“Content is King, but engagement is Queen and she rules the house.”
Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing Expert, Social Media Influencer, Speaker, Author
Can we say that louder for the people in the back?
As a person who writes for a living, I believe that content—what you’re writing about AND how you write it—supersedes everything else. From pretty social media feeds to policy updates, what you choose to communicate is the most important piece of creating messages that work.
But…what about engagement?
I mean, do people care about what you’re telling them?
Lack of engagement, means no one is paying attention. They are bypassing your content for messaging that entertains, informs or connects with them.
What can you do?
So, you’ve already done the first part of communications basics: you’ve crafted great content with your key messages weaved through it. Now, the second part is getting people to engage with your message—whether that’s liking something, leaving a comment, or following your call to action.
We want people to actually do something with our content. It lets us know we’re not communicating into a vacuum.
I love social media. Right now, my vehicle of choice is Instagram. I enjoy scrolling through photos and the captions…but sometimes a post really resonates with me and I like or if I really feel moved, I comment.
Instagram is about creating connections and engaging with people. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t do that with just pretty photos. There needs to be some depth to what you are posting—so the pretty picture is fine, but what are you saying?
Without the Queen, the house falls apart
Even if you’re a decorator and your business is creating beautiful spaces, you need to tell people a story of how you landed on this particular design and what it means to the homeowner. It’s the story that builds the brand and you are the representative of the brand, so you have to share stories about yourself and how you work and why your work is important.
We all need to find ways to make our business stand out to potential clients—although I wouldn’t say social media is the best place to find clients, it is somewhere you need to have a strong presence to build brand awareness.
Recently, I’ve been cleaning up my Instagram feed and adding a colour scheme—which is important for a visual medium. But more importantly, I’ve changed how I write. Every Instagram post is an opportunity to tell a story and build engagement with followers. I’m not just putting hashtags on a picture, I’m telling a story, sharing about myself and making connections with my readers.
Let me tell you, while I am still not an influencer with 10 thousand followers, I’m seeing definite improvement on my post engagement and that tells me what I’m writing and posting is resonating with my followers—and gaining me some new ones.
So, my communications tribe, how are you working on engagement with your followers and readers? How are you standing out from all of the online chatter?
Write that amazing content, but make sure that it’s connecting with your readers because if it doesn’t engage, it’s not worth it.