by Oliver Brainerd
The most effective marketing tool you could ever nab is word of mouth from someone with a genuine interest in what you’re doing. This means the most effective social media engagement you’ll ever have will be with people in which you develop genuine relationships. Or if not you, then your marketing team–or if not them, then your engagement team. When you create enough genuine connections, then “marketing” loses a lot of its riddles and headaches.
But this can be difficult. It’s hard to force a genuine relationship to happen, and it’s inefficient to wait for them to develop naturally.
So what’s that mean? Are you SOL? Is it all random and you just need to hope for the best?
Not necessarily. You can’t force a natural relationship, but you can create a fertile environment for them to grow.
Social media, if it’s used right, is a great tool for making genuine connections possible for your brand. There are as many ways to do this as there are types of businesses. However, there are a few good places to start. Here’s some social media engagement ideas to get you started. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn how to increase social media engagement naturally.
Branded Content Versus Brand Appropriate Content
A quick note on branded content versus brand appropriate content:
Branded content is when you show off your team colors, as it were. Posts explicitly designed to say, “Hey–this is us,” often fall into branded content. Like ads, or product announcements, or insider tips directly from your brand to your customers. Branded content is in your colors, and it’s an example of your brand speaking to your customers.
As opposed to brand appropriate content. This is content you make that aligns with your brand. Things like how-to videos, or meet-the-team type blogs, or “here’s a TikTok video of something super cool we like!”
Real-world example: Monster Energy Drinks.
A commercial for Monster Energy Drinks is branded content.
Posting footage to the official Monster Instagram feed from Monster Energy Drink sponsored skating competition is brand appropriate content.
Content with a genuine, brand-driven reasoning behind it has far better chances of attracting genuine interaction from your customers. People who drink Monster Energy Drinks are also people who like skateboarding. Maybe it’s not universal, but the odds are good.
Maybe your company can’t host the X Games. But you can produce content that demonstrates your values. Video works really well for this. It can be easier to feel engaged with video. Here are a handful of creative social media ideas.
TikTok
Restrictions create opportunities. TikTok hosts ONE kind of content: short video. They’ve recently allowed three minute long videos, but that’s still fairly short. So suppose you’re a divorce attorney. You could forget TikTok, since you’ve invested in a library of branded ads for your service. Alternatively, you could embrace the fact that your profession is based on finding the right words to be convincing, and you could start producing one to three minute long videos answering common questions you get in your day-to-day life about divorce, relationships, etc. One to three minutes is a perfect amount of time to answer one or two questions. @lawyerkelly is a great example of this type of content (and she has 396k followers with over 10 million likes). If you’re in a service-based industry, this kind of content might work really well for you.
People go to Instagram to escape. Instagram is no longer just a beautiful photo platform. It’s a good place to create more relaxed-looking content. I follow an IT consultant who produces short videos of ad-libbed computer tips on his Instagram. He posts them to his story and his feed, and makes them in parks and things, as if he just spontaneously decides sometimes that it’s time to educate the masses on the subject of computers. It’s quite charming, and it keeps him top of mind.
YouTube
The podcast revolution wasn’t so surprising. Talk radio was bound to make an evolved comeback. What surprised me was the more recent video component of the podcast revolution. I wonder if Howard Stern accidentally invented this: just filming his radio talkshow and providing that for people to watch. Cheap content. People like it, though. A lot of the podcasts I listen to these days have a video version, often broadcast on YouTube. It was inevitable, maybe. The market responds to what people like, and people like seeing people when they talk. If you haven’t started a podcast for your business yet, consider it. And if you consider it, consider cross-posting the content to YouTube.
Start There with your Social Media Engagement Ideas
There are a few social media post ideas for businesses. There’s a lot more you COULD do. The cunning thing is to identify the strengths and talents already at your disposal and lean into those. Got someone good at quick, pithy thoughts? Build your Twitter audience. Are you or do you have a generalist content creator on staff? Facebook that all over the place. Do you employ some strong writers? Build a Medium blog.
How To Increase Social Media Engagement
Now, you’ve probably reached the point where you’re researching “how to increase social media engagement.” You might have some ideas but need to know the next steps. So, you’re either intending to beef up your marketing, or you need to get some help. In the first case, you know it’s a lot of work. In the second case, you may be getting that impression. I’ve named six platforms, all of them with different approaches and uses, and that isn’t even all of the platforms you can use. It can get pretty overwhelming.
Which is why companies like ARC Creative Co. exist. We figure it out so you don’t have to. If you’ll permit us to chat ourselves up a bit, give us a moment. We offer a variety of flexible digital marketing packages for different business and marketing needs. We’re experts in all the important platforms and competent in all the other ones.
- TikTok
To name a few.
We know how important it is to use video right now, because people like video. Like I said at the beginning, the most powerful marketing tool you can get is a person with genuine excitement about what you’re doing. You can’t force a genuine relationship, but you can foster an environment where genuine relationships are likelier to happen. Video is a great marketing tool, so we like it. We have various packages that include creating reels and TikTok videos. We can either use existing footage, create strategies for you, or we’ll even go so far as to send crews to film the cool stuff you’re doing. We’ll create brand-appropriate posts and video content for your marketing. Video gives your customers an organic reason to engage with your social media marketing.
Book a call here to find out more about custom social media packages that drive engagement.
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