Posting successful content on your social media platforms is all about strong research , creativity and the quality of your content. If, in the past, you’ve spent a lot of time brainstorming and creating content for your social channels only to find out that no one has liked it – let alone seen it – this is the blog for you.
Let’s put a stop to your low engagement with the following 5 social media practices.
What do you (or your team) do every week that your audience might be interested in?
Last week, my team and I (who are all working remotely due to the coronavirus lockdown) participated in a remote team quiz. As my network is full of other entrepreneurs, all with their own teams that they want to keep engaged during the lockdown, I shared an image of the team doing the quiz, in the knowledge that they would find it as interesting an idea as I did!
Some other ideas you could use are:
- Digital marketing strategy sessions with clients
- Talks or podcasts that you have hosted (with one or two key points to take away)
- ‘Over the shoulder’ content covering the completion of a project
Use humour in your content
“A good laugh makes any interview, or any conversation, so much better” – Barbara Walters
Using humour in your content helps your brand to appear more human, and opens up your content to facilitate a two-way conversation between you and your customers. (This won’t work if your customers don’t get your jokes – so make them as accessible as possible. In-jokes about Dan from Accounting aren’t going to work.)
A 2018 study found that 71% of consumers watch videos on social media for a laugh.
Answer questions
You know all those questions that get asked of you, your customer services staff, or the rest of your team via email, phone, and social media? Well they can be turned into engaging content. The fact that your customers are asking these questions probably means that the answers aren’t easily found on your website. Answering questions leads to engagement as you’re providing a genuinely useful service to your customers.
If you need some help to find questions, go to alsoasked.com and enter in your topic. Voila! You now have a list of questions.
Inspiring content
Users are inspired when they are shown that people are enjoying the same results that they want to achieve (ideally by following your guidance!). Just as gyms and fitness brands inspire their customers with before-and-after images and videos, consider what successes you can share with your audience.
You can even take this up a notch by providing a “how to” guide for your would-be customers, showing them just how it’s done, with real examples.
What content do your competitors post?
If your competitors are having a lot of success with their content, ask yourself the following questions:
- Which social channels are they using?
- How often – and when – do they post content?
- What themes and hashtags do they use?
- What sort of content is getting the most engagement?
- Is there any way you can improve on what they’re doing?
Don’t copy your competitors and risk becoming a poor imitation of something that’s already working. Instead, build on what your competitors already do well to create a solid foundation on which to promote your unique content on your channels.
Your brand, found
Check out the following guides and articles to give you a head start on helping your customers to find your brand:
- 9 steps to creating your own omnichannel content strategy from scratch
- 4 tips to position yourself as an expert online
- 3 changes that increased “user time on page” by two minutes
If you have any questions about using social media for your brand, just get in touch with me and I’ll do my best to help you out!