How to write social media content that engages your audience.
Writing content for social media can feel like a dry and repetitive process. Chances are, if you feel that way about your social media, so does your audience. That’s why it’s so important to change things up and offer different types of value. In this blog article, I will unravel how to write social media content that keeps your audience engaged. If you’re looking for how to make better content or simply looking for content ideas, this article is just for you.
Research. Get to know your audience. What their interests are, what they value, what they struggle with, and what type of content they favor. You can do this by finding what type of content your audience likes, or which of your posts have received the most organic engagement.
Write to your audience, for you audience. Talk about things they want to talk about. Don’t talk at them, talk with them. Social media was made for starting conversations, sharing opinions, and spreading ideas. Your content shouldn’t be a sales pitch, it should provide value. Using words like “you” and “your” will increase the personality of your message, and will help produce more engagement.
Short and concise. Especially on social media, audiences today have a very short attention span. It can take as little as a split-second scroll for them to decide whether or not they will stop and consider what you have to say. This makes the first few words of your post crucial, and your visuals even more so. Once you have their attention, don’t ramble on, either. Studies have shown that posts with 100 - 250 characters pull the most engagement.
Visuals. Arguably the most important part of your post. Content with images produce almost twice as much engagement, and videos even more so. Make sure your visuals match the message of your post and help strengthen it. The only action that a boring or confusing image will inspire is to keep scrolling.
Power words. Action words that tap into and provoke emotion are a great way to identify with your audience and inspire them to take action. There are lists of power words that can be found throughout the internet, but typically using a thesaurus after writing your message works well too. Trying to find and use words that highlight a deep expression of a feeling will help your audience better imagine and identify with your message.
Call to action. Not a call to action to provoke a sale, but simply asking the reader to take action on the post (like, comment, vote, share) will change your engagement rate drastically. You can also use this to inspire your audience to send you a message or click a link to learn more.
What you post is just as important as how you write it. Your content should be targeted towards your audience and should contribute to a conversation. You may cover current social media trends or tell a story about your business. Whatever it may be, make sure it allows room for your audience react to it and provokes engagement. Here are some ideas for what to post.
Educational content. How-to’s are great for not only providing value, but for optimizing your content for search results as well. How-to’s are in the top 3 types of search results across America, so it would be important for your brand to appeal to that side of human curiosity. Other types of educational content that perform well are infographics, blogs, articles, and guides.
Entertainment. This can be humor, “hot-takes,” or social media trends. If you can entertain your audience, they will look forward to your content more and more.
Images and videos. A good, relevant graphic never fails to catch attention and inspire engagement. These can be action visuals, informative visuals, or just aesthetically pleasing. If you own a restaurant, post appealing pictures of your food. If you own a coffee shop, post videos of you making a special order drink.
Announcements. Company announcements are a great way to inspire organic traffic without having to write an actual sales pitch. They also promote engagement and can help drive more sales.
Events. Hosting events is a great way to spread word-of-mouth, get people to share your content, and increase organic traffic. These can be in-store events, online events such as webinars, or contests that award participants with a desirable prize.
Testimonials. The best way to promote brand trust and credibility is by posting customers reviews and testimonials. Stories of how you have helped customers will help your audience identify with you and allow them to visualize how you can help them too. Along with that, sometimes your customers provide better insights and messages to target your audience with than you can.
Trends. Social media trends, hashtags, topics, and references. Talk about what your audience is talking about. Reference the time of year, seasons, and holidays. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make holiday posts, and if you’re really feeling it, some festive designs for your content.
It will take some time, but mastering the art of organic content will help you increase your following, develop a stronger online presence, and will ultimately lead to reaching more customers. Just remember: always stay consistent, post about new things, and engage with your audience.
