What’s the difference between a social post with hundreds of comments and one with no interaction? Or a LinkedIn article that goes viral versus one with just a few hits? What if you’re just a few steps from greatness — or a larger social following and more website visits — with your content? What can you do to optimize your content and create those scroll-stopping moments that turn passive readers into active brand fans?
Videos and images for visual impact
Images and videos make your social posts 2.3 times more likely to spark engagement and sharing than those without them. Most savvy marketers are already aware of the power of visual media, but picking or creating the perfect visual is both an art and a science:
- Are your visuals easily understood at a glance? Images and videos should clearly illustrate the purpose of your content and its connection to your brand, product, or service.
- Do your videos contain captions? Captioning is inclusive, and it helps you capture the attention of audiences with a habit of scrolling with their sound muted.
- Are your visuals optimized for mobile viewing? Mobile users account for more than half of your website and social traffic. Optimize images and video content for every viewing experience.
- Are you giving your followers what they want? In a recent poll by video creator Animoto, customers ranked how-to videos as their favorite type of brand video content.
Headlines and hashtags to pique interest
Good headlines increase engagement, web traffic, and sales conversions. Create shareworthy headlines by:
- Asking a compelling question.
- Promising a solution to a common pain point — and delivering within the content.
- Including a number — of tips, tricks, solutions, concerns, predictions, or trends.
- Incorporating a trending topic.
Hashtags are your social media superheroes. They keep your content searchable (i.e., findable) and can bump your social engagement by as much as 100%. Hashtags expand your content’s reach beyond your network to anyone searching the term if you know and use best hashtag practices:
- Leverage a tool like Hashtagify to research strong and trending hashtags.
- Use a mix of industry specific and trending hashtags when appropriate.
- Use CTA hashtags to boost promotions (e.g., Coke’s #ShareACoke campaign).
Personalized content to add value and build trust
Engaging content is personalized content. To make personalized content work, you need to know yourself, your brand, and your client base.
Personalization goes both ways. Brand stories, personal spotlights, behind-the-scenes peeks, and other authentic content build brand trust and inspire customer loyalty. On the other side, knowing your customers and what they need at every step of their buying journey makes for a seamless, pleasant customer experience from research to actual order.
To personalize your brand, ask yourself:
- What parts of my brand journey are universal?
- What parts of my brand journey are unique to me?
- What stories from my brand journey can I share with my audience to make a real connection?
To personalize your content to your target audience, ask:
- Who are my customers?
- What are their needs?
- How can my content help?
- Are there any patterns in my customers’ feedback?
- What branded content gets engagement?
- What does that tell me about my customers?
Ready to amplify your brand for 2022? For personalized B2B marketing content specific to your industry and brand needs, the Active Blogs A-team is at your service.
