Engagement, engagement, engagement. How do I get more likes? How do I get more followers? This is what I tend to hear more than anything else working in social media for the last decade. 

Low engagement on brand accounts is one of the most common issues our clients come to us with (especially on Instagram) and it has one very simple solution.

Not so great engagement is a direct result of not so great content, and to get to what makes great content you have to think about why people are on social media in the first place. Boredom? Yes. But from experience I’ve found you can place most into one of these four categories: 

1 – They’re looking for entertainment. 

2 – They’re wanting to learn something new.

3 – They want to come away feeling good about themselves.

4 – They want to be inspired.

You as a social media manager / brand manager / brand owner (and probably your boss) get a real kick from seeing gorgeous pictures of your brand and it’s logo front and center. It’s important to note that your audience doesn’t need this every single time.  

Posting content that people actually want to consume seems obvious but it’s the stumbling block we see so many brands fall over. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware you’re not on social media during work hours just for a good time, you need to sell, but you need to entertain first so that you can sell later.

When people see a brand on or offline they never think about how to improve it’s sales or brand image. It’s not about what they can do for the brand. They’re buying because they want something out of it. Thinking consciously or not – ‘What will buying this product do for me?’

That’s not to say a hard-hitting sales post and a close up of the brand doesn’t have its place. But it’s pointless pushing for a sale without entertaining or showing value first. 

This content method is created around the concept that the value you provide through educational, emotional, or entertaining content should be more than the sales-related messages you post.

What I’m saying is that there must be a mix in the content you post and messages you put across to your audience. Check out our content package example page for what we deliver as a mix of content month to month.

We’re not suggesting an exact 80/20 mix or posting only sales messages on a Tuesday. But by not diving straight into production and thinking through this lens can really inform the content you create. Here are some rough steps to get you planning in the right direction:

1 – WHO are your followers? 

2 – HOW are they entertained? 

3 – WHAT are other accounts (including your competitors) doing to entertain them? 

4 – DON’T stray too far from who you are. Entertain more and sell less by all means but this doesn’t mean posting memes that have nothing to do with your brand or just posting for the sake of being funny. There’s still an end goal here!