60% of people want to be entertained on social media. So, how do you do that?

Are you not entertained?

Then you probably didn’t follow, like, comment or share. That’s what the data tells us about the type of content that is the most enjoyed by consumers on social media.

According to Global Web Index, 60% of people want to be entertained by social media content, more than any other reasoning for consuming content. This means the focus should be on giving the audience content that they enjoy.

Ok, so entertain them. That’s easy enough to understand. But how do you do that? What kind of content works best? What do people find entertaining? What if you don’t have a huge budget? All good questions.

While it takes a carefully organized and integrated content strategy to get the most out of social media, there are a few steps you can take to make your content more entertaining.

Use Quality Creative

There is indeed great power in visual stimulation. The first step towards entertainment is having high quality visuals and well-written copy. This is the first touchpoint for anyone who consumes your social content.

Don’t just post images of your product. Give that product real world context by showing it out in the real world. Remember, to capture your audience’s attention, use the images to answer the question: what does this mean for them?

People automatically insert themselves and their lives into the context of the content. If you can display the benefits of your brand and connect with them with the messaging, you’re on the right track.

Next, have fun! If you’re not having fun making your images, they’re probably not all that fun to look at either.

The great thing is, there are many tools out there that can help you even on the thinnest of budgets. I’ve seen some of the most reputable brands out there produce creative with just an iPhone and some fancy but simple manipulation of the environment. You can too.

Here are a few other pointers:

• Keep copy short. Social media users are in a hurry to consume content, don’t bog them down with a novel.
• Don’t be so promotional. People don’t want to interact with snake oil salesman on social media.
• Monitor performance. If you start to notice that your images with certain characteristics are performing better than others, take note and optimize your creative strategy.
• Reuse and version out assets. Find creative you’ve already produced for other reasons and utilize it on social. This can help keep costs down. Version out and repurpose images for each of the different social channels too.
• Use video! Video is the best for capturing attention and building awareness. It can be done on a budget.

Do something you’re not supposed to do

I can only imagine the concern on the faces of executives when the team in the brainstorming session at BlendTec first threw out the idea that became “Will it Blend?”.

“You’re going to do what? Stick all of these expensive Mac devices and art supplies into a blender and see what happens??”

Since the launch of the “Will it Blend” campaign almost a decade ago, the Total Blender® products have racked up billions of dollars in sales. On top of that, its “Will it Blend?” series has accumulated around 300 Million total YouTube views. From the campaign launch in October 2007 to January 2009, the company saw a 700% increase in sales from the same time window before the launch.

You’re not supposed to take iPads and gardening tools and put them in a blender. But the idea was so ridiculous, it took a rather rudimentary product and turned it into a sensation. Social media is the perfect place to exercise similar philosophies. No one is saying you need some “pie in the sky” idea so big and so outrageous that it would go that viral.

But you do need to give people unique experiences that make your brand memorable and create incentive for people to follow along, especially people that would be interested in buying from you.

Tell Stories

We evolved as storytellers. This means we’re hardwired to consume information that is told in a story form. Because of this, we’re more open, more empathetic and more easily persuaded to act in some way by stories.

By telling a story, you’ve already got them in the right mindset.

So why tell stories?

It’s tempting to approach social content with a “buy now” message because by nature you’re yearning for people to become customers. However, Facebook found that the most powerful content at persuading people to become buyers was stories.

There are a seemingly endless number of brands out there competing for people’s attention on social channels and elsewhere online, let alone the competitors to your own brand.

In addition, by default you’re probably already working hard to push a quality product or service out to the consumer base. Are you telling the right story to make people trust you? Is that story entertaining? That’s the differentiator you need.

To tell compelling stories on social, you need to arm yourself with a true understanding of your audience then craft an overarching theme that connects your content in a consistent and reliable way.

First, you’ll need knowledge about the audience’s demographics, location, interests, most of which you can mine through the social channels’ powerful targeting tools.

Next, begin testing your content through a series of social posts with a message that is consistent and go from there. As you work to understand your audience and what content they enjoy, you can begin designing a strategy with content that tells a compelling story about your brand that the audience will want to keep coming back for.

Telling stories makes your messaging more memorable. By telling stories that resonate with who the audience is, it helps them better connect your brand message with a need or a desire they have in their mind.

Remember these 3 emotional touch points

If you can elicit an emotional response, you’ll be well on your way to entertaining the audience.

There are three emotional responses that Facebook itself has said to hit upon in order to make your content memorable and interesting:

• Makes me laugh
• Makes Me cry
• Surprises me

When creating your content, focus on stories, visuals and copy that will incite emotion to raise the fans’ brand recall and associate your content with entertaining, desirable messaging.

Test, test and test some more

Social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. During the duration of your content calendar and campaigns, it’s vital to dig in and unearth the key insights that help you understand what your audience finds enjoyable. In that regard, you can pinpoint what it is that captures the attention of your audience by answering this question: What does the data tell you?

Once you have an idea of how well your content is performing, don’t stop there. Maintain your social channels as if they were one, long, unending experiment where you are playing scientist, constantly collecting data and discovering what your audience wants.

Keep testing and don’t stop. You will find as you continue to develop and nurture an audience that is entertained by your content and trusts your brand and that the better you understand your audience, the more you can give the right people the right content at the right time.

So how do you entertain your audience? Your audience will tell you how. Just look at the data.