foundation of a Social Media Campaign,” for Adotas. The article centered on the increasingly popular concept that content is king. Every successful social media campaign has one thing in common: lots of targeted content. Typically, the content is a combination of what you provide and feedback from your audience. Either way, it has to be there.

Unfortunately, most advertisers either don’t know about this simple fact or choose to ignore it. The ones guilty of ignoring their social campaign’s content needs are also the ones who still think the same business model used for other online channels can carry over into the social space. This is not so.

With paid search, you can bid for certain keywords; target certain audiences; and get immediate results in the form of clicks, calls and defined leads. Wouldn’t all of our lives be easier if this was the successful business model for all online channels?

What am I getting at? When advertisers set up social media campaigns, they may still have the mentality of “set it, and forget it.” This is painful to watch with social campaigns. I’ve seen countless companies (many that I follow on Facebook) hit the ground running at the outset, but they eventually hit cruise control and assume that the fans will take the reins. Well, the fans will forget about companies that don’t constantly chirp in their ears or entice participation. Personally, if I’m a fan on a lackluster brand page, I have absolutely no reason to suggest to my friends that they become fans, too.

Flanagan’s article demonstrates how to avoid the above scenario by creating great content on a consistent basis. He also brings up a very useful approach for implementing more content in your social media campaigns, as well as maintaining that content.

Here is one last word of caution for businesses: For those who think they can keep up with their social media campaigns in their “spare” time, take another look at how well your campaign is doing because great content isn’t produced in anyone’s spare time.