How to Get More Engagement on Social Media

If you want to grow your brand on social media, then you need to create posts that get engagement and get shared but that’s easy once you know the secret behind why people engage with social media content.

People Engage with Content That Affects Them

Think back to when you’ve been scrolling through Facebook, and you’ve come across a funny meme that makes you stop what you’re doing and laugh out loud. What do you do after that? In most cases you’ll show that post to a friend by either tagging them or sending it to them or sharing the post on your feed so all your friends can see it and laugh too.

Humans are emotional creatures and innately act on emotion. If we see something that affects us emotionally, we are going to have a strong reaction to it and in a social media setting this means engaging with the post. Studies have shown that if you want someone to do something for you then if you make them laugh first, they’ll most likely do what you ask.

While humour works best, any emotion can be gained from social media posts. A post could simply be about dish from a popular chain of restaurants but if someone who used to work in that restaurant see’s the post that’s emotional for them. It’s a subconscious emotion, maybe just a memory or a second of nostalgia, but that post has had an effect on them.

How to Create Social Media Content that Affects People

While the simplest of topics can have an affect on people, there are a few methods you can use to have a greater affect on potential customers.

The best way to present ideas on social media is through graphics, especially images, because these draw attention amongst a feed. Creating your own images leads to the best results however this does take time and effort. The best way to create your own images is to know the reaction you’re going for and then work backwards from that.

While memes can work for getting a reaction out of people, you can build a bit of a personal connection between your brand and the customer by changing the format a bit. Instead of the usual format of an image, text, and then caption, try just having the image stand on its own and then insert some of the text in the caption while also referencing the image. For example, a construction company sharing a picture of frosted over grass with the caption “those mornings ey…”.

Another way you can have an effect on people is to try to be motivational by sharing your own stories/experiences in a text format with a picture of you succeeding at the end. A bit like an “About Us” page you’ll see on many small designer brands or the posts you’ll see people post on LinkedIn. This type of post gets engagement because people who engage with it are congratulating the poster on their achievements as well as taking a bit of motivation from the post.

How to use Manipulation to Create Emotional Effects on People

Manipulation is a powerful tool in marketing that can be used to have the customer do a lot of the work for you. When used correctly, it creates an effect on the customer that they have created themselves, you just started the train of thought.

To manipulate someone, you must make them think that they came up with the idea because if they come up with the idea then the idea has a lot more power over them. It is basically Inception. Charisma on Command has a great video on Littlefinger from Game of Thrones and how he manipulates the game which I suggest you watch for more information.

In a marketing sense, you’ve just got to make the customer start thinking based off your posts. For example, if a labourer see’s the frosty grass post from the earlier example, then it’ll likely bring memories to them of the times they’ve had to get up or work in a freezing cold morning. All the business has done was present the topic of the cold mornings but it’s the customer who then adds experiences and emotion to that topic based off your post.

How to Find Topics that Get the Best Reaction

Everyone’s different but there are a few core topics that everyone can relate to. A few examples of these are:

• Working mornings/cold mornings
• Dealing with terrible customers
• Heartbreak/loss
• Hard work/ dealing with struggle
• Situations from school
• Working hungover

The situations are universally experienced and therefore will have an affect on at least a few people. You can tailor these experiences to your industry easily by thinking about your own experiences and struggles. For example, if a blogger puts out an article and no one see’s it then it’s quite devastating. I could put out a post of someone crying at a computer with the text “when no one see’s your most recent article” with the caption “worse than a heartbreak”.

This works because anyone else who has gone through this situation, which will be almost all content creators, will be able to relate to this experience and therefore will be affected. The caption then uses hyperbole to compare the minor feeling to a devastating one which creates a bit of a joke while also potentially bringing up the experience of heartbreak.

The best way to find topics for your industry is to break down the struggles you face and then make 1 post per struggle. For example, a customer ordering a steak can be made into several situational posts such as flipping a coin to whether they’ll be a problem or the customer sending the steak back several times. Breaking the topic down to its basics allows you to get the most out of it.

In Summary

• People engage with content that affects them
• Graphics (especially memes) are the best way to have an effect on people
• You can use manipulation to make people associate their own experiences with your posts
• To use manipulation, you must find a topic and then present that topic in a post in its simplest form

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