Seven ideas for creating engaging social media content
Stuck for ideas for creating engaging social media content for your business? Here are seven ideas to inspire you.
If you want to build a large, loyal and engaged social media following, then you need consistency great content to share with them. But working out what to post day after day after day can be tough.
To help you create and share content your audience will love and want to engage with, here are seven ideas to inspire you.
1) Be relatable
It’s important to be relatable. Your audience needs to feel that the voice behind the brand is authentic – and one they can feel a connection with (or feel that the brand understands them).
A good way to do this is to share topical content and show your thoughts and opinions on relevant and topical issues. Don’t be overcomplicated, speak in a way that’s easy for your audience to understand. Be approachable and transparent, and build that all-important know, like, trust factor.
2) Make the most of user generated content
User generated content is an easy and cost-effective way of not just getting great social content, but building customer loyalty and spreading the word about your brand. So no wonder any big brands like to use it.
Many run a competition-style campaign to encourage participation. For example, asking customers to share photos or videos of them using and enjoying their products, and sharing them with a specific hashtag to enter a draw.
Before you launch a user generated campaign, its important to understand the rules and best practice around competitions. You also need to make sure you obtain permission before using any images for videos that are sent you.
Love some inspiration? You can check out 15 examples of big brands using user generated content here – and get tips on how to adapt them for your own campaign.
3) Create case studies
Case studies are a powerful form of content. They can be generated through projects you’ve worked on, and can highlight your strengths and the kind of results potential clients can hope to see.
They’re one of the best ways to give customers an idea of the way you work, the problems you solve, and demonstrate how happy your clients are. Never written one before? You can read an easy guide to writing a case study here.
You don’t need to go to the lengths of writing a case study to maximise the impact of social proof, and showcase your great work.
Shroter testiminals and reviews can be just as powerful, and make great social content. A testimonial can be shared as a written quote on the body of your posy, or designed into an image to share. You can find out how to use testimonials to speed the word about your work here.
4) Celebrate milestones
Every business has milestones. Whether it’s the one-year anniversary of your opening, the development of a new product or even reaching 1000 likes, it makes sense from a strategic standpoint to celebrate it.
Content like this gets your audience engaging, which moves you further up the Facebook timeline, meaning even more people get to see your content. It also highlights your achievements.
So what milestones can you celebrate? Are you approaching any significant business anniversaries? Have you just sold your 1,000th product? Served your millionth customer? You can even create your own unique ahstag to celebrate your milestone.
5) Plan seasonal campaigns
There some key times of the years – seasons and holidays – that are a gift for companies on social media. The obvious ones include Christmas, Easter and Valentines Day. But there are many other celebrations and events around the year you can use too.
Some are universal, such as public holidays and national celebrations, whereas others will be unique to your particular audience. For instance, there may be a day highlighting a cause, condition or career that is closely connected to the people you serve.
So find a calendar with all national holidays and important dates, and plan your seasonal social campaigns to make the most of them.
Advance planning is essential – you want your posts to start building excitement well in advance of the actual day. For example, you want to start sharing Valentine’s Day posts at least two weeks before the day, and increase your activity in the last few days’ run up, when purchasing hits its peak.
6) Promote new products
If you’ve got new products or services in the pipeline, you can create a buzz mourned them by teasing content before their launch.
Sneak peeks generate excitement and anticipation, but make sure you write clear and concise information about where and when your product or service is available. If you have waitlist, ensure you include links so people can join it, and have good quality images or video content.
You can see some inspiring examples and get tips to help you create a powerful pre-launch campaign here.
7) Ask people to vote
Whether it’s a poll, a question or even ‘post a comment to vote’ – content that asks people to share their opinions builds engagement. It promotes commenting, which boosts your posts up through the platform’s ranking systems.
It also indicates to your followers and customers that you care about their opinions, which helps build brand loyalty. It shows that what they want and need matters to you, and gives the impression that the products and services you sell are ethically created to genuinely deliver value and serve your customers.
Here are some quick tips to help you create popular polls:
- Make sure they’re interesting and relevant – Is the topic relevant to your audience? And will they care enough to actually engage with your poll?
- Post in busy times – You’ll get the highest engagement if you actually post when people are on the social platforms then.
- Don’t wear polls out – People will be happy to engage with the occasional poll. But if you’re badgering them daily for their opinions they’ll get bored fast – and your engagement will drop.
- Engage with comment – Respond to any comments and answer questions about your poll. If people have taken the time to respond to them, then it’s only polite to reply! They’ll also feel that their opinion matters, and will be more likely to interact again in future.
Donna Costello is the founder of Spark Social, an ‘out of the box’ social media agency with a diverse content writing skillset.
Photo by Will Francis
