It a big world out there. The amount of content being produced can be overwhelming. According to MarketingProfs, every single day over 2 million blogs are posted. Marketers are producing more content than ever before. With that much noise fighting for consumer attention, it only makes sense to invest in highly engaging, fun, and interactive content that will drive consumers to share it socially.
What types of content should marketers look to invest in order to drive social sharing?
Here are four types of social media content you can implement right now to drive engagement.
Interactive Content
Interactive content generates 4-5x more pageviews than static content, and social media is the perfect platform to showcase and explore interactive content. Here’s a look a few examples that have been proven to resonate particularly well with social audiences.
Quizzes
Quizzes can be used as a fun way for brands to engage customers. Marketers can use quizzes for brand awareness and a “fun” factor, or as a means to gauge customer interest in products. Results can be useful for recommending relevant subsequent content that drives back to the brand. With quizzes receiving 75% of their traffic from social media, it’s important to establish a promotion strategy to get the word out and generate buzz. A great way to encourage engagement, provide a score users can share on their social media channels.
Check out this fun quiz our partners over at SnapApp recently shared to help marketers determine which content to invest in for their holiday campaigns for a great quiz example.
Interactive Infographics
If you’re looking to share a large amount of data in a very visual way, interactive infographics are the way to go. There are endless ways to tell stories in infographics. Everything from embedded questions that pop up with answers, to maps that tell a story based on geographic location. We’ve been playing (yes, we have so much fun developing these it’s like playing) with animated gifographics. They catch the eye with subtle movement and provide snackable bits of data and analysis. How can you ensure you’re getting the most out of your asset while promoting across your social channels? While we’re developing gifographics in particular, we break each section out into separate gifs allowing us to share different data points over several weeks.
This great example from Quicksprout on How Google Works utilizes many of the best aspects of interactive infographics.
Survey/Poll
Soliciting real-time feedback is a great way to help you better understand your customers and what they care about. We’ve been incorporating polls on Twitter and our Instagram Stories and getting fantastic engagement. We’ll often ask questions about a blog topic or campaign and then direct back to a content asset that provides additional information on the topic. Instagram Polls are a fun way to highlight giveaways or offerings at events. A great way to get the most out of your polls? Embed them on your website. You can embed Twitter Polls into blogs or web pages exactly like normal tweets, which means they will include a clickable “Follow” button. Win/win!
Here’s an example of a poll our friends at Hootsuite recently posted.
Live Streaming
Video, and in particular live streaming, has finally found its legs this year. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. I’ve seen my streams get more and more inundated with cell phone conversations in airports, thought of the day posts, and general how-tos/tips and tricks updates. How can brands tap into these trends and still maintain a professional tone? The key is understanding why video resonates. It’s personal, authentic, and organic. Putting a human face behind the brand logo allows people to connect in a way they haven’t previously been able to. We’ve had fantastic results live streaming interviews with keynote speakers at events, sharing an inside peek into our company, and hosting general Q&A sessions. Live streaming is a fantastic way for you to share with your audience how you’re finding success and where you’ve failed. With more than 87% of online marketers currently implementing video content into their social strategies, if you’re not, you’re going to get left behind.
Memes
Who can resist a great meme? Memes allow you to tap into real-time cultural references that provide a quick laugh. With the average person now spending over 100 minutes per day on social media channels, they’re often looking for humorous content to pass the time. Memes provide a great way to show your brand has a human side and isn’t afraid to have a little fun. A simple way to get started, look at creating a few memes that poke fun at your day to day pain points. Here’s an example of a few we created for an April Fool’s campaign last year:
For marketers looking to stay on top of trends, it’s important to keep a pulse on what’s new in pop culture. These memes, while still funny, are less relevant today than they were in 2016 due to movie release dates. Relevant this month would be Stranger Things, Thor, or Taylor Swift memes that rift on what’s top of mind now. The challenge for marketers is to strike while the iron’s hot and master the balance between humor and relevance.
Motivational Quotes
Who doesn’t want a little pick me up throughout the day? When I’m scrolling through my social feeds, I always appreciate a good quote. Sure they can be overdone. Yes, there are (eh, hum) several memes out there poking fun at motivational quotes. But the truth is: people want to feel good. They enjoy getting the “feels” once in a while. Here’s where brands can really hit it out of the park. Don’t always use quotes relevant to your field. For example, there’s a ton of marketing quotes from amazing people like Steve Jobs and Seth Godin I could pull from, but I often step out of typical brand relevant messaging and go for something a little different. The rule I like to use: If a quote makes me think and gives me a smile, others might find it enjoyable as well.
Want to really drive the message home? Overlay your quote on a relevant image that really speaks to the message you’re relaying. Here’s an example of a recent #MondayMotivation we’ve had extremely high engagement with:
There’s a common thread woven throughout all of these recommendations—people are looking for visual, lighthearted easy to process content they can easily relate to and share quickly. Not to say long-form content doesn’t have its place, indeed it does. However, to gain the attention and get people into that long-form content, you may want to explore creating some of the recommendations above to grab their attention to ultimately guide them back to your asset where they’ll find more education and value.
What types of content have you had success with to drive engagement for your business? What have you introduced to keep up with/beat your competitors in the last year? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.