Without
engagement, your social media marketing efforts are a lost cause. Comments,
shares, links, and answering your calls to action in other ways are your
rewards for creating and curating amazing content. One thing that you may be
noticing is that some of your posts get more engagement than others.
Worse,
you may be struggling to produce content that gets much engagement at all.
Here’s the truth. There are simply some types of social media posts that earn
more engagement than others. Keep reading to learn more about the eight types
of social media posts that are more likely create buzz among your followers.
1. Educational
Content
How do I
do this? What does it take to accomplish this goal? What does this mean? Take a
moment to think about your motivation when you look something up on the
internet. In most cases, it’s because you want to learn something.
It may
be a snippet of information, or you may be seeking out the series of steps you
need to follow to solve a problem. Because of this, content that simply
instructs and educates is always a hit.
2. Content
That is Completely or Mostly Visual
The
infographic is the most shared type of content on the internet. That’s a pretty
significant fact if your goal is to increase engagement. It doesn’t take much scrolling
through Facebook and other social media pages to see that other forms of visual
content such as memes, gifs, videos, and collages are popular as well.
3. Content
That Simply Entertains
Quick!
Take a look back at the last ten things that you shared on social media.
Chances are, at least a few of them were shared simply because you thought they
were interesting or funny. You aren’t alone. The truth is, much of our social
media participation is motivated simply by our need to assuage boredom by consuming
entertaining content.
In fact,
if you check out brands such as Chipotle or Kate Spade, you will find that
large amounts of their most viral content marketing efforts are focused on producing content that entertains.
4. Touching
And Inspirational Content
Speaking
of the posts that you share on social media, it’s likely that more than a
few focus on stories of inspiration or advice that is either touching or
motivating. Stories of people who have overcome difficult challenges,
inspirational quotes, memes, and other content meant to inspire can quickly
earn shares and start some amazing conversations.
5. Lists
Yes, it
is still true. The list post remains one of the best types of social media
content when it comes to generating engagement. Even better, list posts provide
endless opportunities to revitalize and repurpose content. Remember that list
of tech tools that you created two years ago, or maybe you wrote a top ten post
of vacation destinations? You can revisit these on an annual basis and update
them with new information.
This
type of content may receive frequent criticism. However, the bottom line is
this. List posts are extraordinarily effective. In fact, the best websites
still rely heavily on the list post because of their nearly magical engagement
boosting properties.
6. Data
Backed Content
Case
studies, research reports, and other content that can be linked to verifiable
data sources are always popular. If you have audience members who love to dig
deep into big data in order to discuss and explore, consider taking a look at the most academic side of your niche.
7. Conversion
Oriented Content
You’ve
probably read that your content should be 80 percent focused on information,
entertainment, and education. What about the other 20 percent? The truth is,
the content that you use to push people further down the sales funnel is important as well.
One
thing that you will notice is that conversion-oriented
content produces a lot of engagement. Even better, this engagement is extremely
valuable because the conversations tend to focus on your products and services.
These
conversations are where dialogue happens about how your products work,
troubleshooting, shipping details, and other information that is useful to
people who are close to making a purchase.
8. Your
Story
Any
content that involves you giving your audience an insider’s view is going to
result in engagement. People are more likely to form bonds with and engage with
content that educates them about your brand’s story, the hard work, and dedication that has gone into
building your business, or even your personal struggles.
Share
interviews and profiles of your team.
Link to the founding story of your company in
your blog. Curate content that speaks to you personally, and let your
audience know why. Your followers will return the favor by commenting and
sharing their own stories and insights.
Conclusion
If you
haven’t been experimenting with the eight types of content listed here, it may
be time to begin. If you want to increase engagement and improve SEO, you might consider investing
more time producing the types of content on this list. You will soon find that
your audience share increases greatly and
that your relationships with those audience members are strengthened significantly.
About
the Author: Janet Anthony is a blogger from Kansas
City who has been writing professionally for five years now. She mostly writes
about social media, marketing, and blogging. Her motto is “What you do today
can improve all your tomorrows”. Find Janet here: facebook
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