How To Get More From Social Media + Strategies To Increase Engagement

The social media landscape is a competition for attention, and sometimes it can feel slightly defeating to find that your social media engagement is in need of improvement. On today's episode of The High-Performance Marketing podcast, I'll guide you through how social media impacts your content marketing strategy and share key takeaways on increasing engagement with your followers.

Transcript

Welcome To High Performance Marketing, a podcast where we discuss how to connect customers to great brands by leveraging content marketing as a profitable pillar to your customer acquisition strategy. I’m Chief Copywriter and Messaging Strategist, Ali Garbero 

Hey hey and welcome back to the show. Just want to thank those of you who continue to listen each week. And I’m going to ask you for a small favor. If you listen in and find value in the things I’m sharing with you each week, would you head over and give my show a review? It not only helps with the algorithm but also helps other small business owners like yourself find my show. So thank you, just know I appreciate you for listening in each week.

Ok so today, let’s start by talking about that King Kong Gorilla we all know and love, and probably also kinda hate at times and that’s social media marketing. 

I know you know that when it comes to your business marketing, social media isn’t just a place for posting funny pre-recorded voice over Instagram reels - although, your strategy should include some of that. I know you understand that social media marketing is more about showcasing your brand's unique voice, helping you engage with your followers, and ultimately driving traffic to your website, getting people to book calls or appointments with you, driving them to your store's physical location, or to buy your online products.

So, on today’s episode of the podcast let’s take a deeper dive into the role social media plays in your content marketing strategy. 

And just in case you’re a little fuzzy on what a content marketing strategy is, a quick overview is that it’s part of your business's marketing plan for attracting, engaging, and retaining an audience of potential customers by creating and sharing relevant content like articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. 

A content marketing strategy (which is all about delivering value as Gary Vee told us over and over again in Jab, Jab, Jab, right hook)  helps your business establish expertise, it promotes brand awareness, and keeps your business top of mind when it's time for your ideal client to buy what you sell.

So, part of your content marketing strategy of course includes social media marketing. And that’s what I want to focus on today. How does social media really support and help you grow your business? Like how do all those reels, and videos and selfies turn into new or repeat customers?

Well I think that the clearest connection I see between the cool content you’re making and why posting it to social media is important is because ultimately you want to use social media as a vehicle where you can drive people back to your website or to get them to download your lead generator so you can put them into your email marketing ecosystem.

Let me give you an example:

I’m part of a large marketing community with about 800 marketing professionals that I chat with on a daily basis. Today this question came through the thread.

“I have an affiliate marketer with an email list of 10 people and a budget of $500 a month to build her business. Where would you suggest she put that money to give her the most return?”

Some people said paid ads, but ads are expensive. And with only $500, she would burn through that money in a week.

So I chimed in and said “use every free social media resource possible on promoting and sharing their “I gotta get my hands on this free resource.” lead magnet. A good lead magnet (a pdf, a webinar, a free video series) again allows you to deliver value first in exchange for someone trusting you with their precious email address.

Getting someone onto your email list is gold. It allows you to continue to nurture the relationship long term.

So whether you decide you want to write and publish blog posts, or infographics, you can share these valuable resources and link to them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other social platforms you use.

But there’s another challenge right? I know you know that social media is a crowded space, with millions of daily posts vying for attention. 

So now that you know the role social media plays in your content strategy,  how can you make your content stand out and engage with your audience? 

Engagement, engagement, engagement, the coveted desire for us all right?

Let me share 4 simple things you can do to increase engagement with your content.

1. Focus on your audience: We always start with the customer. The customer is the HERO of the story of our business. The first step in creating engaging social media content is to know who those customers are. Who are they, what do they care about, and what challenges are they dealing with? Understanding your audience will help you create content that resonates with them and addresses their needs. I’m not saying you should never share or talk about who you are, or your business, but do so in a way that’s important to your followers. Lead with this question: “What’s in it for them?” If we’re being real here, few of us care about anything that doesn’t involve us.
   
   
2. Use visuals: I know you understand that visuals are more engaging than text-only posts. But maybe you’ve forgotten how important is to use high-quality images, videos, infographics, and other visual content to capture your audience's attention and stop the scroll. Avoid really small text or too much reading.  Make your visuals relevant, compelling, and on-brand. What do I mean here, well I like to follow Kodiak Pancakes. I recognize the look and feel of their brand when I’m scrolling because they make sure to keep the same theme. I’m not saying you can’t branch out and use all the colors of the crayola box, but marketing is an exercise in memorization. So the more you can do to help cement memorability with your brand the more recognizable you become and the more people think about you and associate certain things with you. For example a few months ago I told you about how I was driving up my local freeway. I saw a billboard using the combination of bright blue and yellow. When I saw the billboard I instantly thought it was a Dave Ramsey ad. It wasn’t, but that’s what Dave’s team has done so well. Help me associate this color combination with their brand.
   
   
3. Tell stories: Storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging your audience. You all know I’m a certified Storybrand Marketing Guide. I leverage the Stroy Brand 7 part framework in the content I write because stories are memorable and emotionally deeper than dry facts or statistics. I think Operation Underground Railroad is a brand that does this in one of the most powerful ways I’ve seen. They are an organization that works to save children from being exploited from sex trafficking. They have a section on their website promoting the adoption of children who need families. There’s a section that says “our impact” and it shows numbers around how many families they’ve helped, children they’ve saved, and the amount of grants they’ve awarded. But right underneath that section of numbers are 3-4 paragraphs of story telling. I’ll read you just a quick snippet: “When my husband Tim and I were adopting our two children from Haiti, we experienced first-hand all the forms, government approvals, legal fees, time, and patience it took to finally bring them home. It was a frustratingly long, confusing, and expensive journey…Our family’s wait was long. The process was difficult. But it was worth every form, every penny, and every tear. Not only do Tim and I and their seven siblings adore our beautiful children and receive their pure love in return, but they are now protected from human trafficking and sexual exploitation by the structure of a family who cares for them.”
   
   There’s a lot more to the story, but you can already feel the emotional difference. So dust off your childhood bedtime reading skills and don’t underestimate the power of a good story for engaging your social media followers.
    
4. Ask questions and encourage conversation: Social media is a two-way conversation. Ask your audience questions, encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions. People LOVE to express an opinion because everybody has one. Depending on your niche audience you could ask things like “What are you reading today? Is there anything you recommend I read?
   If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
   What job would you be terrible at?
   Any advice your childhood self would give to your adult self today?
   Ken Coleman has a great book called ONE QUESTION Life Changing Answers.
   The right questions uncover truths we might not otherwise know.
   
   
5. Finally, don’t forget to Use Humor: (if that’s authentic to you.) I’m not the funniest person so my content is kind of stale that way, but man oh man do I love to watch content produced by funny people. There are some personal brands out there doing an amazing job leaning into their talents. I love those brands because they show up on the hard days, in the moments I need to unwind or to forget about the seriousness of life. Right now I’m on a kick where I follow a YouTube creator Stephen He, who creates content about Asian parents. He’s hilarious and I don’t get paid to say this but you should follow him. I talk about Allstate Insurance so much I swear I should get sponsored, but you’ve heard me mention how they use their character Mayhem to spice up what’s otherwise a worrisome situation and boring thing to talk about (car insurance.)
   
   Creating engaging social media content requires a mix of strategy, creativity, and authenticity. Social media content offers value to your audience (and yes humor is value) - as you deliver that value with consistency, your followers will be more likely to engage with you and share your content.

Ultimately however, don’t get so caught up with creating social media content that you forget its primary purpose in Your Content Marketing Strategy.  The next time you find yourself getting caught up in the endless scroll, remember to stay focused on your goal and that’s to bring those potential clients over to your own digital domain.

Thanks for joining me today. I’m Ali Garbero, Copywriting is what I do, Content Marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.