Every social media manager has been asked the question: Why didn’t this go viral? In a world of instant gratification, it’s difficult to give social media engagement posts the proper expectations for performance. We all want our next poll, contest, or conversation starter to blow up the internet.
The truth is social media engagement can be difficult for brands. Modern consumers want authentic interactions, and that’s usually at odds with the idea of a company wanting to sell you a product or service. If you’re going to connect with your social communities and convert potential customers, you need social media engagement posts that deliver authenticity, boost customer experience, and capture your audience’s attention.
Let’s look at five social media engagement posts that are sure to encourage audience interaction and boost customer experience.
How to use social media engagement posts to encourage audience interaction
There’s an important set of steps to consider before launching social media engagement posts. They’ll likely boost social media engagement in bursts, but you need to consider the overall relationship between your brand and your target audience for meaningful interactions. If you’ve organized an understanding of your audience, set up social listening alerts, sourced authentic social content, and built dashboards to track this initiative, you’re ready for the fun part.
Social media engagement posts are a type of social media content designed to elicit interactions and responses from the audience. They work because these posts aim to foster active participation, such as likes, comments, shares, retweets, or other forms of engagement. Your primary goal with a social media engagement post could be to build a sense of community, increase visibility, and strengthen the relationship between the brand and your audience.
You want to grow overall engagement with your audience with consistent and relevant content that matches your understanding of their interests, behaviors, and personal preferences. But sometimes you want to stir the pot, and that’s why a social media engagement post is a great tool to juice the conversation.
The must-have characteristics of a social media engagement post
These types of posts work because they ask or encourage the audience to interact. That means there are specific traits that you need. To maximize the effectiveness of your social media engagement posts, focus on incorporating the following key traits:
Interactive elements: Incorporate questions, polls, quizzes, or call-to-action phrases that encourage users to respond.
Relevance and timeliness: Post content that’s relevant to current events, trending topics, or audience interests.
Visual appeal: Share eye-catching images, videos, infographics, or other multimedia to attract attention. Visual storytelling and content is typically the most effective at driving engagement.
Personalization: Address the audience directly or use personalized content to make the interaction feel more personal.
Value-driven content: Offer valuable information, tips, insights, or entertainment that the audience finds useful or enjoyable.
Community building: Highlight user-generated content (UGC), testimonials, or stories to foster a sense of community and belonging.
5 successful examples of social media engagement posts
What does this look like in action? Social media engagement posts can encourage interactivity with your audience in a few different ways. The key is to make sure you have a valid reason for deploying one of these tactics, or you likely won’t see the engagement you’re hoping for.
There isn’t one type of social media engagement post, so let’s look at some that are proven to encourage interactivity with your audience.
Ask your followers to share feedback or opinions
Your customers want to hear from other customers. Emplifi surveyed a group of modern consumers and found that more than half always or regularly research online pictures or videos of real people before making a purchase. So, it might be worth asking your social community for feedback or opinions about a product or service.
This is one way to source user-generated content (UGC), but it’s also an extremely useful way to boost engagement. Now, there are considerations. Do you already know that a product or service has positive sentiment? Is your product or service already a trending topic? In this case, your social media engagement post is simply offering a lens to share activity you know that’s happening in other places.
If you know that there’s negative sentiment around a product or service, customer content can also be a solution. Volaris, a Mexican airline, shared UGC to improve sentiment by 7%. This involves first collecting UGC, but the role of a social media engagement post soliciting positive brand experience could be the first step. Just pick a target that allows your community to celebrate you.
Host a contest or giveaway
Research shows that participants in social media contests spend more with your brand. This was true for Jones Soda Co., who amassed over one million participants in a contest to appear on the premium soda brand’s label. The campaign saw a 55% increase in time on the Jones Soda Co. website, a 48% increase in average order value (AOV), and over 10,500 pieces of UGC collected.
Social media contests work because you offer something you know the audience is interested in. Jones Soda used augmented reality to feature customer videos. For your brand, it could be anything that’s core to the audience’s interest. Are your customers interested in a product discount? Do they want to be heard creatively? You have to assess what would capture their attention and then build a contest or giveaway around it. This is one of the most reliable ways to boost engagement.
Share a poll on a trending topic
Social listening helps identify topics and themes that your audience may be interested in talking about, and if you discover one that seems particularly interesting or active, turn that into a poll. You’re not necessarily asking for videos or images, and the simplification of a one-click response is likely to elicit social media engagement if you’ve done your homework to show that the topic or theme will connect.
Based on Emplifi data, Instagram Reels continue to be one of the most engaged types of content and a good medium to deliver polls, and they are also effective on X as status updates. Once you complete the poll, don’t forget to share the results as that’s also an opportunity for a social media engagement post to solicit feedback.
Deploy visual storytelling and content
This isn’t one type of social media engagement post, but it’s a content type you must have in order to boost interaction and interest from your audience. Today’s audiences have short attention spans, which is why video is particularly effective.
According to Emplifi data, visual content types – and social media channels that are inherently visual like Instagram and TikTok – are overwhelmingly the highest performers for engagement. What you need to consider for your social media engagement posts is how you diversity visual content for each channel. Here’s a way to think about it:
Instagram: Reels are the top-performing social content type, but don’t forget to utilize Carousels and high-quality images across your brand accounts.
TikTok: Videos are the lifeblood of the channel, but in particular consider UGC and influencer content here, as it’s more authentic and received more favorable reviews than traditional brand content.
Facebook: Live video was a uniquely strong performer on this channel, and something that brands could consider within their mix, particularly for product showcases or influencer partnerships.
X: GIFs and memes still rule the day on the channel formerly known as Twitter. That doesn't mean you shouldn’t still mix your content here, but for engagement, remember to balance the overall conversation – with traditional updates, polls, shares – on this channel.
The key takeaway is that visual storytelling is an immediate boost for a social media engagement post. Just make sure your story and visual content are relevant to your audience. Brands like Lenovo do a great job of taking a subject that might not seem visual or story-based and translating well for mediums like TikTok. The computer brand leans into the more fun or playful side of their audience, making social media a place where visual storytelling is shared on both sides.
Go unhinged
Are you ready for a big swing at social engagement? If you feel prepared, consider walking the path of Wendy’s and try unhinged social media engagement posts. This is part of a larger strategy which your team must consider all aspects of before deployment, but sometimes it works.
An "unhinged" social strategy refers to a social media approach that’s unconventional, unpredictable, and often extreme or outlandish in nature. This strategy deliberately breaks away from traditional or safe social media practices, aiming to capture attention through shock value, humor, or unexpected content. While it can generate significant engagement and buzz, it also carries risks of alienating or offending parts of the audience if not executed thoughtfully.
How does an unhinged strategy translate into social media engagement posts?
Bold and controversial content: Posting provocative or controversial content that sparks conversation and debate.
Humor and satire: Using humor, sarcasm, and satire to entertain and engage the audience.
Spontaneous and unpredictable posts: Sharing content that’s spontaneous, unplanned, or deviates from the brand's usual tone and style.
Risk-taking: Willingness to take risks with content that might polarize the audience or push boundaries.
Viral trends and memes: Jumping on viral trends and memes in a way that’s edgy or unconventional.
Strong personality: Developing a distinctive, often exaggerated, brand personality that stands out from competitors. Wendy’s is one of the most successful examples of this.
These types of posts will definitely drive engagement, but you need to be sure you’re ready for it. There is a savviness to it that anyone considering this path needs to evaluate. It’s helpful to consider influencers who already speak this language and approach content this way before diving in headfirst.
Ready to share more social media engagement posts?
To deploy social media engagement posts and source content that could work for them, you need a comprehensive social media management tool. Emplifi brings together social publishing, UGC, influencer marketing, social media analytics and social listening together in one place so that your next surge in activity is tracked and ready for reporting. If you’d like to learn more about how to get started with social media engagement posts, please let us know.
