Social media marketing is hugely effective in building a brand and driving online business. But success requires a different approach compared to other digital channels.
Social is all about provoking conversation and building engagement. The aim is to draw customers closer to your brand and boost loyalty, credibility, and ultimately sales. Clearly, this makes plenty of commercial sense in its own right, but the benefits of encouraging engagement go even deeper.
Engagement Boosts Visibility
The social media world runs at a relentless pace. Among so much free-flowing content, you need all the help you can get to be seen and make an impact.
Facebook and other platforms give high-quality content a visibility boost, showing it to a wider audience and placing it more prominently in feeds.
To their algorithms, one of the most important signals of quality is the amount of engagement a piece of content generates. Posts that receive more likes, shares, and – crucially – comments will be seen by far more people than content which provokes little reaction.
What’s more, if your account regularly publishes content that gains traction, each new post you make will be given a boost right out of the gate. This helps set up a self-reinforcing circle of increased visibility and greater engagement.
But none of this happens on its own. Simply posting great content isn’t necessarily enough to get the ball rolling. As a social media marketer, how can you most effectively stimulate engagement and conversation?
The Power of Questions
If you want to encourage your readers to become involved, just ask them a question. This surprisingly straightforward tactic is effective for several reasons. First, the simple act of reading a question automatically prompts a reply in the reader’s mind, and it’s only a short step further for them to post that answer.
Second, it makes the reader feel valued, even mildly flattered that their opinion counts. And lastly, a significant proportion of people just love to talk about themselves, and to show themselves to be knowledgeable, intelligent, helpful, or amusing. Posing a question is an easy way to provide that platform.
Asking the Right Questions
But whatever reason a reader has for responding, not all questions will have the effect you’re looking for.
- Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a yes, a no, or a simple fact. Keep your questions open so that the reader has an opportunity to express their opinion in whichever way they prefer.
- And in the same way, don’t ask loaded questions which are clearly looking for a particular answer. Most people are highly tuned to a feeling of being played and will resent it.
- Word your question to show that you really do value the answers, and by extension the person taking the time to respond.
- Try and hook your question into a current event, meme, or trend. People will already have the topic in mind and will be able to come up with a quicker answer with less conscious effort.
- For similar reasons, don’t make the question too complicated, or ask for too much thought to come up with an answer. The best questions deal with immediate emotions and memories which can provoke an impulsive response.
- It’s also better to avoid controversial topics unless this is an area your brand purposefully operates in. Most people will have an opinion on a big political or social issue, but the discussions on these subjects can quickly become heated and divisive. Most brands would do better to avoid this.
A well-written question that takes these six considerations into account provides a compelling call to action at the end of your social media posts. Of course, not every attempt will provoke the floods of comments you’re looking for.
But when a question achieves real resonance with your audience, the resulting engagement will give a strong and lasting boost to your social media marketing success.
