Facebook Posts And Engagement: Why Lifestyle Content Will Always Win
I was perusing Social Media Examiner today, and I came across an article called “7 Ways To Get Noticed On Facebook.” There were some helpful tips about “news feed optimization” (how to get your brand/business into the newsfeed of your followers) and I highly recommend reading it. However, what really inspired this post was a response below the article. The comment read as follows:
It was, as usual, a great video/tips by Mari Smith. I also agree with many of the comments above and really curious to know the human behavior behind the engagement patterns i.e. why coming to a business page but only engage with non-business posts about dogs, tennis, cooking…If someone can describe the reason for this beyond ‘this is what social in the social media means’, would love to hear it..
Here’s my answer (beyond “this is what the social in social media means”):
Human beings seek out likeminded human beings to rally around similar causes and validate their beliefs. When brands/businesses are able to create lifestyle social media content that aligns with the interest graph of their followers, they see impressive engagement.
On a personal level, if I’m visiting a brand’s Facebook page, it is most likely to:
A) Look for coupons
B) Complain about something
However, I’d be more likely to stick around and interact on a Facebook page if I saw engaging content that offers value beyond being marketed to. Perhaps it is curation of interesting blog posts that relate to the brand in some (non-promotional) way. Or maybe it is poll that has a clear call to action relating to a cause. Something more than “hey check out our new product.”
Stepping back a bit, I believe social media (especially Facebook and Twitter) is most valuable to brands/businesses from a customer service and customer insights standpoint. When a brand can humanize itself and relate to the issues or ideas that their customers are sharing, they’re using social media properly. On a secondary level, social media is a great place for brands to connect their customers around lifestyle content (this is where the “engagement” metric comes into play).
If you’re a brand/business using social media as a marketing silo with the singular goal of increasing profits, you’re doing it wrong.
What do you think? Did I answer the question posed on the Social Media Examiner comment?
