“Content engagement” is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the digital marketing landscape. From simple bloggers to big businesses, having a high engagement rate is a dream of anyone who posts blogs, articles and other content materials on their website. Simply because this means that their content is well-crafted and is moving their audience closer to their brand.
So how do you improve your content engagement anyway? According to the latest report from AOL, there are eight different ways that people around the world engage with digital content- which referred to as “content moments”. In this post, we will discuss each of these content moments and give you the ways on how you can leverage on these to increase your online content engagement today.
1. Inspire Them with New Ideas
With the hustle and bustle of everyday living, many people nowadays are seeking for something new and unexplored; a new idea to embrace with or new exciting activity to try to. Anything that can motivate your audience to think from a different perspective is one of the best ways to encourage them to engage with your content. Here’s how you can do it:
- Repurpose your old content. You may have written great articles in the past that might just need a little refurbishing or updating. These articles may still have the “magic” in them which can help your newer audience to learn something new and useful.
- Use Visual Contents. Infusing eye-catching visuals on your written content does not only serve as a mental break from reading many texts, it also strengthens the overall message of your content and triggers different feelings as well.
Source: TOMS
- Create Listicles. Listicles are short articles that are usually presented in the form of numbered or bullet-pointed list, such as those of BuzzFeed. This type of content is more straightforward and is easier for your audience to understand and to follow, allowing them to act upon the message of your content much faster.
Source: Medium
2. Provide Updates and Relevant Ideas
This type of content moment involves people who constantly wants to be in the know. Whether it’s about the weather, current events, or social issues, providing your audience with the latest relevant ideas and updates will help elevate your brand into a thought-leader in your own niche. Following are some of the tips to infuse updates to your content:
- Publish a blog post about the recent news in your niche. Quite self-explanatory, but giving your audience with the latest tidbits of information about the latest happenings in your industry is one the best ways to keep them active and loyal to your brand.
- Insert current events or politics news snippet in your article or blog posts, only if you can relate it to the overall message of your content.
- Create Infographics. This data-packed visual image is one of the most effective medium to disseminate newest information about the topics your audience might find interesting. An example is this infographic about the things one needs to know about B2B Social Media Marketing Trends in 2017.
3. Give Specific Answer to Their Questions
There are some who are looking for inspiration, there are some who wants the latest updates about their interest, and there are also some people who seek an answer to their questions. These includes people who are looking for specific information about the things they care about or want to learn something new that will complement their current skill/knowledge.
Following are the tips to ensure that your content contains the information your audience seeks in your niche:
- Keep your content simple by using short paragraphs and explaining each industry jargon. This avoids any confusion in your reader’s mind and makes your content as relatable and actionable as possible.
- Use image to explain your point, and graphs to support your data and research findings.
- Make sure that you have a dedicated page for the FAQ on your website
- Always check forums and social media sites such as Quora, Twitter, and even the comments on your recent blogs. These are the places where your prospective audience might be asking some relevant question about your business.
Source: Quora
4. Give Insights and Support
This type of content moment is more noticeable to brands that offer more personal insights and advice to their audiences, such as medical, dating and relationship, and documentary and educational websites as well. This type of content moment aims to make a person feel comfortable by giving them advice which suits their current situation. Following are the tips when providing insights and support to your audience:
- Include fascinating facts. People are more likely to perceive your advice as legitimate when you give them facts that they haven’t heard before. If you’re a marketer, websites such Marketing Charts and Econsultancy provides the latest resources useful in the marketing landscape.
- Make your advice as for specific as possible by telling the readers the specific course of action that they must take.
- Ask rhetorical questions. This prompts your reader to assess their current situation once again, and gets your audience thinking about your message and encourage them to act sooner.
- Tell a story. People find stories comforting and is also an effective medium to give lessons and advice, so when telling your own story, make sure that it’s both entertaining and a message that your reader will find relatable and actionable.
This content has all the elements of a good advice blog post.
Source: Everyday Health
5. Involve Them in The Community
It is essential for many people to connect with other individuals with similar interest as them. People who belong to this group are seeking for visual and viral contents that aid them in learning something new or feel part of a community. To connect your audience to the community where your brand belongs, follow these tips:
- Use long and short videos. Studies revealed that audiences are about 10 times more likely to engage, share, and comment on video content than blogs or another social post. It takes less effort to know the latest trends through videos so your audience can instantly relate to what the community is talking about through this medium.
- Use Listicles. Again, people who want to be involved in the community wants their information to be delivered at a lightning speed, so creating an article in the form of a list can help them absorb information quicker and more effectively.
This video tried to explain what Pokémon Go is, which became a craze last year
Source: Vox
6. Improve Their Mood
Another way to attract your audience to engage with your content is to improve their mood by means of creating heartwarming or relaxing content. For instance, a person who is feeling fed up with the daily grind is more likely to read or watch something that can cheer him/her up, such as music or animal videos. Here are the content formats that can help improve your audience’s mood:
- Avoid using heavy words. To make your readers as relaxed as possible, avoid using complex terms and use simple words. Again, the format of your content should also be simple and divided into short paragraphs.
- Use Images and Videos. High-quality curated images and short videos can be very effective when trying to evoke a set of emotions to your readers. Make sure that you use images and videos that are light-themed and doesn’t contain any disturbing elements on it.
- Share stories from other people. Storytelling is one the most powerful marketing tools that can create a deep connection between your brand and your audience. This can take in many forms, such anecdotes, to curated videos. When done correctly, this can create a deep connection between your brand and your audience.
7. Make Your Content Entertaining and Interesting
Similar to “feel good” type of content moment, but this one includes people who seek entertaining content for the sake of mental break or relaxation, and not to uplift their mood. For instance, a person who is feeling bored is more likely to watch comedy videos or television drama to serve as a distraction for him until the next work day.
Following are the content formats that are most effective to instill a sense of relaxation to your audience:
- Memes. Not only are this type of content highly entertaining, they are highly shareable as well. Just make that the text in the meme is relevant to your brand and you’re good to go.
Source: Internet Archive Blogs
- Nostalgic Content. Think of old photos of your brand or anecdotes of your early employees about working with your company. This transports your audience to the early history of your company, thus allowing them to know your brand much better.
An 8-Bit Video Ad Reintroducing Crystal Pepsi
Source: Pepsi
- Live Stream Videos. Periscope and Facebook Live are two of the most widely-used live streaming platforms that you can use to provide a sneak-peak of your company to your audience. Note: 81% of internet and mobile audiences watched more live video in 2016 than in 2015, so there can be no doubt that it is one of the most entertaining media to this date.
Source: Welker Media
8. Provide Social Updates
According to AOL, these includes people who are seeking for information that will keep them updated on what’s going on, allow them to relax, or take a mental break- all through social media networking sites.
For example, throughout the day, a young mom takes a moment to check her social network to see what her peers and the people she is following are up to, and to see the latest trends in the social media sphere as well, thus refreshing her mind from the all the daily chores she has to do.
You can take advantage of this content moments by following these tips:
- Try Newsjacking. Piggy-bank on the latest news and topics that are being talked about in the social media sphere. Classic examples are from Oreo and American Express.
Oreo’s Tweet During Superbowl Blackout in 2013
Source: Forbes
- Share Images on Twitter. Twitter’s inline images allows you to add images to your tweets, and according to Buffer, it has the power to increase engagement by 150%
- Share your Blog Post on Social Networks. Sharing your latest blog posts on different social networking sites does not only keep your followings updated, it also helps you to gain traffic and attract new followers as well.
- Use Influencers. Influencers are individuals with a huge following on their social media channels. They have the power to influence the buying behavior of their followings, so connecting with them will not only expose your brand to a possibly untapped market but will also get your content shared and buzzed across social media sphere
Source: Referral Candy
All these content moments are the reasons why people engage with your content. Once you identified which content moments perfectly suits your brand, then you’ll be able to craft content that will surely catch your audience attention and get shared and valued across multiple platforms, thus connecting them to your brand at a much personal level.
Jomer B. Gregorio is a well-rounded expert when it comes digital marketing. Jomer is also known as a semantic SEO evangelist and practitioner. Check out our Digital Marketing Services today and let us help you in achieving positive and profitable results for your business.