Creating an engaging social media presence for your business is a crucial way to connect with the intended target audience. Social media is centered around reaching new audiences and forming relationships. To engage social media users, businesses share engaging content that interests and resonates with the target audience.

Hosted by Digital Content Producer Todd Schnick and various Denim Marketing team members, The Marketing Thread is a series of short snackable videos released monthly discussing current marketing trends.

In this feature, Todd is joined by Denim Marketing Founder and President Carol Morgan to discuss the elements and topics used to create engaging social media content.

Creating Content that Resonates

To attract the business’s target audience, engaging social media posts should focus on interesting subjects and include attention-grabbing content to draw in the audience. As well as sharing interesting content, businesses should invite followers to respond and comment to begin social media conversations with potential customers. Here are some content ideas for engagement that are popular and well-received on social media:

Photos

Capture audience attention by using photos with social media content. Social media users are drawn to posts that provide imagery, especially when the photos include people that they know. When a post isn’t accompanied by a photo, people are more likely to scroll past if the post lacks this eye-catching element.

Photos can be as simple as a shot taken with a mobile phone or more refined by using professional photography. If the photo is taken on a mobile phone, ensure it is a quality image with good lighting and that it crops out unnecessary aspects of the background.

Videos and Video Shorts

Movement on a social media feed catches eyes!  Posting videos or video shorts is a great way to draw attention on social media. Social media channels often emphasize video posts, so by posting a video, the content is more likely to rank higher and gain a higher reach than still imagery.

Here’s a secret! Videos don’t always have to be something that is filmed. Many videos on social media are video shorts made from a collection of still images to create a slideshow set to music with added graphics. These video shorts are easy and simple to create as most computers come with free editing software that can be used to make them. Or these shorts can be created by making a PowerPoint, animating the presentation and saving it as an MP4.

The Human Touch

One thing is always sure to interest people on social media – other people! Social media users are always interested in viewing content that includes people, especially when they are the real people behind a brand they love. Whether a photo of an employee anniversary, company personnel receiving an award or happy customers, the business’s audience can more easily connect to content that provides visuals of other people like themselves.

Photos of people receive much higher engagement than stock images or product imagery. Not only will sharing this imagery boost potential engagement, but when other users view the post and see how many other people are responding this may also increase the likelihood that they join in to like, share or comment on the post.

Testimonials

There are many different ways to share the great things customers have to say about their experience with the business. Create testimonials by sharing a graphic with a customer quote or a photo or video of the happy customers.

If your business doesn’t have any testimonials to share, start asking for them! This is a great way to promote the business and provide social proof of customer satisfaction. Ask for reviews on Facebook or Google My Business to build on the company’s online reputation and utilize these reviews for future content.

Ask Questions

Always ask questions on social media to provide the target audience with an opportunity to talk back and engage. If the business only shares news and other statements, its social media accounts will be one-sided rather than a two-way street open for communication with customers. Social media is designed for interaction and businesses that initiate conversations and interactions with users have an advantage over those that don’t. People love to talk back and it’s up to businesses to allow them to engage!

Fill in the Blank

Create interactive posts such as fill in the blank to offer followers a specific opportunity to answer a prompt. This helps guide responses and smoothly initiates a conversation for the business and its followers. Some users may answer the prompt seriously while some may take it as a chance to be lighthearted and humorous, either way, this is great engagement for the business!

This or That

Start a fun game with the business’s social media posts by asking users this or that questions. This provides a fun way to get people talking and also learn their opinions.

#ReplyPost

Using the #ReplyPost is an easy way to indicate on social media that the business is looking for responses and comments. Hashtags provide a straightforward way to direct followers to provide feedback on different social media content.

Polls

Another way to gauge follower opinions is by creating a social media poll. Several social media sites offer simple ways to easily create and share new polls. By using a poll, users are more likely to participate to see the answers of others and learn which choices are most popular compared to their own.

Ways to Get Noticed

Along with utilizing these topics and elements to create engaging social media content, businesses can also include several additions within the copy of their post to boost interaction and gain greater attention from the target audience.

Tag Others

Tag other people or companies mentioned in social media posts. This benefits the business two-fold because this content draws in supporters of the other company or person and also encourages whoever is mentioned to like, comment or share the post. When the audience of another company is attracted to your business’s social media content, this enhances its overall reach and engagement.

Use Emojis

Emojis are a great way to capture attention. Emojis are used to highlight words within a post or as a way to encourage followers to interact by responding with emojis. Emojis are a must-have element of interaction on social media that businesses should always incorporate into content to remain fresh and modern.

Hashtags

Hashtags are necessary for social media optimization as they are searchable and provide an easy way for social media users to find the business online. We recommend that businesses should use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram posts to offer plenty of keywords that people can use to search for the business. When creating hashtags it’s also important to capitalize every word to be ADA-compliant.

To avoid creating new hashtags for every post, save a collection of regular hashtags related to the business’s content. These can be used to accompany every post along with the addition of any new hashtags that are more specific to the content. There are also hashtag generators online that can be used to collect popular hashtags that perform well on social media.

Location Tags

Utilize location tags available on Facebook and Instagram. Location tags are a great tool to use for users in the area that view posts based on location. This is a way to increase reach and followers, especially if the majority of the business’s buyers are within the local area.

Creativity

Using graphics on social media is an effective way to provide fresh visual content and incorporate additional text. Create graphics that delight and inform to grab attention and interest followers. Canva provides an effortless way to create fun, eye-catching graphics to enhance the visual design on a business social media page.

Join Carol Morgan, Todd Schnick, Courtney Stewart and Mandy Holm for this free video series as they delve into topics guiding home builders and related companies toward marketing success. The Marketing Thread is a can’t-miss new series that promises to boost any marketing strategy with effective tips.

View all videos from The Marketing Thread on the Denim YouTube Channel.

For more information on how to work with Denim Marketing, call 770-383-3360, ext. 20 or contact us.