Plus Engaging Social Content Ideas to Enhance Your Brand
Social media is noisy. Too many brands treat it as a screaming match in who can get the attention of target audiences more. In other words, brands are screaming a message at their target audience that are self-servicing and not relevant.
This can be a real turn off for your target audience. People want more than just a brand telling them to “buy this,” “read that,” and “it’s on sale!”
Yes, we want to get people to take action by heading to our website to read an article or buying a product or service, but that is only part of the social content equation.
We have to respect our audiences more. We can do this by serving them content that engages and informs them, rather than just giving them self-serving content.
Why Engaging and Informative Social Content is More Successful
These days, social media audiences are savvy. People want more from their interactions with brands these days. They want to get to know the people behind the brand, they want to be asked fun questions, and they want information that is valuable to them. They want to have meaningful interactions with your brand and not just some slogan or a call to purchase something.
Because audiences crave engaging and informative content, it is actually more successful in driving people to your website or blog. In other words, engaging content has a higher ROI (return on investment) than other types of content.
So what makes social content engaging or informative? Let’s take a look at some ideas that may work for your brand
1 | Video
Video continues to be one of the most important trends of social media. Audiences love watching video and it is one of the biggest drivers of all internet traffic. Posting videos is a surefire way to catch your audience’s attention, but that is only the first step. You have to retain their interest or they will only watch a little bit of the video. Here are some tips to make your videos more engaging:
- Keep it short: audiences like bite-sized content
- Give information: tutorials, product demonstrations, Q&As, employee features or takeovers, and behind the scenes are all informative videos that will hold your audience’s attention
- Go live: live videos are a great way to interact with your audience in real time. This is a great time to do some of those informative videos, such as Q&As.
- Have fun: remember to always have some fun and so will your audience!
2 | Educational Content
Blogs and articles are great ways to share information. Blog articles are perfect for people trying to position themselves as an industry leader by sharing valuable information and insight. It is also great for those who wish to share a tutorial or educational content. Make sure that each and every article you create has something that your audiences will find of value.
Pro Tip: Make sure that you have a healthy mix of timely and evergreen content. You want to show that you are up-to-date on the latest in your industry, but you also want to be able to have evergreen content to reshare that will be relevant to your audience even a year or two down the road. That evergreen content can help you create posts without always creating all new content (which we all know can be time consuming).
3 | User-Generated Content (UGC)
What better way to get audiences engaged than to encourage them to share their own content about your brand? Encourage them to share photos of your products or a video reviewing your services. Be sure to let audiences know to tag your brand in their content.
UGC is a great way to expand your brand’s reach and find new target audience members. But more importantly, it builds trust. When people see that others are liking and using your products or services, they see a more human side to your brand and that transparency is what builds trust. A related type of content that builds trust with audiences is influencer marketing.
4 | Conversations, Polls, and Surveys
Social media should always be a two-way street with your audience. It should be a conversation. People love to share their opinions, so share posts that pose questions and ask users to share their thoughts in the comments. You can also try polls or short surveys. For example, Instagram Stories allows you to insert stickers such as questions, a poll, or a quiz.
5 | Contests and Giveaways
Engage your current followers and gain new ones by hosting a contest or giveaway. To boost engagement on your post, make it a condition that people comment, tag a friend, or share your post in order to be entered in the giveaway. Also, make sure that the prize is something your target audience would want to win. People are always happy to engage if there’s an opportunity for them to get something beneficial out of it.