How to Create Engaging Social Media Content That Can Drive Results by @KunjalPanchal

We all know that social media plays a great role in your marketing success.

There are 2.8 billion social media users globally in 2017.

But you must do it right.

Social is about sharing and building a relationship with your audience first, not selling.

Social media channels provide you an opportunity to start a conversation with your audience and deliver the right message.

You have to focus on sharing relevant and helpful information to build trust.

Trust = conversion.

Here are nine proven ways to create and share engaging social media content.

1. Stop Using Text, Start Showing

Photos received more likes, shares, and comments than text or links. People don’t like to read text posts on social networks. Images help your message go viral.

Be creative. If you are creating a design for your social media updates, always try to place your image within empty space. It makes your design more beautiful, readable, and more engaging.

Visual content is more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content.

Here is an example of a design from Piktochart:

2. Use High-Quality Stock Photography

“Don’t settle for anything less than you deserve.”

Your graphics quality represents your brand. Never use cheesy photographs.

Don’t just go to Google image search and use the images from there because copyright belongs to someone else.

You have to find photos which are legal without any copyright issue.

But where can you find these images?

Plenty of sites provide beautiful and high-quality images for free, including:

• Canva.
• Pixabay.
• Stokpic.
• Unsplash.

Now represent your brand with beautiful graphics.

3. Recycle Your Evergreen Content into Infographics

Infographics are shared and liked 3x more than any other type of visual.

Every brand should create infographics to deliver an informative information in a more interesting way.

People are showing interest in infographics, Google Trends shows that:

Show your creativity while designing the infographic. Try colors, charts, and graphics.

Do you have an evergreen article that is helpful and relevant?

You can repurpose this into an infographic and promote it via your social media channels. You can use online tools like Canva or Piktochart or you can hire a professional designer to design a beautiful infographic for you.

See how Visual.ly shared their infographic on Facebook:

4. Share Customer Testimonials & Reviews

There is no one better than your happy customers to tell your success stories. Most of the people relying on customer reviews before making a purchase.

It can be a great idea to share customer testimonials, success stories, and reviews on your social media channels.

Eighty-eight percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Ask your happy customers for testimonials on your social media channels and they’d love to do it. Or you can also run a social media campaign and ask people to share their experience.

Share these customer reviews and testimonials on your website like how LiveChat did it:

5. Search Visual Trends on Pinterest

Want to learn the latest visual trends?

Do you want to find which type of content getting more engagement?

Pinterest can be your friend!

Use Pinterest to search the latest visual trends (infographics, photography, videos, and more).

There are more than 75 billion ideas on Pinterest.

6. Host Contests & Surveys

Social media contests and surveys are the great ways to boost your engagement. Run an irresistible contest on Facebook (such as a free giveaway) or Instagram asking people to like your page and submit their email address to participate in the contest or a survey.

You’ll get a great number of new social followers and subscribers. Did you know, 35 percent of Facebook fans like a page so they can participate in contests?

A T-shirt company called Qwertee ran a contest giving away free shirts on their Facebook Page. All you have to do is like their page and enter your email address.

7. Tag Influencers & Bloggers You’ve Quoted in Your Message

Have you used amazing quotes from other folks in your blog posts? Tag them in your social message and give a link to your content.

Or you can also design a beautiful graphic by using tools like Canva or Photoshop and tag that person in your social message. They will appreciate it.

8. Add Social Media Buttons to Your Email Newsletters

Do you think email and social media are competing marketing channels? Think again.

Email and social media actually work hand in hand.

Place social media buttons in your email newsletters. Ask your email subscribers to share your content. Email with social sharing buttons increase click-through rate by 158 percent.

Send a dedicated email campaign and ask them to follow you on social media, it will help you to generate more fans and followers.

And you can also add an email signup form on your Facebook page.

Jay Baer says it best here:

“Email and social media have an important part to play in the conversation between company and consumer. They are strategically, operationally and tactically aligned — or if they aren’t, they should be.”

See how Crocs sent a targeted email campaign and asked subscribers to connect on social media:

9. Use Hashtags to Increase Your Engagement Rate

Hashtags are the most popular thing on social media channels. Hashtags help to find the relevant content and allow you to connect with other users.

You must share your content more than once with different headlines and hashtags. It will help you to increase your click-through rate.

Some quick tips:

• Keep your hashtags concise, relevant, and conversational.
• Don’t use spaces or punctuations.
• Don’t use too many hashtags in one tweet.

Tools like Twitonomy help you to find trending hashtags.

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Image Credits
Screenshots taken by Author, August 2017.