Social media is a simple and cost-effective approach to reach your intended audience.
However, simply being present on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok isn’t enough to connect with your target audience. If you want your profile to stand out, you need to be strategic about the content you create.
Your posts should encourage interaction among your online community. You can do this using creative social media engagement posts.
In this article, we'll show you how to make creative and effective social media content to boost your online presence and help you reach your target audience.
What is a social media engagement post?
Engagement posts are social media posts designed to drive high engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc.). A successful engagement post captures users' attention and motivates them to interact with one another or your profile.
These posts help you connect with your audience and encourage two-way interactions.
They also send a positive signal to social media algorithms, helping to boost your profile and content. So, interaction posts are an excellent approach for recovering from an engagement dip.
8 no-fail engagement post ideas
We’ve compiled eight engagement post ideas that will work for any scenario—whether you work as a content creator, in-house for a brand, or with multiple clients in a social media marketing agency. These ideas will help you boost engagement and create a community around your brand.
1. Host contests and giveaways
Hosting contests and giveaways is a proven way to boost online engagement. The promise of a prize motivates users to participate and share the experience with their friends, creating a ripple effect that can rapidly expand your reach and engagement.
It’s no wonder 90% of Instagram posts with more than 1,000 comments are contests or giveaways. Here’s an example from esthetician Jordan Walker, who has 5.3k Instagram followers. Her recent giveaway post has already received over 1.4k comments, which are still flooding in.
You can hold contests and ask your followers to share something creative, like a photo or a comment. This will generate user-generated content that you can use in your UGC campaigns.
Alternatively, you can run a giveaway in which users engage with your post for a chance to win a prize. This is a great way to get people talking and engaging with your brand.
2. Respond to feedback
Collecting and responding to customer feedback is a proven strategy to drive customer engagement. It makes your audience feel like you're listening to them, encouraging them to keep engaging with you.
Some ways to acknowledge feedback include thanking your audience for their input, inquiring about additional information, or answering their questions.
You can also go one step further by collecting and acting on user feedback. Canva did this by designing an Instagram feed template based on social media comments. The brand created a Reel about the new design, and the short video got over 250k views and close to 700 shares.
3. Make useful infographics
Infographics are visual superstars because they're packed with helpful and digestible information. They can visualize complex data, making it more engaging and accessible to wider audiences. When people find an infographic useful, they are naturally inclined to share it with their networks, helping to extend its reach and impact.
Here are a few ways you can use infographics.
You can create comparison infographics to compare two or more items visually. For example, you can show how your product or service stacks up against competitors. Or, if you have different pricing plans, show how they differ.
Another idea is to use statistical infographics to present data. They’re an excellent way to visualize original research or introduce your audience to relevant statistics.
When sharing infographics, you can use the caption for storytelling to further engage your audience.
4. Make engaging videos
Videos, especially short-form videos, are rapidly gaining popularity on social media. Think of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. These videos capture and hold user attention because they’re short, to the point, and attention-grabbing.
Whether showcasing a new product, sharing a humorous moment, or providing a helpful tutorial, videos offer a fantastic opportunity to engage with your audience. That’s why two-thirds of surveyed social media marketers said they plan to invest in bite-sized videos more than any other type of content in 2024.
The same survey revealed that short-form videos also have the highest ROI. To optimize video engagement, you must understand your audience and create content that resonates with them. Use eye-catching thumbnails to get more clicks to your videos, and include CTAs to encourage users to take action.
You can record videos right from your phone or upgrade your space into a mini-studio to upgrade your production quality.
5. Share personal or company updates
Sharing updates, whether personal or about your company, is a powerful engagement post idea because it allows users to relate to you or your brand story.
For example, let’s say you’re a luxury clothing supplier. You can give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your warehouse, product selection, shipment packing, daily operations, weekly group communication sessions, internal wellness activities, or industry events. These everyday moments and activities offer a treasure trove of authentic, insider content. By sharing your journey, you make your audience feel like they're a part of it, fostering trust and loyalty over time.
Don’t forget to celebrate success with your community. You can announce new branches, partnerships, product features, awards, hires, and more. Here’s an example from COBS Bread Bakery, celebrating the opening of a new franchise branch in Ontario. This LinkedIn post humanizes the brand by showing the faces behind the new bakery.
If you want to ensure that your social media content is engaging and realistic, you can use an AI detector. This will alert you to content that was written with AI, or sounds overly fake.
6. Post relatable memes
Sharing relatable memes is an excellent engagement post to add fun to your social media presence. Memes have a broad appeal, much like inside jokes everyone can understand.
To use memes successfully, you need a deep understanding of your audience's interests, humor, or experiences. With this knowledge, you can post memes that are relatable and optimized for sharing.
Let’s look at an example from Semrush, a tool for digital marketers, and understand why their posts received over 3.5k likes and 500 reposts on LinkedIn. The post features a carousel of memes contrasting what the average person thinks when hearing specific marketing terms versus how marketers interpret those exact words. Anyone working in marketing, i.e., Semrush’s target audience, can relate to this post.
Incorporating memes into your content calendar is a great way to connect with your audience. You can create original memes from scratch or repurpose trending memes that will likely resonate with your target audience.
7. Go live
Live sessions offer a dynamic way to interact with your audience in real-time. Unlike pre-recorded content, viewers can actively participate by asking questions, sharing opinions, and receiving immediate responses or feedback.
This interactive format is a popular choice across industries. For example, a fitness coach can hold live workouts, while an artist on social media may share the process of creating one of their pieces.
You can use social media platforms’ native features to go live in a few clicks. The live streaming option is available on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), and YouTube.
Alternatively, there are many live streaming platforms where you can launch paid broadcasts, offer subscription upsells, or use advanced video analytics.
8. Partner with brands or creators
Teaming up with other brands or creators is a great way to connect with new audiences and showcase your brand creatively. By partnering with brands or creators that share your values, you can build a stronger sense of community among your followers.
When choosing a brand or influencer to partner with, consider two things:
- Their target audience – you want to collaborate with accounts whose followers will be interested in your brand. Exposure to the right audience will drive more meaningful results for your social media profile and business goals.
- Their reputation – when partnering with a brand or person, you are “recommending” them to your followers. Carefully research the history and content of your potential partners to avoid any reputational risks.
Below is a partnership post between supplement brand AG1 and Hatch, a sleep devices producer. While both brands offer different products, they’re both targeting users who want to take better care of their health and are willing to invest in it.
How to make the most of your engagement posts
If you’ve just created a great post that has driven tons of engagement, your work doesn’t end here. Social media posts have short life spans, but re-purposing or promoting your content through a different channel will expand its reach and impact.
Here are a few ways you can do that.
Repurpose your best content
Transform your top-performing engagement posts into different formats to reach new audiences and maximize your efforts.
Here’s how to repurpose your content in four steps:
- Make a list of your most engaging content over a specific period.
- Compare your results against the social media benchmarks for your industry.
- Analyze the best posts and try to find patterns – why were they successful?
- Brainstorm ways to present the same information in a different format.
Run lead-generation ads
Boost the reach of your engagement posts by running targeted ads to capture leads and drive conversions. Some social media channels have a designated lead ads feature that prompts interested ad viewers to share their contact details with you. It is a convenient way to build your email list or generate leads for your sales team. You can launch lead ads on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok from their ads management platforms.
Add engagement posts to your website
Don’t let your most engaging social media posts get buried in the fast-paced social media feed. By strategically embedding them on your website, you can combine the power of social media and SEO marketing. This approach ensures that users who discover your content through search engines can also experience your most popular social media content. Plus, adding visuals to your blog posts improves readability while helping you get your point across to readers.
Another option is to use a social media aggregator, such as Curator (yes, that’s us), to add a curated social media feed to your website. You can seamlessly integrate social media content into your blog or landing pages, improving visual appeal and user engagement. Use moderation rules to filter which posts you’d like to display, and choose from more than 20 stunning templates to arrange your social media feed.
Start creating your interaction posts
Incorporating interactive elements like memes, live streams, and behind-the-scenes content into your marketing strategy can help you engage with your audience, get to know them, build a loyal following, and ultimately grow your business. These touches foster a sense of community, making your audience feel invested in your brand.
Start experimenting with interactive content - try new formats and see what resonates best with your community. The key is creating content that brings your audience closer and makes them feel like an integral part of your brand's journey.