Are you spending hours and hours on creating social media content only to get zero engagement when you post it? Maybe you ran out of ideas and are burnt out creatively. You are not alone! Brands pour a lot of effort into creating social media content and at times struggle with content ideas.
Many businesses dive into social media platforms with the common misconception that content creation is easy. Well, it’s not. In fact, it is sometimes frustratingly hard. With the ever changing digital world, it also makes it harder to learn and adapt to newer platforms and styles of content.
What is considered “engagement” in social media?
They are essentially the interactions you receive with every post that you make. This includes likes, comments, follows, clicks on links, tags, direct messages and more. These engagements are a way to show if the content you are creating is really resonating with your audience.
Moreover, posts with more engagement will reach a wider audience! Organic reach is no longer prevalent on social media platforms. This means that it is crucial to create content that can boost engagement rates.
It is a very competitive process… But fear not! We will be sharing some important tips you need to undertake to boost engagement and your brand!
1. Analyse Your Social Media Performance
Before you create a plan for any type of content, you must assess and see how your current posts are doing. What are the engagement rates for your posts like? What is the visual style or theme? What sort of content are you putting out?
Also, have a look at your competitors or businesses similar to yours. What are they doing that you are not, and what can you do differently? What is the demographic? What do their audience seem to engage with? What is the frequency of posts/stories per week?
Examine your account and your competitors’ accounts to take note of what you want your brand to look like and be about. Once that is done, you can start to…
2. Create a Strategy
It is about your audience, not you…
Coming up with any type of content is easy. However, choosing the right content that is perfect for your audience is tough! This is why you need to create a content strategy that you can work around with.
Create three different content pillars. These content pillars are what you will be basing your posts on. For example, do you own a burger shop? You can create posts in regards to these three content pillars:
Make sure these pillars align with the interests of your audience with your company’s strategy. By personalising the content for your audience, your posts’ engagement rate will increase!
3. Create Visual Theme
Your font choice, colour, logo, and style is what your audience will remember you by. In this visual digital age, word of mouth is not enough to build awareness of your brand. Having a strong visual presence can build an emotional connection with your customers.
Consistent visuals can help build trust and grow familiarity with your brand. Once a customer connects with your brand and your services, they will likely engage with your content.
So create a colour palette, update your hero photo, create strong brand guidelines that you can stick to!
4. Content Ideas
Now that you have assessed your social media, created a clear strategy and visual theme, it is time to bring your content to life!
But where should you start? There seem to be so many possibilities when it comes to content creation… How do we know which types of content are valuable and popular?
Here are some social media content ideas that you can use to boost your brand!
1. Post Videos
No one likes reading. Well, that’s an exaggerated statement. But when was the last time you saw an instagram post that was a photo filled with paragraphs of tiny text? It’s most likely that you don’t remember because it was not engaging enough for you…
So what should you do?
HINT: Newer social media platforms such as TikTok are showing the trends of content consumption. The answer is:
People want to see movement, they want to see snappy edits; they don’t want to be bored! 86% of consumers want more video content from brands. Even a simple and short video taken on your phone can drum up likes, comments, and follows. If you have a blank image, find ways to introduce a little animation that can spice up your post.
Click here to read more about video content ideas for social media!
2. Share Reviews and Testimonials
This one is an easy one if you already have a collection of five star reviews. However, if you are struggling with getting reviews, now is the time to ramp up those numbers!
There is no trick or shortcut in getting reviews. All you have to do is ask. It’s as simple as that. Try to reach out and ask as many people through many mediums as you can. This includes emails, websites, social media bio, even in person!
Use these reviews and tag them on your social media so that they feel special and appreciated for taking their time to leave you a positive review! This will give your brand credibility which allows newer potential customers who are interested in your business to give you a chance.
P.S. Be sure to respond to negative reviews if you ever get them. Read more about responding to negative reviews here!
3. Use Stories
Stories are an awesome way to bring about new daily information to your followers or recycling reminders of events coming up! They are super interactive and sometimes more fun than regular social media posts.
There are many features on Instagram stories that can boost engagement. You can add buttons and links that give your customers a chance to reply or react to your stories. You can also create polls and have people vote! For example, are you releasing a new product and you want to know if people are interested in purchasing it? Put up a YES/NO button on your story!
Stories can give you real-time advice and feedback that give insight to what your customers want and expect from your brand! Make use of this and connect with your audience!
4. Host competitions
Everyone likes playing games. But everyone loves receiving prizes!
Competitions are a great way to increase engagement and they are also a perfect chance for you to connect with your customers on a personal level.
One of the most common and popular competition tactics on social media includes sharing, liking or tagging of a post. These are beneficial when it comes to boosting your algorithm. It brings the attention of other potential customers to your competition and your brand.
Just make sure that you need to carefully consider the rules and regulations of hosting competitions. Ensure that you do your research and really deliver the prizes as promised.
CONCLUSION
Content creation without strategy is a wasteful approach to digital marketing. It is very important that you assess your business and your competitors’ approach to social media marketing in order to increase engagement.
You can always experiment and create variations of different social content ideas, there is no definitive answer. Social media platforms are constantly upgrading and implementing new ways to keep users on the platform. Continue to research the new updates and learn what other successful brands do for their social media pages.
