It’s not a secret that our attention spans have shortened since the rise of social media. With endless content at our fingertips, we’re only intrigued by posts that catch our eye.
As a business, you need to catch a potential buyer’s attention before anything else. Make sure they don’t scroll past your post. Creating engaging and shareable content is key for businesses to connect with their audience and increase their online presence. However, with so much content being produced daily, it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd.
While you need to keep engaging content on your website, it’s essential to use social media to engage with your potential customers. With the vast amount of content available online every day, it can be hard to find what makes your business stand out from the rest.
Use the following tips to create content that both resonates with your customers and is easy to share.
1. Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is essential when creating content. You need to know who they are, what their interests are, and what type of content they engage with the most. Conducting market research and analyzing your social media analytics can help you get a better understanding of your audience.
Knowing their preferences and what they expect from your business is important for retaining customers. Once you know your audience, you can create content that resonates with them and encourages engagement.
Let’s say your target audience is dentists. The content you create will be tailored to them and what they need the most. So while promoting your dental supplies, you don’t ostracize your audience by covering something like pop culture.
Also, be mindful of representation. You want your content to reflect the diversity of your customers.
2. Be Creative
Creativity is essential when creating content that is shareable. Try to come up with unique and exciting ways to present your content. Use eye-catching visuals, and interactive elements, and add a personal touch to your content.
Create quality visuals. Visuals play a crucial role in social media engagement. A study by Statista noted that carousel posts on Instagram (meaning feed posts with more than one visual) drew the highest engagement from a business page’s followers with 3.15%.
High-quality visuals that are relevant to your brand will appeal to customers. This could be images, videos, infographics, or even GIFs. When using videos, be sure to choose an eye-catching thumbnail to draw attention to it.
Don’t have access to high-quality images? You can search free stock photo websites to find what you’re looking for. Make sure you add your logo somewhere though.
If your business lends itself to it, utilize user-generated content (UGC). This can be customer photos using/wearing your products, at your place of business, or promoting your business online. UGC is an excellent way to boost engagement and promote your brand. Encourage your followers to create and share content related to your brand, such as reviews, photos, or testimonials.
3. Use Storytelling
Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level. People love stories, and if you can tell a compelling one, they are more likely to share it. Use storytelling to communicate your brand’s message and values. This will evoke emotion from your potential customer.
Emotions can be a powerful motivator for engagement on both social media and your website. Use emotional triggers such as awe, happiness, anger, or sadness in your content to connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Your customers are more likely to remember stories than facts and statistics. By using storytelling in your content, you can create a lasting impression on your audience.
For example, say you have a blog post on your website that is mostly text. Use a high-quality photo or video, put a clear message that relates to the blog post over the image, and link back to your website. This makes the information easier to share and is likely to get more traction online.
4. Make It Useful
People love content that is useful and provides value to them. Create content that solves a problem or answers a question for your audience. This could be in the form of a how-to guide, a list of tips, or a tutorial.
Implement the “They Ask You Answer” methodology. In short, companies that use this method are so focused on consumers’ questions, wants, desires, and needs that they’re willing to change and evolve their business model around those elements.
SourceClub uses a mix of infographics, a carousel of tips, and checklists to give their followers both useful and fun shareable content.
5. Keep It Simple
Your content should be easy to understand and digest. Avoid using complicated jargon or technical terms that your audience may not understand. Keep it simple and straightforward, and focus on delivering your message clearly.
Statista found that in 2021, 47% of adults preferred to see a brand’s content in the form of images. That same study out of Sweden reports that 35% of adults said they liked to see brand content in video form.
Most social media users have a short attention span, so keep your content short and to the point. Use clear and concise language and avoid lengthy paragraphs.
Hootsuite used the New York Times Instagram as an example of a mindful post. The newspaper does a great job of visually catching the reader’s attention, making them want to visit the website for more information.
6. Use Humor
Humor is a great way to create engaging content that people will want to share. It helps you connect with your audience and make your content more memorable. Building that relatability with your customers helps them feel more comfortable with your brand.
You can also use humor to engage with your customers. Social media is a two-way conversation. Engage with your customers by responding to comments, answering questions, and acknowledging their feedback. This shows your followers that you value their opinions and are listening to their needs.
Sometimes your posts don’t necessarily have to be promoting your brand. Jump on a trend and use it to your advantage. We made a video using a popular Pedro Pascal trend and it got more traction than a majority of our posts.
Be careful not to offend anyone or use humor in a way that is inappropriate though. That could damage your brand and business’s reputation.
7. Encourage Sharing
Make it easy for your followers to share your content by including social media share buttons on your website and blog posts. You can also encourage sharing by running social media contests or asking your followers to tag their friends in your posts.
Consistency is key when it comes to content engagement. Post regularly to keep your audience engaged and interested in your brand. You can develop a content calendar like Buffer to help you stay on track with your social media posting.
Creating engaging and shareable content takes time and effort, but it can pay off in the long run. Use these tips to help you create content that resonates with your audience and increases your business’s online visibility.