Engagement what? Team Von Mack’s content strategists reveal Gen Z’s best-kept secrets.
This post is brought to you by our dynamic and super-talented agency additions. Let’s make an introduction, shall we?
Meet Eryn
As a Communications/PR graduate of Loyola University of New Orleans, Eryn brings lots of experience marketing work to the table – including roles at The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, The Donnelley Center for Nonprofit Communications, and the PRSSA Bateman Competition Team.
Meet Lina
Lina Lin is a BBA marketing and strategy student at the University of Michigan. Her background includes marketing industry roles ranging from nonprofits to startups to small businesses.
The future of content is ever-growing and evolving. And when we’re talking strategy – it’s imperative to listen to every voice in the room, including those from the next generation. Have no fear, because Eryn and Lina are making it easy by bringing you the inside scoop.
Here are the top 5 engagement go-tos from their back pocket…
- Align your content with branding. Consistency is key.
Branding is the foundation of your entire business identity, so it’s super important to maintain consistency between what you’re putting down for folks to pick up. This can mean a lot of simple tweaks, or it can be a full revamp to make sure you hit on brand colors and keep terminology/tone consistent across the board. It’s also crucial to experiment and vary the type of content you put out, but make sure to always stick to this baseline connection.
- Make your business seem approachable and personalized.
People love hearing stories, which is why it is typically easier for videos to gain engagement. Make sure those videos are high quality, short, and catch the audience’s attention in the first few seconds. People also like people and attention. Post consistently and curate people-centered content while responding to comments. Another method to gain easy engagement is to utilize your Q&A, poll, and rating stickers on Instagram stories! Making room for your online presence to be conversational is a great way to invite engagement. Check out our Instagram toolkit for some inspiration.
- Be proactive in seeking engagement.
When trying to grow your engagement, being proactive isn’t an overnight fix, but it can certainly be a tool in your engagement toolbox. Taking a proactive strategy approach to engagement can look like a few different things… Essentially, this strategy is about being the one to start the conversation! As opposed to replying to a comment on a post, being proactive in seeking engagement is a way to encourage and enable the kind of reactive engagement-like comments. You can think of this as your call to action for your audience. Whether you’re telling your audience to comment below, to send the post to their friend, or you’re ending your post with a question, giving your audience a task to engage with at the end of this content can be an essential way to utilize engagement-specific strategy!
- Collaborate with other businesses or individuals.
An obvious but overlooked tip we must mention is tagging on social media! Whenever you share content involving another account or someone/something with an account, you should. tag. them. Despite being an “oldie,” this isn’t a tactic to underestimate… the more people who find themselves in front of your posts for one reason or another, the better when it comes to the engagement conversation. Remember, on Instagram, you can do collab posts! This should not be overlooked when we’re talking engagement. By inviting a collaborator into one of your posts, it will show up on their profile as well. Utilizing this tool is a great way to gather another set of eyes on your content.
- Know when and how much to post.
Timing is everything, yall. Think about when you roll out your content. For example, one of people’s favorite things to do during lunch is browse through social media, so it makes perfect sense that the best time to post for higher engagement is generally between 10 p.m. and 2 p.m. Pro Tip: look at your own page’s analytics to get more specific days and times that engagement is high. Post during those windows!
Also, remember that you’ll up your engagement if you are posting consistently. We definitely recommend using a scheduling platform that can keep you on track and on cadence.
What to do after engagement goes well..
Take a look at our best tricks on ‘riding the wave,’ and learn how to maximize what you’re already doing well. Hint: it’s about reflection.
- Identify what made the post perform well and build that feature into your strategy.
Gaining engagement is great! It’s even better when you can pinpoint what elements gave your brand the most traction. That way, you can continue to utilize what performed best in your strategy moving forward. Train that eye!
- Reuse in an advertisement campaign.
For high-performing content, you can recycle posts to promote your product or service. Repackaging/repurposing content that performed well can allow you and your brand to take advantage of content that has already successfully captured your audience. Do not be afraid!
- Reshare with the media.
If one of your pieces of content really took off, consider using it to build a media list to share company news with in the future. Or, on the other end of things, if your content gained enough traction to reach larger pages, media, etc., this is a perfect opportunity to turn the tables. Continue to take advantage of this engagement by reposting the coverage you gained and celebrating it to keep the conversation going.
There’s so much more, but we can’t go on for days. If you have questions or need help with your brand strategy, just reach out. #TeamVonMack is in the wings for more customized help.
