Social media has exploded in terms of growth and usage in the past five years. What was once a niche concept for teenagers and college graduates has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. The power of social media to drive traffic and influence public opinion now rivals that of search engines. This is why so many brands are concerned with their reach, attention and reputation on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Today, we’ll discuss why social media is so important to brands and what basic components should be included in your posts to boost engagement and improve reach.

Cold, Hard Facts

People love facts and tid-bits. This can range from anything to do with history and trivia, to current weather conditions and forecasts. Because facts are so easily shared and contain basic knowledge, natural human curiosity kicks in for most. This leads to a higher level of shares and comments for brands that know how to use facts and tid-bits to their advantage and in relevance to their niches. Additionally, other types of facts-based posts can include tutorials and how-tos: one of the biggest performers in terms of social media and blog posts, everybody loves to share videos on how to make a delicious recipe or repair a faulty car part.

Late-breaking News

Social media brands that know how to tap into the current events of the day can make strong gains in terms of likes, retweets, shares and engagement. If your brand can be one of the first to announce breaking news of any type, then expect to get a lot of likes and shares from each applicable post. This not only applies to anything happening with regards to your brand, niche or industry, but this can also be used with news events at-large to boost engagement. Pinging users with this type of information will surely pique their interests, and they’ll be eager to share it with others.

Multimedia

Any great social media post that is worth its weight in gold usually features some form of multimedia: whether that be an image, a video or a GIF, these types of posts automatically tend to do better. Multiple studies have shown that image- and video-based social media posts generate two to three times the amount of engagement as standard text-based posts. If you are pinging users with pure text day in and day out, then this may explain the lacklustre engagement from even your devoted fans. By throwing in an image or video every now and then, you can make all of the same points, announcements and claims that you’d otherwise make…but generate much more attention for your causes in the process.

By integrating multimedia with your brand, covering late-breaking news and current events, and including plenty of facts and tips in your social media posting strategy, you can ensure that you’ll increase engagement substantially. What other tactics have you found to be helpful in increasing engagement?