Social networks were originally conceived as platforms for communication and entertainment. Their rise in popularity has gradually led to them becoming an indispensable tool in the hands of marketers. This was facilitated by factors such as the huge number of subscribers, the convenience of direct communication with them, and the ability to promote a variety of types of business quite easily and naturally.
Over time, automated platforms such as POSTOPLAN became a more convenient option for creating and promoting posts in social networks and instant messengers.
The driving force behind these sites is content. Success or failure in promotion depends on its quality and content. If it is boring and monotonous, even the most interested subscribers will unsubscribe or go to competitors, taking with them all the activities and reach.
To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to maintain a certain balance between informational, selling (advertising), and entertainment posts, as well as try to involve the audience in communication with the brand. It is these goals that the engaging content is about in this article.
Types of Engaging Content
Engaging content is information that not only introduces the brand’s products or services, but also provides interesting information on the topic, captivates with creative presentation or content, and activates subscribers.
The role of engaging content can be texts of various formats, infographics, photographs, videos, stories, etc. “Entertaining” content is liked by users and, therefore, works quite effectively. At the same time, it is quite versatile, since it can simultaneously perform the functions of both informational and selling content. It will be distinguished only by the fact that instead of a call to go to the catalogue and place an order or perform another targeted action, you need to ask the audience to leave a like or comment.
There are several types of engaging content. Let’s get to know each of them in more detail:
- Contests and sweepstakes. These are posts in which, for a certain reward, users are invited to take an action: repost, share with friends, leave a comment, place a photo with the brand’s product under the post. Tasks can be the most basic (like) or more complex (write a detailed review about a product or service). The more difficult the task is given, the more valuable the prize should be for the winners. The most typical example of such engagement is to invite subscribers to repost notes on their wall up to a certain number, and on the appointed day to randomly choose a winner from among the participants in the drawing.
- Polls. These are posts with a given topic, in which the problem is first identified, and then users are asked to express their opinion by choosing one of the proposed answer options. Sometimes this format is not limited to prepared answers, and users who have not found their own version are invited to express their own opinion about the problem in the comments.
- Interactives. These are simple but exciting games in which users are asked to perform some actions: find and count the differences in pictures, solve a puzzle, or solve a rebus. Even elementary games like playing “in the city” are suitable, the main thing is to call subscribers to perform the simplest action: write an answer in the comments. The game can be played just for fun or until the first correct answer. In the second case, winners can be incentivized with small prizes.
- Situational content. These are posts reflecting the reaction to certain events from the social, political, or cultural lives of people. An important point: these events should be of interest to the target audience of the community where the situational content is posted. By quickly responding to some significant news feeds with relevant posts, SMM specialists can significantly increase the engagement of the audience, which will willingly express themselves and discuss in the comments. However, you need to carefully approach the choice of these news feeds so as not to provoke any scandal around your community.
Functions of Inclusive Content
From the outside, it seems like creating engaging content is easy. In fact, this is not the case. SMM specialists have to create a lot, and test different types of content, study analytics in order to understand which engagement options are best for and regular posting more effectively influence a particular audience.
Why is this painstaking work done? Engaging content provides undeniable value in promoting your brand, whether you’re selling nails or luxury real estate.
Community Building
Continuous engagement of subscribers through the types of content listed above is gradually gathering people with similar interests around the brand. Over time, a portion of this audience begins to play the role of brand advocates. They recommend products or services in the comments to posts, talk about their benefits to new subscribers, willingly communicate in community chats, and show other activities.
In fact, these are real buyers who, by their actions, help to attract other, still potential buyers.
Increasing reach and increasing brand awareness
You want to share interesting posts, funny memes, or prize raffles with your friends. Such content instantly becomes “viral.” That is, it spreads over networks at lightning speed. And the more reposts your posts have, the more users see them, and some of them become new subscribers.
Often, entertainment content attracts people to community pages who are interested not so much in the brand’s products and services as in prizes for participating in announced events. These are the so-called “prize hunters.”
Many SMM specialists treat them negatively since they are not subscribers or buyers. However, in everything you need to look for advantages, and in this case they are significant. Even if the “prize-catchers” do not join the ranks of subscribers, they significantly revive the traffic under the post with their comments and likes.
By raising the level of activity, they increase the reach of posts and, in the end, can generate interest in the brand’s product from many social media users who see the post in their feed, and even provoke, thus, an increase in sales.
Studying the target audience
It is known that users are the best to perceive information, the quality of which they consider acceptable for themselves. No wonder marketers advise that you speak the same language with your customers!
It is impossible to keep people’s interest by communicating with them at different levels, broadcasting values that are alien to them, or imposing opinions that they do not share.
To build brand communications competently, it is necessary to focus on the interests of its audience. In this sense, social networks are no different from other promotion channels. Thus, even when creating entertainment content, it is necessary to rely on a thorough analysis of not only the entire target audience but also its individual segments (if any).
Summing Up The Results
When analysing the work of engaging content, it must be remembered that likes, reposts, and comments are not its main goal. The effectiveness of all used entertainment formats should be considered in terms of conversion growth.
If thanks to such a posting, it has increased, then you are doing everything right. If the effect is zero, you should think more carefully about how to engage and activate users in your community.
Adhere to the optimal ratio of content (informational – 50%, selling – 30%, entertainment – 20%), make quality materials, use an effective automatic posting service in your work POSTOPLAN and your SMM promotion strategy will work 100%!
