As you may know by now, your social media strategy is centred around social content. However, creating engaging content requires a lot of planning and consideration.

You may often find yourself wondering:

“Which creatives should I post today? How to write engaging captions that speak to my followers? And what does my audience like?” 

If you are still struggling to find that perfect balance between promotional content and brand personality, I get it! It’s not easy, and even sproutsocial market research shows that the pressure is increasing for brands as:

• 46% of Instagram users are annoyed when companies they follow share too much irrelevant content, while
• 41% of users said they’d unfollow brands that are posting promotional content too often.

Luckily for you, I’m here to help. Based on the most recent market research data, I’ve summarized a few content strategies that actually work!

Here’s what kind of content you should publish if you are looking to increase your followers and engagement on social:

How To Create Social Content That’s Engaging

1. VIDEO CONTENT

Yes, you guessed it! The best way to attract a new audience on social is through videos. According to Instagram analytics, video content (any kind – live, shot video, loop video) gets 20% more interactions than a static photo. #CliniqueMalaysia marketers have made videos their top priority and they seem to be applying this content strategy rather well.  

2. USER GENERATED CONTENT

Customers LOVE authentic content that looks and feels “homemade” versus promotional. So, I cannot even stress how important it is for a brand to create a branded #hashtag and encourage user-generated posts. #GymsharkWomen is an example of a brand that is successfully making use of user-generated content (UGC) on its social media.

3. HAVE A CONSISTENT THEME

There’s no doubt that Instagram and Facebook are visual platforms. Keep your feed colourful and consistent to attract new users and compel them to keep scrolling. Have a look at #Boscia’s eye-pleasing Instagram feed and you’ll feel you want to discover more.

Pro Tip: Use Pallyy’s Grids feature to plan & design aesthetic grid patterns for your Instagram – Try Pallyy FREE

4. REMEMBER TO ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE

It’s called “social networking” for a reason! I know it takes effort to respond to all client’s comments but it sure pays off to have a high channel engagement rate! You gain respect as a brand and you are showing that you value your customers. Starbucks marketing is highly focused on customer interaction and responding to customer requests/feedback.

5. ANALYSE & IMPROVE CONTENT FOR ENGAGEMENT

There’s no denying that social media marketing is a matter of trial and error. Always keep an eye on your most liked and most commented posts. This way you’ll know what is working (what your audience likes) – and you can focus on creating more engaging posts in the future. 

There are multiple social media tracking and analysis tools available on the market, and even Instagram, Facebook or Twitter now come with (FREE) built-in features. If you are looking for trending keywords hashtag performance tracker my go-to is #Keyhole (which is also FREE to use).

And with this, I’ll wrap up the checklist.

CONCLUSION- HOW TO CREATE SOCIAL CONTENT

Creating content for engagement is very different from sharing content for ROI. I truly hope you find my tips for engaging content useful in creating and curating content for your online platforms. The secret is to test different types of content and find the most engaging ones for your specific audience – with help from the analytics of course.

Are you looking for more Content Creation tips? Let me know in the comments. 

Featured Image: @acolorstory/Instagram