5 Types of Post Guaranteed to Boost Social Media Engagement
Getting noticed on social media is increasingly difficult as a billion other voices put out their memes, videos, GIFs and other content meant to catch the eye and gain likes. The simple truth is that without adequate engagement, your brand will remain invisible on social media, hampering your efforts to generate leads. But raising engagement on social media need not be difficult or expensive. It all comes down to putting out relevant, informative and enjoyable content. So what type of content works best to boost social media engagement?
Boost Social Media Engagement With: Videos
Did you know that social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined?!
There is a reason that the most viral content is usually video. It’s engaging, entertaining and gets your message across quickly, because let’s face it, we have all become lazy when it comes to engaging with content. Most of us would rather watch a 2 minute video than spend 10 minutes reading an article.
If you consider that “Sixty-four percent of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos” (via tubularinsights) you’d be mad not to consider video marketing to not only boost social media engagement for your brand but also to increase sales.
Here’s a few video ideas to consider:
- How to’s: If you sell a product, make a video explaining ‘how to use it’ or ‘how to wear it’ or ‘how to clean it’. Anything that’s relevant and useful to your customers. If you sell a service, make a video explaining how to use your service. Your customers will share your video with others if it’s something they find beneficial or entertaining, boosting your engagement on social media.
- Behind the scenes: Invite your followers behind the scenes of your business. Allow them to see how your product is made or the work that goes on to provide the service that you do.
- Animated explainers: You may have to outsource something like this, however they are inexpensive and are a highly effective way of getting your message across within a couple of minutes.
- Introduce your business: Tell your story to your followers. Where did you begin? How long has the company been going? What exactly do you offer your customers? Telling your story will humanise your company and allow your customers to put a face to the brand. People buy from people after all and it’s sure to bag a few likes.
- Testimonials: Interview your happiest customers. Ask them how long they have been using your product/service, why they chose you and whether they’d recommend you as a company.
Boost Social Media Engagement With: Images
High quality pictures also work well in pulling attention, Jeff Bullas reports that Facebook posts with photos receive an average 37% increase in engagement.
Here’s a few image ideas to consider to boost engagement:
- Infographics: Infographics are a great way to collate a large amount of information into one, easy to digest image. They’re engaging and highly sharable!
- Statistics or quotes: Pick a statistic that will shock or surprise your followers, or a quote that will inspire them or make them laugh.
- Team photos: Like a team video, team photos help to humanise your brand.
- GIFs: Who doesn’t love a GIF? They’re so effective, fun and sharable and they get your message across within just 2-3 seconds!
- Product photos: Ensure they stand out, look professional and present your product in all it’s glory.
TIP: 2 great tools to use to create professional visual content for free is Canva and Pablo. You can begin with a template or create your own from scratch, add your own text, images, logo etc. If you haven’t tried them out yet, give them a go. You won’t regret it! (For a list of other must-have tools, click here).
Boost Social Media Engagement With: Incentives
Freebies are guaranteed to boost engagement on social media. Everyone likes free stuff. Facebook contests to share, like, comment and tag are always drawing in thousands when there is a sweetener.
Give away time-limited coupons on disappearing Snapchat or Instagram stories. This will encourage your fans to keep checking out your pages for the next giveaway. Big chain stores have perfected the art of giving away promo codes, early tickets and other incentives on their social media pages.
Boost Social Media Engagement With: Other People’s Content
This may seem counterproductive because you’ll be helping to drive traffic to somebody else’s website, however it is in fact extremely valuable. By sharing content you know your own followers will find useful, you’ll gain likes, retweets and shares. This in turn gets your brand name out there as well as the content creator’s.
The original content creator might also like or share your post, therefore getting your name out to their audience, which could be a few thousand followers, resulting in further engagement and followers!
Boost Social Media Engagement With: User-generated Content
User-generated content gives your social media profile more authenticity. Your audience can see that it is not driven by big money publicists but common people with different opinions, likes and
dislikes. User-generated content can be, for example, testimonials or demos of your product at work.
2 brands that perfect their social media strategies with a mix of original content and user-generated content are Starbucks and GoPro.
Starbucks utilises Instagram to ‘regram’ the public’s own photographs of their Starbucks drink. This not only helps them boost sales but they also boost engagement on social media. Campaigns like ‘the red cup contest’ earn Starbucks thousands upon thousands of likes on Instagram but not only that, it encourages their audience to go out and get a Starbucks to be in with the chance of a regram from the brand.
GoPro use a similar strategy and share incredible photographs and videos taken by their followers on the GoPro.
GoPro use a similar strategy and share incredible photographs and videos taken by their followers on the GoPro:
Social media engagement is something that a brand that wants to remain relevant must do. It keeps your brand on the customer’s radar for better brand visibility and loyalty. So try out some of these strategies if you don’t already and see what works for your product or service.
