Have you ever had this happen to you? -
You write the perfect article, punctuated with great visuals and scheduled timely across all networks. But, when you check the social analytics for the posts after two weeks, there are no clicks, no likes, no shares – zero social engagement. Disappointed, you keep thinking what went wrong.
In most cases, this is because your content - though highly valuable - might not have been engaging enough for the audience to stop and consume! Social media platforms have over 3.8 billion users, which means that you’ll be putting out content in front of a huge audience. But how do you ensure this audience loves your content?
To gain your audience’s attention, you’ll be competing with memes, posts from their friends, and millions of cute cat photos.
So, how do you engage your audience? Kool Kanya PowerPass’ course on how to build your social media presence takes you through exactly that, and more. But first, here’s a bit of what you’ll learn. 7 ways to engage your audience with social media content!
Table of contents
- 7 best ways to create engaging social media content
7 best ways to create engaging social media content
- Be an inspiration
This might seem lofty, but it works wonders when it comes to engaging your audience. For instance, you can capitalise on how people need motivation on Mondays. Don’t be afraid to create posts around #MondayMotivation. Create motivational posts that people would appreciate, especially if they are having a hard day. Adding inspirational quotes and phrases to your social posts will produce more motivation from your audience and compel them to take action.
2. Don’t shy away from emojis
Since you are writing for social media, it has to be fun. And what’s more entertaining than the cute emojis at your disposal. They make your post appear interesting and playful. However, you have to use these emojis carefully and appeal to your audience’s emotions without going overboard these interesting emoji stats might prove helpful:
💬 5 billion emojis are sent daily on Facebook Messenger
📸 By mid-2015, half of all comments on Instagram included an emoji
🍑 Only 7% of people use the peach emoji as a fruit
3. Drive audience interactions
People use social media in their own unique way, but it’s not a broadcast channel where you can keep posting about your product or service all day long. It is, in fact, a platform that lets you interact with your audience at all times.
So, when you are creating posts for social media, try and seek out your followers’ answers, opinions, and feedback, as these work as an excellent way to start a conversation.
4. Keep it simple
There’s a rule when it comes to working with social media content - You don’t tell a story in 30 minutes if you can do it in 30 seconds. While it might prove to be a challenge to encapsulate a super interesting idea in 5 words, you have to try. A single sentence can arouse your audience’s curiosity and is more likely to earn you those likes, shares, and clicks.
5. Follow the latest visual trends
Visuals work really well on social media, which is why you might want to post tons of visuals. However, you need to know which visuals work and which don’t. To get a better insight, dig up into visual trends on social media platforms and Google search. You can also search for the most popular hashtags on Instagram, go through the posts with this hashtag, and take note of the ones with high engagement. Do a Google search for popular image trends and browse through top-ranking sites to learn about image trends.
6. Be empathetic
When you create social posts, you will be speaking directly to your audience’s biggest needs and pain points. You have to ask yourself about what’s characteristically challenging to their role or industry, and how you can fix this for the audience. Being empathetic can be quite simple, all you have to do is use words like “you” or “your” to engage your audiences directly.
The more you understand your target audience, the more you can appeal to those areas of strain and difficulty. Empathy is a powerful tool, and you have to use it right.
7. Create a sense of urgency
An effective way of creating engaging posts is to create a sense of urgency, which is a very powerful persuasion tool. You can incorporate it into your social posts to prompt a desirable action. For instance, you can promote time-sensitive giveaways or tell your audience to “save a spot before tickets run out” - these are all classic examples of urgency-driven messages. Creating a sense of urgency could also mean demonstrating your impact or turning a hurdle into an opportunity – as long as you keep the momentum high, urgency will naturally be present, without going overboard.
The content you put out on social media has to be engaging if you wish to grow your tribe. And, these tips will definitely help you in the process.
