Four simple ways to boost your social media engagement right now

Creating engaging social media content can be daunting. You get that 'is this good enough' feeling when you are about to hit publish. With a gutsy click you send your post out in the digital universe and wait for the hundreds of likes, shares and comments to roll on in. But they don't come.

It doesn't have to be this way. Here are four simple things you can do right now to boost your social media engagement and ensure each post gets the love it deserves.

1. Write an irresistible headline

The best way to grab your audience is to create a great headline. I can’t stress this enough. It doesn’t matter how good your content is, if your headline is weak, people just won’t bother to click [tweet this]. Here are handful of proven headline tricks that work;

  • Use numbers. People are short on time so a number in the title communicates to your reader clicking the post won't take all day, it manages their expectations e.g 5 of Australia's most beautiful destinations to visit this year.

  • Use interesting adjectives to grab attention that your target audience will respond to e.g. unique, bangin’, brilliant, valuable.

  • Pose a question that your target customers might be asking themselves e.g. Do I really need to use Facebook? 

  • Make promises. Every customer is asking 'what's in it for me' so tell them e.g. 10 content tips that will boost your blog traffic.

  • Try a 'how to' headline, again another way to provide value to readers for bothering to click e.g. How to create the perfect about page.

Remember the goal here is to generate curiosity and command your reader’s attention.

2. Add a picture

We are visual creatures. The rapid rise of Instagram and Pinterest is proof of this. Researchers found that posting a photo resulted in an 87% interaction rate on Facebook and boosted retweets on Twitter by 35%.

For your best chance of getting attention images should be bright, clear and compliment your irresistible headline. 

3. Optimise for each channel

There’s a temptation to feed all of your social media channels the same piece of content. True it does save time and effort, but you’ll get greater engagement by customising for each channel. Why? Titles and word limits are different on each, photos won't feed to all (e.g. Instagram feeding to Twitter) and users behave quite differently on each channel.

I love this infographic created by My Clever Agency to visualise character limits, images sizes and other handy tips to create posts that are optimised for each social media channel.

4. Ask for what you want

If you don’t ask you don’t get. Make sure your posts have a clear call to action. Do you want your visitor to answer a question or enter a competition? By asking them to do something you have a sure fire way to encourage engagement. So don’t be shy and ask for what you want.

Over to you!
These four simple tips will start to see your engagement soar. What tips or tricks have worked to boost your social media engagement? 

Business TipsGuest UserSocial Media, Facebook, Twitter, instagram, LinkedInComment