Maintaining your online presence in this ever-changing landscape can be overwhelming. With new metrics, trends, and formats popping up constantly, it can be difficult to create engaging social media content.
Creating content is one thing but creating engaging social media content that resonates with the right audiences to drive results for your pages is a whole other beast.
What does engaging content mean?
Social media presence is a form of digital currency for brands, which is built up through engagement. What garners a response from your audience is how you define ‘engaging’. This means your subject matter should be fresh and keep your audience interested in learning more about your brand.
Engaging content is not one size fits all, it will take some trial and error to define what performs the best with your audience. By continuously testing you will see what drives your followers to take action.
How to measure engagement on social media
If engaging content is any type of content that gets your audience to take action, how exactly do you measure that? Easy! You get to define the metrics based on what your goals are.
As with regular marketing campaigns, you can set KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure the success of your content marketing strategy. These KPIs will also be specific to your platform.
On Instagram, one of the most identifiable metrics is ‘likes’ on a post. Whereas, on Youtube, the primary metric is how many views a video has. These metrics are direct results of the type of content on these platforms and the specific way people can interact with them.
How you measure engaging content depends on what you would like to get from social media. It could be in the form of likes, shares, clicks, form fills, or any other type of action.
9 Highly Engaging Social Media Content Ideas
Not sure where to begin? Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. Try these and keep in mind how your audience responds.
Remember that testing is key to pinpointing what your audience is looking for. Because the digital landscape is ever-evolving, you want to consistently dish out engaging materials.
Ask for feedback in the form of quizzes, polls, or questions
This is a great way of giving your audience a place to share their thoughts. Something as simple as a poll will make your followers feel like their opinion matters (because it does!) and will get them invested in the results.
Sharing User-Generated Content
You don’t always have to create new material from scratch. Find ways to share photos or videos that members of your community have posted already. Sharing user-generated content shows your audience that you’re paying attention and appreciate their support.
Share reviews or customer testimonials
Before you try a service or product you’re probably going to take a look at what other people are saying. Word of mouth goes a long way in affecting buying behavior. If you’re collecting reviews on your website you can repurpose them into a visual graphic.
Even if you’re not formally collecting reviews, maybe a customer has shared feedback via email or in the DM’s. This is material that can be shared (just ask for permission first). It’s a great way to show your brand’s personality through the eyes of others.
Run a sale or offer a discount
If someone is already following your brand, whether they’ve purchased from you or not, they are bound to be interested in a sale or discount. You can make a promotion compelling by doing it on products that don’t usually go on sale or by making it time-sensitive so customers are motivated to act fast. For example, hold a flash sale on one specific product or service for only 48 hours.
Hold a contest or giveaway
One of the most effective ways of activating your current followers and driving new traffic to your page is by hosting a giveaway. Integrate a call to action in the giveaway mechanics and make sure they’re specific to the platform.
If you’re looking to get more followers, you can direct participants to tag a friend in the comments. It’s a great way to get initial engagement. Just make sure to keep those new followers interested once the giveaway is over.
Create ‘saveable’ content
The idea is to create a post with information that someone finds useful. It could be a recipe, a guide, or a how-to. Creating an Instagram carousel is a great way to share this type of information. On Instagram for example, you could include a call to action such as, “Save this post for later.” The save function, much like liking or sharing the post, is a great metric for engagement.
Create a ‘viral’ meme
Memes are highly-shareable posts usually anchored in a pop-culture moment. Most meme opportunities come from current events such as award shows, red carpets, or film and television shows. Memes are engaging because of their relatable nature.
If you can apply your brand persona to a pop-culture moment that’s getting a lot of attention, your community will see that you are in on the joke and feel more connected to you. However, keep in mind that this strategy will not work for every brand niche.
Give your followers a behind-the-scenes look
With so many brands fighting to make a lasting impression, one way to stand out is to be transparent. People love to feel that they are seeing something they wouldn’t normally be privy to. Instead of focusing just on the finished product, take your customers on a behind-the-scenes journey. A great way to showcase this is within Instagram Reels or Stories.
Repurpose existing content
Another way to minimize the amount of content you make from scratch is to work with your existing pool of evergreen materials. Maybe you have some lines in a blog post that would make good quote graphics for Instagram. Or maybe there’s a long-form video that can be edited into a short Tiktok or Reel.
Creating content doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It won’t always be easy. However, once you find what works for your platform and for your audience, you can go from there.
The key is to listen to what your audience is saying. The most engaging content reflects the current time and feelings they may be experiencing. Enjoy the process and continue to learn. Social media is constantly changing, and what works today might not always work tomorrow.
