And, as there are so many networks out there, you are bound to find one that will meet your needs and expectations – and where you can talk to your target audience, of course. But it is also true that what is a great marketing opportunity can also be seen as a challenge. The competition is stiff, and each person is receiving tons of information on their timelines on a daily basis. This is to say that grabbing their attention isn’t an easy task. Still, there are many businesses achieving this goal and so can you. You only need to be aware of a few rules that will increase your chances to write engaging posts to your audience, such as these below.
Rule # 1 – Adapt it to the social media network
The first big mistake that people make is to ignore the particularities of each social media network. There are so many of them to deal with daily that it is very easy to decide to go for an automation tool and just to write one single post and publish it as it is on all of them. But the thing is that while those tools are great resources to save time, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t adapt your text to each social media network. Facebook posts are completely different from Twitter and Instagram ones, for instance. While some of them are more visual, others require that you follow a specific format, such as the 140-characters’ rule on Twitter. So make sure that you analyze each social media carefully before publishing anything, so then you can start preparing posts that will fit their specifications and the expectations of their users.
Rule # 2 – Make it a conversation
If you want to write engaging social media posts, you will need to make them sound like a conversation. You will have to remember that people are there to be social, not for unilateral presentation – when they want that they go for blogs and sites, as you might know. That is to say that your posts should be interactive with a call-to-action that will allow your audience also to say what they think about the topic in question. Embrace comments and talk to them instead of pitching – hard sales rarely go well on social media.
Rule # 3 – Make it useful
With so much information available, it is understandable that people will start to screen what they are going to read or not. And if they don’t check your post, they certainly won’t engage with it. And with little time at their disposal, it is very likely that their choice will be for something useful, something that will worth those few minutes they have to spend on social media. So make sure that your post has some kind of takeaway, an extra that your audience will consider as relevant to them, or that will make their lives easier or happier. This is the best way to say that they will be interest in reading your post and, hopefully, will lead to a higher engagement rate.
Rule # 4 – Add auditory and visual resources
Another proven way to engage an audience on social media is by adding auditory and visual resources to your posts. And we aren’t talking about adding a simple stock image to it. The idea is to create and offer images that will trigger an emotion and this you certainly can’t get with cold pre-made resources. So, when possible, try to add photos of your own business, products, and services. Show your team and how you work. Create a video showing how your product is created or a podcast with your vision of the future. This will have a much higher effect on your audience for sure.
Rule # 5 – Keep it short
Least but not last, you should always keep your posts short. Most of the people don’t have the time or the patience to read long posts and don’t even think they should – they save those both things for books and blogs. So make sure that you go straight to the point, that your sentences are short, and that your paragraphs are easy to scan. This way your audience will be more likely to engage and share it.
To Sum Up
If you want to create engaging social media posts, you will have to keep them short and useful. Their format and content should be exactly what your audience is looking for and what the social media network in question requires. It is always a good idea also to add some visual and auditory resources to it, such as videos and photos of your company and products. If you do these things, you will certainly see the number of comments and shares increasing on your profiles and pages in no time.
