The Sprout Social Report 2024 states that the average person uses 6.7 different social networks per month and 143 minutes per day on social media. This huge usage indicates businesses and brands’ importance in creating compelling and engaging social media content.
Social media has evolved a long way, from text-only status updates to short-form and long-form videos and many other forms of content. Brands can use this to gain leads and improve their online presence. However, with so much information being produced daily, having the right social media strategy is not everyone’s cup of tea.
In this blog, let’s understand how to create content on social media that brings results for you and your business in 2024.
6 Innovative Ways to Create Social Media Content
A well-executed social media strategy is important for businesses to help you increase brand visibility, enhance brand reputation, drive website traffic, and generate leads and sales. Your content strategy should be in 3 forms, i.e., informational, educational, and promotional. Anything you post on social media should fall under these categories.
Most successful brands include a healthy mix of promotional and educational or engaging posts that can attract more customers. The most utilized content formats to boost your engagement are video content, interactive elements, and user-generated content. While each format has unique advantages, combining them can enhance your brand reputation.
Define Your WHY
Before creating your social media content strategy, understand your purpose. Follow Simon Sinek’s purpose of WHY. Ask yourself why you are investing time and resources on social media. Get clarity on your goals and understand your goals through these platforms. This process can help you analyze and create content that aligns with your business objectives—whether it’s increasing brand awareness, building community, or driving sales—and resonates with your audience.
Share Authentic Experiences
People forget brands, but they remember stories. Share authentic stories that highlight your brand journey. Authenticity builds trust and credibility for your brand. Showcase the human side of your brand by sharing the successes and challenges. This way, you can connect genuinely with your audience by responding to comments and messages. Authentic experiences with engaging social media content can build your loyal community.
Also Read: How to Create a Strong Writing Portfolio
Use Platform-Specific Content
Every platform has unique features and expectations, and it’s important to customize your content according to them. Optimize your content according to the specific platform to reach a wider audience. For example,
- Instagram is an image-centric platform that boosts images and short videos.
- Twitter for short and brief updates and real-time content
- LinkedIn is a professional platform where founders, CXOs, and entrepreneurs are present. Brands can leverage this platform to share professional insights and longer articles.
Other than these platforms, multiple platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube cater to different types of content and audiences. So, if you’re still doubting whether to create content, you are missing the bigger picture.
Curate Content Pillars
Select 3-5 main topics on your niche and develop content across them. Your content should align with your brand value and audience insights. For example, if you are a content writer, your content pillars can be the latest trends and updates on SEO, how your customers gained traction through content, and the process behind the content writing; these pillars ensure a relevant and consistent content creation journey.
Use High-quality Visuals
A study by Venngage reveals over 51% of marketers use visuals in their content. It shows the importance of high-quality visuals, infographics, data visualizations, and videos. Tools like Canva and Photoshop help you design your visuals more easily. Quality visuals increase content visibility. The most utilized content formats today are as follows.
- Video content: Longform and shortform videos on IGTV, TikTok, and Facebook. In July 2024, Linkedin also started supporting the video content.
- Interactive Elements: Real-time viewer engagement using live streaming, polls, and quizzes.
- User-Generated Content: Testimonials or reviews that build trust and authenticity for you and your brand.
Analyze and Adapt
Study and analyze your social media content and ask for feedback from your audience through polls. Perform gap analysis and find the topics you are missing. Measure analytics through Google Analytics. Identify the content that receives the most engagement and repurpose it in your way. Utilize tools like Buzzsumo or SproutSocial for in-depth analytics.
Factors That Influence Content Engagement
An average person sees 100-200 brands online daily, making attention-grabbing the most important factor. Understanding and implementing psychological factors is required to draw user interaction. By utilizing these factors, creators can create social media content that resonates with their audience.
- Emotional Connection: Content that evokes emotion performs better and connects with people. A study by Fractl says that posts that create positive emotions like joy and pleasure have gone viral. Indicating the content with emotions leads to a higher engagement rate.
- Social Proof: Humans are social animals; we need proof to believe something. User testimonials, reviews, influencer partnerships, and engagement rates build your credibility and authenticity.
- FOMO(Fear of Missing Out): Creators can create content with limited-time offers and specific content for followers highlighting time-sensitive events, making people feel like they are missing out on something huge.
- Cognitive Lead: Content that is easy to process, like Infographics, data visualizations, high-quality visuals, and carousels, is most likely to have a higher engagement rate.
Final Thoughts
Creating engaging social media content is a combination of both art and science. You must understand the why behind creating content and the psychological factors that boost your content. It requires a deep understanding of your audience, curating content pillars, share authentic experiences on platform-specific content. Remember, what works today may not work tomorrow. The key is to stay updated with industry trends and refine your strategy based on performance and audience feedback.
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