Wondering how to create engaging social media content for your business? Here at Healthy Dash of Social, we got you covered!

“Content is king.” Have you heard this saying? It’s the idea that quality content is crucial for successful marketing. While content can accomplish a variety of things – such as inform, entertain and inspire – its ability to engage your audience makes it an effective part of your overall marketing strategy. Here are five tips to help you create engaging content.

5 Tips For Creating Engaging Content

#1. Understand the importance of engaging content

Before you dive into how to create engaging social media content, it’s important to know the why behind doing so! Sharing engaging content is a great way to position yourself or your brand as a subject matter expert in your field. When you provide valuable content that addresses your audience’s pain points and helps them solve a problem, they’re more likely to engage with your content, trust you, and remember you when they’re ready to make a purchase.

Engaging content also helps grow brand awareness. Your audience will interact with content they like, sharing it to their social media pages, emailing it to friends and family, and tagging others in the comments on social media. More eyes on your content leads to more people knowing about your brand.

Content that’s engaging also gives your audience a feel for your brand’s personality. You’ll help people get to know you and the more personable side of your brand.

Additionally, engaging content can help drive traffic to your website and ultimately lead to sales. Content provides a great opportunity to ask your audience to visit your website to learn more or to take some other specific action, such as sharing your content, asking a question, or tagging a friend in the comments.

#2. Know what to talk about

As you start to plan out your content strategy, think about topics that your audience will enjoy. Begin by considering your audience’s pain points. How can you address those problems and offer up solutions? What information will your audience find valuable? Once you have a list of topics, start creating content! 

Your content can also be designed to inspire your audience, such as a feel-good story or motivational quote. What words of wisdom do you think your audience would enjoy?

Creating engaging content also provides you the opportunity to teach your audience about your brand in a fun way. For example, you could talk about your brand story, show how your products work, introduce your team, share fun facts about your brand, or offer a behind-the-scenes look at your company.

Fun holidays are also a popular time to create and share engaging content, such as social media posts celebrating National Ice Cream Day or National Puppy Day. The goal here is to create fun, sharable content that will engage your audience – just make sure it still aligns with your brand.

#3. Make your copy engaging

The amount of text included in your content will depend on the type of content. For example, you’ll probably have more text in a blog post than you do in a social media caption. Regardless of the amount of text, you’ll want to make sure it’s effective at engaging your audience.

Start by organizing your thoughts. It can be helpful to create an outline to make sure your ideas flow smoothly from one to the next, then going back and filling it in with more text. Adding visual elements such as pictures, videos, and pull quotes can also make your content more engaging (more on that in just a minute!).

Make sure your copy is well written. Before sharing, check for spelling and grammar errors, as these can distract your audience and pull their attention away from your message, as well as make your copy seem sloppy.

Content also provides a great opportunity to start a conversation with your audience! You can do this by using a call to action, or CTA. For example, ask your audience a question, then engage with them when they reply. CTAs are also a great way to get more eyes on your content, such as by asking your audience to share your content or tag a friend in the comments section.

#4. Make content visually appealing

When you’re ready to start creating your content, be sure to include a visual element. Even if your content is text-heavy, such as a blog post or article, including visuals will help capture your reader’s attention, as visuals are generally more interesting than text and can easily evoke emotion.

Think about how visual elements can emphasize important parts of your message. For example, in a research-based article, an infographic can be a great way to visualize the data. If you’re writing a blog post about a recent trip, include photos or videos to help your audience feel like they were there, too.

If using graphics, make sure the fonts, colors and other elements align with your brand. If text is included, it should be easy to read.  

Consider the platform where you’ll be sharing your content, as this can influence the look of your images as well as how many you include. On Instagram, for example, images are the main focus of the content, so keep that in mind before posting. You can upload a whole album of pictures to Facebook, but your audience may not want to scroll through too many photos in an email newsletter. When creating engaging content, think about how you can use images to attract attention, evoke emotion, and present information in an effective way.

#5. Find the content types that work for you and your audience

Now that you know what you want to talk about and the importance of quality copy and visuals, it’s time to decide on a type of content! The best content type will depend on your audience, your brand and the platform you choose. 

Who is your target audience? Where do they want to see content? This may be certain social media platforms, websites or even via email.

Also consider which content types are best for which platforms. For example, TikTok is a great place to share short videos, but it’s not the best place to share your hour-long video presentation. While more formal content may do well on LinkedIn, your audience will likely want to see a more personable side of your brand on Instagram. Your 2,000-word article is great for your blog site, but a little too long for a social media caption.

When creating content for engagement, also think about what kinds of content your audience will most enjoy. Some ideas include long-form content like blog posts or articles; visual content like photos, videos and graphics; interactive content like polls and quizzes; audio content such as podcasts; and more. Likely, your content strategy will include a mix of these.

Not sure exactly what your audience wants to see from you in terms of content? Ask them! Engage with them. This will help you better serve their needs as well as make your marketing efforts more effective.

Here are some more ideas for engaging content:

• Lists and checklists

• How-to guides/tutorials

• Memes

• User-generated content

• Live video

• Case studies

• White papers

• Ebooks

• Blog posts and articles

• Photos

• Videos

• Graphics and quote graphics

• Polls and quizzes

• Podcasts

• Email newsletters

• And more!

There’s a lot to consider when creating content for engagement. Luckily, you don’t have to do it all yourself. Let Healthy Dash of Social help! Our team of experts includes skilled marketers, content creators, and social media managers ready to help you engage with your audience.

Book a call with us to learn more!