4 Tips to Create Engaging Content For Social Media

Social media is different from blog posts and email marketing newsletters. Given the huge amount of content on social media, people usually consume your content instantly, probably just a few minutes or even seconds. If you want to promote your brand to social media users, you need to have eye-catching, attention-grabbing, compelling content on the social media platform.

However, what's compelling for a blog post and email marketing content doesn't necessarily make for compelling social media posts. There are a ton of emerging trends when it comes to social media content, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. But social media doesn't have to be difficult.

There are four things you should know when creating engaging content for your social media strategy. The more you're able to engage with your target audience, the more your brand will resonate with them and drive conversions. You can even create higher-converting social media ads.

1. Share customer testimonials

Before it became one of the biggest digital marketing platforms today, social media was – and still is – a place where users connect with their friends and family. However, it has also become a source of information, including product reviews. 

Social media users are more likely to trust reviews and testimonials from their friends and family over branded content because they are more genuine and story-driven. In addition, the customers you feature in testimonials are more likely to share your content and increase your brand exposure.

Where can you find customer testimonials? These can take on many forms, all of which can serve as your content:

• Reviews on your business. You can find these on your eCommerce page; or if you're a restaurant or hotel, on your travel listing. We suggest you use marketing automation tools when you're receiving a large influx of customer testimonials. Judge.me allows users to share their reviews on social media automatically and manually.
• Customer messages. When customers personally thank you for your great product or service, you can take these texts and make testimonial content out of them. Just be sure to ask permission from the customer first.
• User-generated content. These are social media content uploaded by customers focusing on your product. Ask users to use your hashtag or tag your company account so that you may repurpose their social media content as part of your social media posts. You can also synchronize the content and display it on your storefront using a widget like UGC Media Grid by Judge.me.
• Utilize video testimonials. You can also incorporate testimonials in your product video.

Using testimonials for your social media content increases social proof, and is a cost-effective way of brand building through social media.

2. Search for trends

While SEO allows your page to rank high in search results, it tends to be more of a long-term play, especially when we consider how long SEO takes to work after you’ve implemented it on your on-site and guest content. If you want quick exposure for your brand, social media is the way to go – and knowing what’s trending will help you create social media content that generates engagement.

As a content manager, you need to know the latest news, design trends, humor, and information surrounding your audience's niche. Doing ample research on these trends will allow you to naturally make engaging relevant content. 

Here's what you can do:

• Search for trending hashtags on Twitter. Alternatively, you can look at trending searches on Google Trends. See where the buzz is so you can position your social media content in a relevant light. You'd still want to be true to your niche and industry, though.
• Follow influencers within your specific audience and social media followers' niche. You can then take inspiration from the type of content they produce, and keep updated with the latest news surrounding your niche.
• Watch YouTube videos that interest your niche (i.e., pop culture, travel blogs, gaming streams). Read the comments section as well. You'll be kept in the loop with the latest trends within that interest via YouTube recommendations.
• Join group forums, online communities, and discussions. You'll see questions and topics on these social platforms that your audience is passionate about. You can then create educational content around those topics.

Trend research generates insightful and relevant social media content ideas. You wouldn't want to do content planning around topics that your target audience is indifferent to.

3. Repurpose your existing content

You can't rely on a single marketing channel for your content. You ought to use multiple relevant marketing channels for content distribution. But you don't need to hire an entirely new team just for another channel.

You can simply repurpose the content that you already have. How?

You can repurpose blog posts, lead magnets, newsletters, webinars, etc., and incorporate them into your social media content strategy. For instance:

• You can pick the main points of your 2000-word blog and create a Twitter thread.
• You can turn your case studies into infographics optimized for social media content.
• You can turn your educational content into short videos for Instagram stories.
• You can turn your industry research into video stories for Facebook.
• A section from the lead magnet used to generate leads can be used for Facebook live content.

The possibilities for repurposing content are endless. This makes the most use out of any content you produce, maximizing the marketing efforts of your content team.

Another benefit to repurposing content is that your brand will have more content to work with. You should be able to fill a content calendar with repurposed content. Part of your social media tools should be a content calendar where you lay down your content marketing schedule on your brand's various social media accounts and social channels.

Repurposing content into social posts nurtures your current and new followers on social media.

4. Use your own photos

Apart from relevance, another key element to creating interactive content is visual appeal. Does your content instantly catch the audience's attention in the split second of a scroll? Or is it bland and text-heavy, such that social media users don't even stop at it?

We'd like to stress the importance of using your own photos. Stock photos may aid your readers through blog content, but you'd want to stand out with a unique image when it comes to a social media post. 

Here's what you can do:

• Hire the right people. You'd want to be hiring a photographer, graphic designer, video editor, and copywriter. They will help you create content unique to your brand.
• Create an archive of company photos and video content. This will be useful for piecing together engaging social media content.
• Store these photos on the company's cloud drive to allow for easy remote collaboration. 
• Encourage happy customers to use your brand's hashtag to easily gather UGC.

Having your own curated content (visual content) is not only helpful for your social media content strategy, but also critical for branding, digital marketing, sales, and other marketing campaigns. 

In closing

In the fast-paced world of social media, it's tough to stay on top of the various techniques in creating engaging social media content for every social platform. Take note of these techniques, they'll help you create optimized social media content to reach a wider audience, and increase sales and engagements.

Start creating genuine content, search for trends, do some market research, and you can create relevant social media content seamlessly.

Also, repurpose your existing content to get the most output per creative input. And finally, use your own photos. These tips are essential for your branding and social media marketing.

Follow this guide closely and you'll effectively increase your social media presence through a good social media content strategy.

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