3 steps to create your most engaging content
Creating content is the first step to show what your business has to offer out there on the internet. The scroll on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even Linkedin is the window of opportunity you have nowadays to get in front of your next potential customer. The problem is, everyone else is doing the exact same thing on social media.
The competition is fierce and the attention scarce. How are you going to gain that click? What can you share that is different? A plain call to action has its limits and will not get you anywhere unless you are creating a loyal audience. How can your business achieve it? **Engagement**. How you as a business want your audience to interact with you.
Engagement should also be understood as **valuable attention through a period of time with a clear action intent**. The reward? Being top of mind, even for a moment, on your potential customers action course. So, without further ado, here is our **3 steps foolproof recipe to create truly engaging content**:
1. Know who you’re taking to
Imagine an ice cream seller out in the street blindly asking everyone to come taste their treats. Even worse, imagine this effort being held during a cold christmas day. Inefficient, a waste both of time and money. You have to know who is your potential customer and appeal to him/her.
There are different strategies you can use to understand the audience you already have. Which are their interests? What are they most likely to share and interact with? If your business is brand new, include this research in your benchmark. What’s the audience of my competition? Is it the potential customer I want? It’s a good practice to define it and even write it down, both your user persona (which are the characteristics of your desired customer) and your user journey (how is the interaction between you and your desired customer expected to play).
Once you have a clear definition of your audience it’s important to express in a relatable way. Care about your audience values and motivations and align what you share and how you share it in a way that positions your business as a clear echo chamber for their cares. Remember communication is 50% information, 50% emotion. So let’s talk about the information.
2. Share value
It’s not unusual to be afraid of sharing valuable content for free , you may be tempted to believe that by giving value away nothing is going to be left to get your potential customers into acquiring your own products. But it’s important to show upfront what you know, the opinion and knowledge you can bring to the table, and the willingness to share it with your growing community. Let’s go back to our ice cream seller. It’s clear we can imagine the success he can have by giving some _small_ free trials outside of the shop.
So, how can we make sure the information we share is valuable? Create actionable content. It’s one thing to talk about an interesting topic, but the really valuable content goes the extra mile and gives you something to do after consuming the information. It’s not only a call to action, it’s an actual plan. An easy to follow step by step guide towards change. Take this blogpost as an example.
Make sure the information you’re sharing is real. Accurate; you have done your research and can be sure there is no fake news, promises or statements. But also authentic, what you share was created by you, this is your message and your brand values and vision support it. Don’t be a copycat, trust your own business voice and create from within.
Care the package. No one will open a beautiful gift hidden within a hideous package. Make sure your spelling and editing is flawless; use visuals to get your message through and make sure your content is easy to consume. How long is it? Is it easy to follow along? At Social Piper, you can use our creative center to find the right visuals for your content on each specific social media platform.
3. Interact with your audience often
We’re back to square one. The key to create great content is to listen to your audience. And listen to it often. Every piece of content you create is a new opportunity for your audience to point you in the right direction. Did they like your content? How are they reacting? Are they sharing it? Make sure you get your insights from every individual piece but also make the regular practice of analyzing your content as a whole. Which are your best 3 and worst 3 pieces? Why?
If you feel you’re getting a weak response to your overall content there are some tricks you can use to prompt interaction. Tell a story. Create a character for the content, is there tension? Is there something to achieve? What role does your business play in this narrative? Share an opinion Be intentional and show your true colors. Remember you already checked in with your potential customers interests and values and are well aligned with them. Interact with the comments! Don’t rely on John Doe to answer that message on your post. Directly engage with your audience’s comments and become a regular on the conversation. At Social Piper we even have a community dashboard to make sure every comment is getting the attention it deserves.
There you have it. The next step is to start over. Based on your interactions with your customers you can go back and build an even stronger audience, one that shares the interests and needs that you business can speak to. What are you going to create now?