How can you identify the most engaging social media content for your audience?

Identifying the most engaging social media content for your audience involves analyzing metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates to understand what resonates best with your audience. Conduct audience research to gain insights into their interests, preferences, and behaviors, helping you tailor your content to better meet their needs. Experiment with different content formats, themes, and posting times, and use A/B testing to refine your strategy and optimize engagement levels over time.

To identify the most engaging social media content for your audience a brand needs to know itself and it's highest value customer. Without a clearly defined brand a business can get caught in irrelevant trends which is often where PR mishaps occur. Know what you do (well) and set an editorial calendar with relevant content pillars that speak to your business and connect with your customer / evangelist. From there, it's a matter of reporting which the content exceeds or fails against an established measurement plan. Until you know your own brand and set measurments you'll be swept up in chasing trends or faux social holidays.

To find out what social media content worked best for our audience, I really focused on looking at the numbers and listening to our followers. I checked which posts got the most likes, comments, and shares, and used that to figure out what people liked seeing. I also read the comments and messages from followers to get a sense of what they wanted more of. Sometimes, I even asked them directly through polls or posts. Combining all this information with the latest trends, I was able to make content that was both interesting and relevant to our audience, leading to better engagement on our social media pages.

My tag line is "Be seen how you want to be seen" - so the objective is to make sure that your messaging aligns with how you want to be perceived. So a lot of work goes in BEFORE you start creating content for posting on your digital channels. The source content can be created ahead of time or available, but the actual strategy needs to inform for teh content is created for posting.

Before analyzing the content, its better to track where the brand stands. For instance, is it in awareness, traffic, engagement or sales phase. After having a clear picture of the brand, each content that is created needs to resonate those objectives. For example, If my brand is in awareness phase, my content strategy will focus on educating my audience about my brand/services/products. Each phase has a different content strategy. However, you cannot forget about your target audience. Your content strategy based on your objective must align and attract the audience too.

Analyze your existing content: Look at past posts to see what performed well in terms of likes, comments, shares, and clicks. Identify common themes, formats, and topics that resonated with your audience. Track industry trends: Stay updated on what's popular in your niche and adapt it to your brand voice and audience preferences. Use social media analytics tools: Platforms like Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and Instagram Insights offer valuable data on demographics, interests, and engagement metrics of your audience. Experiment and test: Don't be afraid to try different formats, tones, and topics to see what works best. Use A/B testing to compare different approaches and optimize your content over time.

Crafting content that resonates starts with getting up close and personal with your audience. It's about diving deep into their world—knowing not just who they are, but what makes them tick, their online haunts, and the hurdles they face. Tools like social media analytics and surveys are your treasure maps, revealing rich insights into demographics, likes, dislikes, and habits. Personas bring these data to life, painting pictures of real users with real needs. Segmenting your audience lets you fine-tune your content, ensuring it speaks directly to each group's unique interests and desires. This isn't just about broadcasting messages; it's about building conversations that matter, content that clicks, and connections that last.

A big part of knowing your audience is also knowing your competitors. Identifying the social media accounts that your audience follows that are similar in industry to your brand can help with tailoring your content. If you know who your competitors are, you can look at their social media content to see what's working for your audience. Oftentimes you can look for post engagement by looking at how many likes, comments, saves and shares a post receives. Take high engagement on competitors' content as a learning experience for your content strategy. Being curious about your competition is a low risk way to learn more about your own audience without having to experiment on your brand's social media accounts.

Knowing your audience is key to creating social content that truly engages. By using social media analytics, surveys, and interviews, you can uncover your audience's interests, preferences, and behaviors. This insight allows you to tailor your content to reflect what your audience cares about, significantly boosting engagement. By adapting the tone, format, and messaging to their needs, you can forge a deeper connection and stimulate participation, building a loyal community around your brand.

Who is the audience that you are catering to and where are they found, i.e., what social media platforms are they on: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitch, X, etc. It can help to create different personas that are using each platform and investigate why and how they are using a platform. Then create content that appeals to the individual needs. It is likely that your audience is on more than one social media platform. However, it is vital that you do not use the same content for different platforms. A fast-paced video in 9:16 format may work for Instagram, but could flop on LinkedIn and vice versa. The contents of a long article need a short and entertaining format in order to spark interest on Instagram.

Don’t be afraid to tailor your content to different platforms, and your community on it. Not every piece of news needs to go everywhere

Being a content creator requires that you understand the nuance of the different social media platforms that exist. Each brand you are creating or managing content for has nuance as well. To learn more about your brand's social media platforms and the nuances that exist, a great exercise is to simply spend time on each platform observing. The social media space moves quickly, so scrolling with a curious mindset will help you learn more about what each platform can provide from a content perspective. Look at some of your personal favorite brands to see how their using each social media platform. Look at industry specific social media accounts and see how their using the space. Don't be afraid to take notes on your observations.

Social media is a whole buffet of platforms and formats, each with its own unique style. For me, it's about playing to each platform's strengths.

Not all social media platforms are created equal, and neither are their content formats. Conduct research to identify the platforms where your target audience is most active and tailor your content accordingly. Whether it's visually captivating images on Instagram, thought-provoking articles on LinkedIn, or engaging videos on Tiktok, choose formats that best complement your brand and resonate with your audience.

I've always believed in crafting captivating social media content by delving into audience preferences and aligning with the organisation goals. Experiment with various formats such as videos, images, and polls tailored to audience interests. Choose platforms like Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn based on where your audience thrives. Track performance metrics diligently to refine strategies and optimize content for each platform's unique strengths.

Develop content that aligns with your audience's preferences and the nuances of each chosen platform. Use high-quality visuals, compelling copy, and clear calls-to-action. Optimize your content for each platform's best practices, such as using the correct hashtags, tagging relevant users, and posting at times when your audience is most active. Consistency in quality and message reinforces your brand identity and fosters audience loyalty.

This is my opinion: Know your audience: Tailor content to their interests, demographics, and preferred formats. Hook them fast: Grab attention in the first seconds with visuals, questions, or intriguing statements. Variety is key: Experiment with formats like images, videos, polls, and live streams to keep things fresh. Storytelling matters: Weave narratives into your content to connect emotionally with your audience. Optimize for each platform: Tailor content to each platform's unique algorithms and user behaviors. Post consistently: Maintain a regular presence to stay top-of-mind and build a loyal following. Track and analyze: Monitor performance metrics and adapt your strategy based on what resonates.

Don’t be afraid to test, test, test and iterate. You likely won’t get it right the first time, and that’s ok. Also always make sure to produce content that’s suited for each platform: TikTok videos may work for Instagram, but the reverse isn’t always true.

Vor allem als kleiner Account sollten Sie ihren Formaten und Inhalten ein bisschen Zeit geben. Nicht nach dem 3. mal Nutzen des Formats direkt wieder abschie?en. Gerade bei rein organischem Posting, muss der Algorithmus erstmal überzeugt werden. Dran bleiben und Formaten eine Chance geben. Funktionieren bestimmte Inhalte gut, schauen Sie, ob man sie in einem anderen Format auch aufgreifen kann. Keine Angst vor inhaltlichen Dopplungen! Nicht jede/r User:in sieht alle Posts. Das ist immer im Hinterkopf zu behalten.

Each channel will have a slightly different audience. It’s important to view current analytics and look at what engagement rate they are receiving. It’s also worth testing the same post but tweaking it at different times. The high engagement rate could be due to timing (day or time), imagery, employee engagement, tagging etc.

I believe in customer-centricity. To identify engaging social media content, understand audience needs. Choose formats (videos, images, etc.) aligned with their preferences. Select platforms where they're active (Instagram, Twitter, etc.). Tailor content as a solution to their needs.

Unfortunately, everything that you make for social media won't go viral. But this is not necessarily a bad thing! You can learn about your audience based on what did AND didn't perform. Block time in your schedule–on a weekly or monthly basis– to look at how your content performed and track your notes in a spread sheet. What did your audience say about your content in the comment section that can be valuable for you to learn from? What is the story that the data trying to communicate to you?

The journey to crafting engaging social media content doesn't end with publication. Utilize AI-powered analytics tools to track key metrics such as engagement, reach, click-through rates, and conversions. Analyze the performance of your content and iterate based on insights gathered. Leverage LinkedIn's community feedback to gain qualitative insights and continuously refine your content strategy for optimal results.

Engagement data such as likes and comments can give you a false sense of accomplishment. The bottom line is, well, the bottom line: influencing revenue. While vanity metrics can make you feel good about your activities, the hidden aspect of social media is that lurkers often become clients. These are the people who keep reading your posts but never interact until they're ready to buy. So how do you measure that? You'll need to ask prospects how they learned about you. It's really as simple as that. The attribution data you might collect from tools usually tracks first or last touch. The danger of believing that information is that it completely misses all of the influences in between, which is really what pushed your prospect to connect.

Memes and cat videos are engaging. But they don't demonstrate that you understand your customers. Be sure whether engagement is the best goal for your brand to chase on social media.

Consider using sdk tags from these platforms in your digital properties (such as website or app). This way you can track behavior from the social media platform and within your properties. Then you can start segmenting these audiences for analysis and activation, for example, a segment including social media users who have also visited 3 product pages, etc.

Crafting engaging social media content is both an art and a science, requiring a deep understanding of your objectives, audience, and platforms. By harnessing the power of AI technology and leveraging insights from the LinkedIn community, you can unlock the secrets to creating content that captivates, resonates, and drives meaningful results for your business. Start your journey today and unleash the full potential of your social media presence.