Engagement is the name of the game when it comes to social media marketing.  Without it your posts will have little to no authority or reach.  So, what makes a social media post engaging?

Tasteful Humor

Clean industry related humor that comments on current events or common pain points is a great way to engage your audience.  Be sure not to be too controversial and know your audience.  Humor in bad taste can have a damaging effect on your brand.

Consistent Branding

Regardless of the content you are posting, you want to remain consistent with colors, logos and structure to build brand awareness.  Over time your audience will become familiar with your design and that familiarity will lead to more clicks, trust and engagement.

Helpful Content

Educational content is at the core of inbound marketing and making an effort to truly help your audience will build trust.  When a prospect receives value from your content they are likely to come back for more.  Avoid being overly self-promotional in your social media posts.

Create Intrigue

An intriguing or eye-catching headline is needed to spark the interest of your prospects and give them a reason to engage with your post.  Compelling headlines are as important to a social media post as they are for emails and blog articles.

Original Images And Graphics

Visual content is the most engaging across social media platforms and including video, infographics and high-quality images will draw attention to your posts and make them more shareable.  Just take a look at your current feed.  It’s mostly pictures and videos, isn’t it?

Company Participation

If your own team isn’t engaging with your content, how can you expect the rest of your audience to do so?  Getting your coworkers excited about your social media marketing efforts and encouraging their engagement will help increase the reach of your content.

Storytelling

Personalizing yourself and your brand are two of the most important factors in driving social media engagement.  Real life stories and experiences that are used to teach an industry relevant lesson will encourage your followers to engage and open up themselves.

Hashtags And Tags

Hashtags make your posts searchable and allow you to piggyback on popular and trending tag lines.  Selectively tagging parties of interest in your posts can help increase your reach, just be sure it is relevant to the people you are tagging.

Ask For It

One of the best ways to drive engagement is to simply ask for it.  Asking for suggestions, answers, experiences, comments or pictures is a direct way to improve your engagement and build relationships.  A genuine interest in your prospect’s views build trust and camaraderie.

To have any level of success with social media marketing you must focus on driving engagement.  Even if you’re supplementing your organic efforts with paid ads, engagement is what will give your content the reach needed to be effective.