When you’re posting on social media on behalf of a business, you want to post smarter, not harder. Content ideation, creation, and implementation are a lot of work. As a social media management agency, we would know (learn more about us at hellosmallstudio.com)! So how do you do more with less? We recommend pushing posts that are designed to boost engagement.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What is Social Media Engagement?
Social media engagement encompasses the many ways followers interact with your business on social media: likes, comments, saves, shares, responding to Instagram stories, tapping your bio link, clicking through to your website, and so on.
Why Do We Want Social Media Engagement?
You’ve heard of The Algorithm. It’s the unseen mechanism that uses your data to decide what content you will be served on social media. When you interact with a brand online, you’re likely to see even more content and posts from that brand. So do the math: get followers to interact (engage) with your business 👉 get more eyes on your content 👉 get more online followers 👉 get more real-world customers.
Here are 5 types of posts businesses can use to boost their social media engagement.
Giveaways
Nothing gets a surge of followers and engagement like an Instagram giveaway. You can give away a product you sell or service you provide, a product related to your industry, or even partner with a fellow business to cross-promote each other and tap into double the audience.
For engagement: When you host your giveaway, ask people to like the post, comment below, and tag a friend.
Pro tip: If you cross-promote, do so with a like-minded business that will attract quality followers and potential customers. There’s nothing worse than a tidal wave of new followers who later unfollow because they simply aren’t a good fit for your brand and services. The goal is to attract quality, not quantity.
Testimonials
Are you collecting testimonials or reviews? If not, you should. You can turn these into social posts that stop the scroll. Graphics with short words and quotes will catch people’s eye and make them want to pause to read. Here’s how to do it: Take a key snippet from a testimonial and use it for your graphic, then include the entire review in your caption. Potential customers can be swayed by the real-world, positive experiences of others.
For engagement: Invite people to double tap if they’re ready for a similarly great experience. Or you might offer a percentage off to the first 10 people who DM you about the related product or service.
Bonus: Reading reviews is not only interesting, it allows people to put themselves in another customer’s shoes. The added bonus? Sharing honest testimonials builds trust in your brand, products, and services.
Infographics & Numbers
What else slows the scroll on Instagram? Infographics and numbers. Think: pie charts, bar graphs, percentages, and any other visual representation of information. These are effective because, at a glance, people know an infographic or graphic with large numbers will be displaying key information that’s of interest. Curious minds want to know what this info is. It must be important if you’re putting it front and center in a social post!
For engagement: Ask people to share their reactions to this information in the comments.
Pro Tip: If you’re wondering what type of information to share, look at your own business or within your industry. You might find statistics that support a need for the services and products you offer. For example, our social media agency has shared that 80% of consumers are doing online research before they decide to use a product or a service. This supports a business’ need for building a presence on social media (and hiring us to help!).
Job Opportunities & Work Culture
Show off your work culture, giving a behind-the-scenes look at what makes working with you so great. This builds familiarity and gets people thinking, “This seems like a great group of people to work with/for.” When you’re hiring, post about that too. Think about it: When a brand you love posts a “We’re Hiring!” graphic, you can’t help but stop to read about the position.
For Engagement: Urge followers to share hiring posts with any friends who might be interested in applying.
Pro Tip: Instagram story takeovers are an easy way to showcase work culture on social media. You can also showcase each person’s area of expertise by asking them to talk about their favorite products and services related to your industry, or “the one thing I wish customers knew before working with us.” The goal is to build trust in good work being done by good people. If your business is too big for individual employee spotlights, remember to recap company-wide gatherings and noteworthy achievements as they occur.
Humor & Memes
As humans, we love to laugh. We’re all familiar with memes on social media. In fact, they’re a great way to slow the scroll. Why? Memes have a formula we’re familiar with. When we see a meme, even before we’ve read it, we know the type of content to expect. At a glance, we know this meme might be clever or give us a laugh. So we stop scrolling to read and digest it—and hopefully enjoy it.
For Engagement: A really clever meme is highly likely to get likes and shares.
Bonus: Not only are memes inherently fun, they show that your business knows how to lighten up. If it’s on-brand for you, make humor a part of your social media personality. At the end of the day, customers are people who love to laugh just as much as anyone.