Stumped on how to increase response of your social media updates?
If you want to increase response from your online community when you're posting updates you need to make sure that you aren't missing one of the fundamental elements of effectively communicating with your audience. Add one of these elements in and you'll instantly see an improvement.
To start with, it’s important to understand that people go online for two reasons: to find solutions to their problems and to be entertained. Armed with this knowledge, we can now take a look at the kind of updates that you’re posting.
To increase response from your social media updates make sure you’re focusing the content you create around helping people solve their problems, eliminating their pain, lightening their spirits and encouraging conversation with you. When you do this you’ll see a major shift in how your online community reacts to your content.
Here’s a tip: If you can educate people and mix in some humor at the same time, you’ll make a much bigger impact.
Now let’s look at the three key elements that will help you to increase response of your social media updates in more detail.
Educate
This one is pretty straight forward, you want to teach people or show people how to do something. Focus this kind of content on helping people do something easier, teaching them more about your topic of expertise, or helping them to make a smarter buying decision.
This is a huge opportunity for you to highlight your expertise in your subject area. Make sure you are providing valuable information and knowledge to your readers, viewers and listeners. The more value you add to people's lives, the bigger you make. This is a great way to increase response.
Entertain
Entertainment needs to draw your audience in. This comes more naturally for some than it does for others. The two basic forms of entertainment are humor and story telling.
Everyone enjoys a good laugh. If you look at the most viral content on the Internet, the majority of the time it’s funny. One thing to keep in mind here is that if you intend to use humor, a planned script or joke rarely comes across as well as something unscripted, on the fly or more natural.
It takes a true artist to plan and execute great humor. You'll know you've done it right when your audience begins to share your content and it goes viral.
Another great way to entertain your audience is by telling stories. If you can share a story with your audience, not only will you entertain them, but you’ll also share a part of you on a more personal level. This is important because people do business with people that they know, like and trust.
Another idea for creating entertaining content is to try weaving in current events or comments from thought leaders in your industry. If a news story is starting to go viral and you’re able to react fast enough and produce a relevant piece of content around it, you may be able to capitalize on the trending story. Doing what you can to make your content go viral is a great way to increase response.
Engage
Engagement is getting your audience to comment on your posts and have a conversation with you around the content you create. The important piece that most people miss when it comes to engagement is telling your audience what to do.
Your content needs to have a call to action (CTA). If you want people to share your content, tell ‘em. If you want them to click your link, tell ‘em. If you want them to answer your question, tell ‘em.
Some ways to better engage your audience include asking people thought-provoking questions, posting polls, and encouraging people to comment on your content. When your audience performs your call to action, you’ve effectively moved them from being passive to engaged; yet another great way to increase response.
Engagement is essential because it brings your audience one step closer to becoming a client or customer of your business. The more engagement they have with us, the more they will get to know, like and trust us, and the more viewers, listeners and readers we will convert to customers.
So remember, if you’re not getting the response from the updates and posts you’re making, remember to incorporate one or more of the elements above into your content. When you start delivering what people are looking for you will see response increase and they will naturally share your content with others, which is one of the results of effective social media marketing.
What are you doing to increase response from your online audience? Please share your comment in the box below.
PHOTO CREDITS: PEOPLE
