How To Write An Engaging Social Media Post

What is Good Social Media Content?

When you’re scrolling through your social media pages, do you find yourself drawn to a particular post, even if just for a few seconds longer? Perhaps you might have even left a comment on the post? That will give you an idea of what is considered a good social media post.

Good social media content offers value, captures attention quickly, and drives audience engagement. Brands that have mastered social media copywriting follow one important rule: address the audience’s needs or wants. When you write for social media posts, addressing the audience’s needs or wants directly will help you to hold their attention, encourage engagement, and widen your reach.

However, it is important not to get carried away with what you post to generate attention, and you should always manage your reach. Content should be engaging and relevant to your target audience, but it should also remain aligned with your company’s marketing goals and brand values.

How to Craft Engaging Social Media Posts: 7 Best Practices

Now that you understand what exactly defines good social media content and why it is important, how can you begin crafting it?

While each business page should be unique and represent the individual company, here are seven social media copywriting best practices that can help you get started:

1. Focus on Your Target Audience

There are millions of users on social media platforms, and you will not be able to write posts that are relevant to every single one of them. The good news is that you do not have to. The people you want to speak to are your target audience.

Take the time to understand who your target audience is. What problems do they face? What content formats do they prefer—videos, carousels, or polls?

Additional tip: Use words such as “you” or “your” to engage with them directly.

2. Be a Storyteller

Storytelling naturally evokes emotions from the reader; it is up to you to ensure that it brings out the emotions you want. Your story should include a brand narrative that will help users understand your brand and ideas while garnering trust. It is key to remember that you need to tell a story about your products, not just factual information.

3. Keep it Short

Research from Meta showed that the average attention span for posts on the Facebook platform is 2 seconds. Therefore, you’d want to ensure that your content is brief and succinct, allowing your audience to receive your key messages in the shortest amount of time.

However, this might not work for all social media channels. For instance, long-form social media content writing with more in-depth information performs better on LinkedIn. As such, you will need to adapt your content accordingly.

4. Power Headlines

You do not have the luxury of time when it comes to grabbing your audience’s attention. A great way to do just that is to use eye-grabbing headlines in your social media writing to make your post stand out. The best headlines serve as irresistible invitations to continue reading your content.

Strong headlines should include powerful words that spark curiosity, emotion, or action—key ingredients in writing high-performing social media posts. For example, use specific numbers or data on a topic that you know readers would be interested in – “80% of working adults find these courses beneficial for career growth”.

5. Be Visual

Marketing firm MDG Advertising found that content paired with an image attracted 94% more views on average than content without visuals. Visuals, videos in particular, have an opportunity to convey a brand’s personality and story in a more compelling way than written text.

6. Call-to-Action (CTA)

A post without a clear call-to-action (CTA) is a missed opportunity. Including a CTA at the end of your posts, whether it be a simple ‘Learn More Here’ or a multiple-choice question, can be key to driving up engagement on your post. A compelling CTA guides users toward a specific action—whether it’s clicking a link, signing up, or leaving a comment. It’s an essential part of increasing post engagement and conversions. Do not underestimate its importance.

7. Add Your Brand’s Personality

Be sure to infuse your brand personality and tone in your posts. This is how your audience will remember you and helps to create Top of Mind (TOM) recall for your brand.

How to Measure Social Media Engagement Effectively

Now that you have the basic tools for drafting a good social media post, how do you measure whether your post is doing well or not? The key here would be a Social Media Marketing Funnel.

This funnel helps to map out how a person develops a relationship with a brand, primarily by moving through four stages – Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty. As a brand, you have to decide which stage of the funnel you will be focusing on with social media, as doing so will determine the metrics used to measure engagement.

Let’s break it down into three defined levels: Bottom of Funnel (BOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU), and Top of Funnel (TOFU).

At the TOFU level, you will want to focus on two key metrics:

• Awareness and reach: Social media reach, ad impressions, and keyword searches
• Visitorship and views: Website, landing page, and social media pages

At the MOFU level, these would be:

• Content readers: How many web visitors are browsing your website pages?
• Leads: How many opt-ins have you received?

Finally, at the beginning level of BOFU, you will want to focus on:

• Prospects: The potential clients – people who are not currently customers but are most likely to convert.
• Customers: Your current clients – former leads or prospects who have already completed the purchase process once but have the potential to be converted into recurring customers.
• Repeat Customers: Customers who have completed the purchase process more than once and have the potential to be converted into long-term fans of your brand.
• Advocates: These are your long-term customers who help to spread your content through their social networks.

Examples of Engaging Social Media Posts

Let’s take a look at some examples of engaging content.

Nike’s Social Media Strategy: Segmenting by Audience Type

Instead of limiting itself to only one Facebook page, Nike uses separate pages for its main product categories – Golf, Skateboarding, Nike Run Club, American Football, and Soccer. Even though Nike’s main target audience is athletes, it abides by the main rule of understanding the wants and needs of its audience. A golfer would have very different needs from a soccer player, so Nike has enabled themselves to create content specific to each of their audiences and ensures they remains relevant.

Additionally, Nike makes use of imagery, especially of their ambassadors. In this example, Nike used a high-quality image of world-famous tennis player Roger Federer as the focal point of the post, with a strong headline – “Outplay yourself”. Keeping with their brand, they ended the post with their famous tagline #justdoit.

ABC News: Using Facebook 360 to Boost Engagement

A unique way of engaging your audience is through Facebook’s 360 feature which allows viewers move their phone to view your visual from different angles.

ABC News used this feature when reporting on a New York City blizzard, enabling their audience to virtually ‘experience’ the snowfall from multiple angles – all without being caught in the snowstorm.

NTUC FairPrice: Creating Viral Localised Content with Humour

Local Singaporean supermarket retailer NTUC FairPrice showcased their understanding of their target audience perfectly in a witty campaign they did on Facebook. NTUC FairPrice displayed its products in a series of images and combined them with recognisable Singapore street names.

Through this, they were able to showcase their products in a creative way that one might not have expected from a supermarket chain.

Using a play on local Singlish colloquialism, the hashtag #EverywhereAlsoSeeFood, NTUC FairPrice was able to connect with thousands of Singaporeans online, creating a viral post.

Secretlab: Leveraging Hashtags and Visuals to Promote Product Launches

Secretlab, a company that specialises in gaming chairs, used its social media channels to promote a special series of chairs they were releasing. With their Monster Hunter chair series, Secretlab used Monster Hunter-related hashtags to reach their fanbase and made use of a CTA.

With full visuals displaying the chairs, the CTA the chairs without having to search for them.

Singapore Airlines: Humanising the Brand with Relatable Video Content

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many airlines found themselves grounded due to closed borders. As such, Singapore Airlines produced a video for social media showcasing what one of their stewards had to do as a result of being redeployed.

This video showed the human side of Singapore Airlines and explained how the pandemic had affected not just the company but also its employees on a personal level. This resonated with many who had also been impacted by the pandemic. Singapore Airlines did a lot for their brand with a simple two-minute video.

Conclusion

As social media continues to evolve the way people interact with brands, marketers need to ensure that their firms stand out from the crowd. Never underestimate the power of good social media posts. They have the power to completely transform your brand for better or worse.

Now that you know how to write engaging social media posts, take the next step and enhance your skills with structured learning. Equinet Academy offers a comprehensive social media marketing strategy and optimisation course led by industry experts to guide you on how to develop, deliver, measure, and manage your social media channels.

Also, if you would like to learn and keep up with the latest digital marketing trends, Equinet Academy covers all 6 Core Modules of Digital Marketing that include:

• Digital Marketing Foundations (Fundamentals)
• Digital Advertising
• Social Media Marketing Strategy & Optimisation
• Digital Content Creation & Content Marketing Strategy
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Strategy
• Email Marketing & Marketing Automation
• Digital Marketing Analytics & Optimisation (Google Analytics 4)

With the completion of these modules, learners will attain a Certified Digital Marketing Strategist V2 Certificate. Please feel free to also browse the complete array of digital marketing courses we provide in-person in Singapore or online.