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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Creating Content & Engaging With Your Audience on Social Media with Brooke Sellas

by | Apr 5, 2019 | ContentWritingChat

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Creating Content & Engaging With Your Audience on Social Media with Brooke Sellas

Social media can sometimes feel a little overwhelming.
There are so many platforms to keep track of, you have to create fresh content on a regular basis, and still find time to connect and engage with your audience.
How are you supposed to manage it all? And how can you be sure you’ll reap the rewards of all the time and effort you put in?
Well, it’s all about having a smart strategy! In this month’s #ContentWritingChat, we talked all about social media. And in this recap, you’ll learn which platforms are worth your time, what makes a great post, and what you can do today to boost your results.

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Creating Content & Engaging With Your Audience on Social Media with Brooke Sellas


Our guest host this month was Brooke Sellas. Brooke is the CEO and Founder of B Squared Media, an award-winning social media marketing and ads agency. She’s also the co-host of the Marketing Companion podcast alongside Mark Schaefer.

Q1: Which social media platforms are worth your attention in 2019? Are there any you’ll be adding or dropping from your strategy?

With so many social media platforms available at our fingertips, it can be difficult to choose the ones that are right for you and your brand. We asked everyone to share the platforms they’re focused on and the ones they’ll be saying goodbye to (if any) this year.


As Brooke said, social media is all about determining what works for you and your goals. The reality is, certain platforms work really well for some brands and don’t perform that well for others. Pay attention to what’s working for you and what’s not. And if something isn’t working, review your strategy first before completely ditching it.


Always consider which platforms your audience is actively using. If your audience isn’t there, you won’t be able to reach the right people and you’ll ultimately waste time and effort.


Gene’s advice is to direct your attention toward the platforms that serve your audience. He said you should also consider which ones are fun and enjoyable for you. And if a platform feels like hard work, then it’s time to let it go.


Another thing you want to consider is where you really shine. Are there specific platforms that you love to create content for and that truly showcase your abilities? Stick with them! For instance, if you create great images and video content, Instagram can be really beneficial.


For Michelle, she knows that LinkedIn, Twitter, and sometimes Facebook are the top platforms to focus soon with her B2B clients. You have to consider the audience and figure out what works the best.


And of course, Warwick is all about LinkedIn. He knows that this is the platform where he can be himself and create amazing content. Plus, he sees results from building his presence there, which is what really matters.


For the team at Bentley University, they aren’t afraid to utilize multiple social media platforms. Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook are the ones that work really well for them. However, they’re scaling back on their usage of Pinterest and Snapchat.

Q2: How do you figure out what you should be posting on social media?

Once you’ve chosen the platforms you’ll include in your strategy, it’s time to start creating content. But how do you craft posts that stand out, as opposed to getting lost in a busy timeline? Here are some tips to help you out!


Brooke feels that great social media content meets the goals of informing and entertaining your audience. To determine if you’re doing it right, you want to track results on a weekly basis. Her advice is to examine the top three performing posts and the bottom three. Look for micro-trends or patterns so you can identify what’s working and what’s not.


Jason knows that research is essential. You need to have an understanding of who your audience is and what they’re looking for online. From there, you can create the content they want to see the most.


If you’re ever feeling unsure of what your audience wants to see from you, just ask them! It’s as simple as that. Dianna also suggests looking at your competitors on social media to see what gains the most traction with their audience. This isn’t an invitation to copy, but it can be a great source of inspiration.


Part of the research you should do can be reviewing your older social media posts. This goes back to Brooke’s advice of looking for patterns to identify what works and what doesn’t.


As Lexie pointed out, creating social media content involves some trial and error. When you determine the types of content your audience likes, you can create more of it. And if there’s something they clearly aren’t responding to, you can eliminate it. It’s all about testing to see what works for you.


Tamara shared some great advice here. She said to listen to your audience, see what others are sharing to determine what’s working and what’s not, consider the content type that works best for each platform, and then test.


You also shouldn’t be afraid to create a different strategy for each platform you’re using. After all, each one is unique and requires its own content!


And let’s wrap up this question with a fantastic piece of advice from Michelle… Don’t go overboard on the promotional content. Focus more on providing value and building relationships.

Q3: What makes a highly engaging social media post? Are there certain characteristics that stand out among posts that perform well?

We all want our social media posts to go viral, but there’s really no rhyme or reason behind this. The most unlikely posts go viral and you can’t always explain it. Nor can you count on it to happen for you! What you can do is incorporate characteristics of content that performs well to increase your chance of success.


As Brooke said, make your own best practices. Pay close attention to what’s actually working for you. Just because something works for another brand, it doesn’t mean it’ll work for you.


What makes a highly engaging social media post largely depends on what your audience is interested in. That’s why it’s so important to understand them.


Ask yourself if the post creates a human connection. Will it cause people to take action? These are important questions to ask yourself.


Jason said to include emotion-driving keywords and a strong call to action. He also said to ask questions and use visuals that will grab attention. Together, this is a formula for success!


The best social media posts are relevant to your target audience. They’re also informative, timely, useful, entertaining, and accessible.


It’s also smart to make sure your content is creative, valuable, timely, informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, and of course… Relevant.


Dianna suggests asking questions to get the conversation going, tagging people when appropriate, using relevant hashtags, and including a visual. You also want to try and teach your audience something!


John knows that a great visual can help since it allows your posts to stand out.

Q4: What actions can we take to encourage more engagement on the platforms we use?

Feeling like you aren’t getting much engagement when you post on social media? This advice should help turn things around for you:


Make sure you’re joining or starting conversations to get the ball rolling if you want to boost engagement!


As Michelle said, we have to spend time on the platform. You cannot expect to receive engagement if you aren’t actively paying attention to your audience and responding to them.


Being consistent with your posting is a great way to boost engagement. It gets you noticed and encourages more conversation. As John knows, you have to put in the effort.


Jason’s advice is to research to figure out what your audience is actively engaging with. This will guide you in creating the content that speaks to them.


Twitter chats can be a fantastic way to increase exposure and engagement!


Make sure you’re actually engaging with your audience. You can also ask questions, create polls, and design other interactive content.


And one important piece of advice: don’t wait for people to engage with you. You can make the first move!

Q5: Once people are engaging with your content, how do you keep the momentum going?

When you finally have engagement, you don’t want it to stop! But if you aren’t smart about it, it’ll be short-lived. So, if you want to keep the momentum up and continue the conversation with your audience, consider these tips:


Great advice here from Brooke!


As Dan said, it’s our conversation to monitor replies, questions, and shares. Don’t ignore your community!


Always engage back! Simple as that!


Lexie’s advice is to not let your content get stale. Providing quality content is important if you want to keep your audience engaged and grab their attention.


You also need to be sure that you’re posting regularly instead of letting your account go dark. Share content to get the conversation going by posting what your audience is most interested in.

Q6: How can you be sure you’re reaching your goals with your social media efforts?

When you’re putting so much time and effort into your social media presence, you want to see that you’re actually reaching your goals. But how can you know this is happening? These responses from the chat will help you out.


As Brooke said, you need to know your KPIs! From there, you will tie your social media content and activities to those goals so you can achieve them.


Lori agrees that it’s so important to know your goals. This will tell you which metrics you should be keeping a close eye on. Otherwise, how will you know what you’re working toward?


Brian shared a great answer with us for this question. First, you need to define what success looks like to you and set measurable goals you can track. From there, you’ll choose the platforms that are right for you, create content, and continue to test to see what works and what doesn’t.


You may want to track things like DMs, comments, link clicks, etc. It all depends on your unique goals.

Q7: Are there any social media trends we should consider experimenting with this year?

Thinking about trying something different with your social media platforms this year? There are some trends you can try out!


For Brooke, it’s all about social listening and AI. Will you be stepping it up in either area this year?


Lexie knows that video is still hot! But the thing is, you can’t create video content just to jump on the bandwagon. You need to make quality videos your audience will connect with.


Chatbots are worth looking into if you haven’t already!


Partnering with micro-influencers and incorporating storytelling into your content are just two things that Tamara will be working on.


Gaby mentioned live streaming, gamification, paid social media, and more.

Q8: What’s one thing we can all do today to start creating more engaging social media content?

Now, we want to leave you with some final tips that you can act on today in order to see a boost in your social media presence. Pick at least one piece of advice and go for it!


Act like a human and have one-on-one conversations with your audience.


Know your audience and spend time learning all about them.


Experiment with different types of content to see what works for you.


Start having meaningful conversations with people.


Get your audience involved and make them feel heard.


Don’t be afraid to try something new!
Join us for #ContentWritingChat on the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM Central! Follow @ExpWriters and @writingchat to stay updated.

Tags: social media