Grabbing and holding your audience’s attention is more challenging than ever. With countless brands vying for visibility in crowded feeds, creating content that truly resonates requires more than just clever captions and eye-catching visuals—it demands a deep understanding of what drives engagement.
Whether you’re looking to boost your brand’s presence or foster genuine connections with your audience, knowing the right strategies can make all the difference. That’s why we’ve turned to experts in the field, including marketing managers and digital marketing consultants, to reveal their most powerful tips for creating engaging social media content. From showcasing your brand’s authentic personality to honing in on your ideal buyer persona, these thirteen expert strategies will help you stand out and make a lasting impact in the ever-evolving world of social media.
- Showcase Your Brand’s Human Side
- Utilize Social Listening for Insights
- Embrace Daily Video Content Creation
- Enhance Posts with Creative Graphics
- Leverage A/B Testing for Optimization
- Customize Content for Each Platform
- Conduct In-Depth Audience Research
- Incorporate Trends with a Brand Twist
- Engage Through Storytelling and Interactivity
- Create Multi-Sensory Experiences
- Boost Engagement with Interactive Elements
- Involve the Audience in Content Creation
- Understand and Target Your Buyer Persona
Tips for Creating Engaging Social Media Content
Showcase Your Brand’s Human Side
Show the human side of your brand! There’s a reason influencers and content creators are so popular: People want to connect with people. We’re naturally drawn to more authentic content, so why not highlight the people behind your team, write posts in the first person, or conduct an employee brand-channel takeover? Our most popular content comes directly from our team; it’s a surefire way to boost engagement on social media.
Emily Neal, Marketing Manager, DSMN8
Utilize Social Listening for Insights
Crafting engaging social media content is not simply about coming up with great ideas or polished creatives; it’s about understanding your audience’s wants and needs. Social listening has become crucial for creating engaging social media content and is the single most efficient way to gauge sentiment.
An engaging social media content strategy evolves, built on sentiment and the insights gained through social listening. Insights into the questions or problems your audience, clients, and prospective clients have about your product should drive your content strategy. Only through listening can you find problems that irk your customers and create content targeted at solving the issue.
Boris Markovich, Co-Founder, Ayrshare
Embrace Daily Video Content Creation
Force yourself to create at least one piece of video content daily for 30 days. Over the course of the 30 days, you’ll become more aware of the content you’re capturing, the story you want to tell, and how this fits with your audience. As you post the content, you’ll get feedback from the audience on what’s relevant to them—incorporate this into the next video. Ultimately, getting the reps in will make you a better content creator and allow you to create more engaging social media content.
Liam Waddy, Sr. Manager Cross-Channel Paid Media, Colibri Group
Enhance Posts with Creative Graphics
Using engaging, creative graphics on your brand images posted to social media is a great way to achieve engaging social content. Think of when you have a more simple post; maybe the colors aren’t very vibrant and attention-grabbing. Adding some text, a graphic, or an image cut-out instantly turns a basic post into an interesting creative. These types of posts grab the audience’s attention and make your profile look fun and interactive, leading to more engagement and follower growth if done as part of a strategy.
Jack Van Leer, Digital Marketing Consultant, PartyLite
Leverage A/B Testing for Optimization
Focus on understanding the customer journey and leverage A/B testing to optimize your content. For instance, I worked with a brand that struggled with engagement on their social media ads.
By implementing A/B testing on different headlines and visuals, we discovered that personalized, data-driven content significantly outperformed generic messages. This approach not only improved engagement rates but also provided valuable insights into what truly resonates with the audience. By continuously testing and refining your content based on real user interactions, you can craft messages that genuinely connect with your audience and drive better results.
Jörg Dennis Krüger, Author, Expert and Mentor, The Conversion Hacker®
Customize Content for Each Platform
One key tip I always emphasize for creating engaging social media content is to tailor your posts for each platform while maintaining a consistent brand voice. For instance, at Publer, we’ve seen that customizing content—like using a video on Twitter and an image on Instagram—dramatically increases engagement because it leverages the strengths of each platform.
In my experience, this approach not only resonates more deeply with audiences but also enhances the effectiveness of your messaging. It’s like speaking the native language of each platform’s community. By doing so, you align with user expectations, making your content more appealing and impactful.
Ervin Kalemi, Founder & CEO, Publer
Conduct In-Depth Audience Research
Audience research! Oftentimes, social teams run through a variety of content types, hoping it’ll stick. It’s timely, costly, and creates a lot of irrelevant noise just to get to something that *might* be engaging for some time. And then, when user behaviors evolve beyond being engaged by that type of content, the cycle begins again.
Spend your time and money executing in-depth audience research, and not just on your existing following, but on your target following. Get a good idea of their behaviors, where they are online, what and who influences them, and why—aka a target persona. But don’t stop there. Take those learnings and create your OWN social media persona, applying that directly to the information gathered from your audience research work. Make your social persona exactly what your target personas are looking for, and ensure your activity and engagements mirror your set persona.
Megan Bradley, Senior Manager, Global Social Media, Akamai Technologies
Incorporate Trends with a Brand Twist
I’d say it is to create engaging social media content and tap into current trends and events, but with a unique twist that relates to your brand or industry. This approach keeps your content fresh and timely while maintaining relevance to your audience.
At Thrive, we’ve seen great success with this strategy across various client accounts. For instance, during a major sporting event, we created a series of posts for a fitness equipment client that playfully compared professional athletes’ workouts to everyday gym routines. These posts rode the wave of event excitement while still focusing on our client’s products and target audience.
Move quickly and be creative. We have a daily 15-minute team huddle where we brainstorm ways to connect trending topics to our clients’ messages. This allows us to stay agile and produce content that feels spontaneous and in-the-moment.
It’s not about jumping on every trend but choosing those that align with your brand voice and audience interests. When done right, this approach can significantly boost engagement, increase shares, and even attract new followers who appreciate your brand’s cultural relevancy and quick wit.
Tristan Harris, Demand Generation Senior Marketing Manager, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency
Engage Through Storytelling and Interactivity
Storytelling! It creates a deeper emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. So, by creating a story that resonates with our audience—making content that is relatable and memorable—such as behind-the-scenes content, “as seen on you,” where to wear, the inspiration behind a collection, staff interviews, etc., we engage them more effectively.
Also, use interactive elements! Especially ones that are easier for people to engage with minimal effort, like polls and question boxes. This makes them feel more involved and connected to the brand. It also boosts engagement and provides valuable insights about what they want and think of things.
Alex Day, Digital Marketing Lead, Kinga Csilla
Create Multi-Sensory Experiences
On social media, where attention spans are short, standing out requires more than just fascinating visuals or witty captions.
To create engaging content on social media, create an immersive experience that goes beyond the screen. Indulge your audience in a world where they can almost taste, touch, smell, hear, or even feel what you’re offering. Incorporate sound effects, background music, or even short video clips that enhance the sensory experience. For example, if you’re selling coffee, don’t just post a picture of a steaming cup. Describe the rich aroma that fills the room as soon as the lid is opened, the velvety smoothness of the first sip, and the comforting warmth that spreads through the body.
By engaging multiple senses, you create a multi-dimensional narrative that captures the imagination and leaves a lasting impression. This approach not only makes your content more engaging but also sets you apart from competitors who rely solely on visual aesthetics.
Kate Dzhevaga, CMO, Head of Growth, SYMVOLT
Boost Engagement with Interactive Elements
One of the most effective strategies for producing content that draws readers in is to highlight interactive elements. User participation can be greatly increased by adding features like polls, quizzes, or questions directly into your posts. This technique not only raises the level of interaction from your audience but also provides you with insightful feedback regarding their preferences and behaviors.
Users are encouraged to interact with each other as well as the post itself when you ask provocative questions about a trending issue in your sector or hold a poll to find out what kind of content your followers would like to see more of. This increased interaction and exposure in Instagram feeds could lead to a livelier and more involved community around your brand. When using content to turn visitors from passive observers into active participants, you should always strive to start a conversation and build relationships.
Amelia Munday, Marketing Specialist, Custom Neon
Involve the Audience in Content Creation
An effective approach is to involve your audience in content creation. For example, we regularly run polls and ask our followers for their opinions on upcoming features or content ideas. This not only boosts engagement but also makes our audience feel like they have a stake in the development of our product. By turning our followers into active contributors, we keep them more invested and excited about what’s coming next.
Dinesh Agarwal, Founder, CEO, RecurPost
Understand and Target Your Buyer Persona
When it comes to creating engaging, successful social media content, you have to know your persona. What social channels do they use? What channels do they trust? Where are they looking for insights and recommendations on products and services? Once you know where your persona spends their time online, then you can optimize your content creation for that channel.
Start by creating your buyer persona, and base it on your real customers. Interview them and find out where they spend time online, how they make buying decisions, and how they spend their day in general.
Don’t fall into the trap of creating trending content or jumping on the latest channel if it isn’t related to the way your buyer persona wants to experience your brand.
For example, if you’re selling a long-term B2B service to lawyers and law offices, let’s say you interviewed your best customers to find out where they spend their time online. You find that they read email, online law journals, use Facebook to keep up with friends and family, and use LinkedIn to connect with others in their industry.
Based on this information, you probably shouldn’t be focused on creating TikTok content to promote your brand. That’s not where that persona makes partnership decisions, even if a portion of your audience uses that channel.
Madonna Kilpatrick, Digital Marketing Director, Peer Sales Agency
