Keeping social media accounts up and running as students is exciting and also a hassle. As you see on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, students can establish a personal brand, express themselves, or even engage professionals in their niche. However, achieving differentiation in the content sea requires strategy. In this post, we discuss 5 steps to generate engaging content on social media that piques your interest and helps you grow a real following.
1. Learn Who You’re Telling Your Story To
The first step to creating good content is knowing your audience. When posting for your classmates, potential employers, or purely for your circle of friends, knowing what they value is critical. What content do they prefer? Is it informative, funny, motivational, or beautiful? Personalized posts that target their interests give them a greater chance of liking, sharing, or commenting on your posts.
Engage with your viewers. Comment and reply, ask questions, and participate in discussion. This is not only useful for creating a community but also for understanding what people want to see on your page.
2. Tell a Memorable Story
Everyone loves a good story, and social media is the place to tell it. Whether you are telling your viewers about a personal experience, project, or obstacle, storytelling helps humanize your message and make it relatable. A compelling story grabs your audience’s attention and encourages them to explore you or your brand.
Remember your audience while telling stories. Ensure the former are relevant and have a start, middle, and end. You can post about your time as a student, a behind-the-scenes video of your day, or anything you’ve learned. This kind of content lands well because it’s raw and authentic.
To tell engaging and creative stories, you need to research your audience and their preferences. This important task can take a lot of time, which few students have. If you need help with your projects while focusing on your social media, consider outsourcing some of your writing to an essay writing service with British writers. Services like UKWritings can take over your essays and other papers, leaving you free to concentrate on what really matters.
3. Always Be Authentic
Social media is all about consistency. Getting on a consistent posting schedule helps keep your followers in the loop. But you don’t have to publish every day. It’s about creating an editorial calendar you can actually manage. Quantity will always outweigh quality.
One of the best ways to be consistent without burning out is to use a content calendar. You can schedule your posts a week or month in advance and try to include various content types, such as photos, videos, polls, or even blog excerpts. This can be a great way to create a loyal following because your content will always be new and interesting.
4. Use Popular Visuals
Effective visuals can boost your social media posts. Pictures that stand out, attractive graphics, and short informative videos are essential. Don’t worry if you are not a professional photographer or designer; there are plenty of free and cheap tools you can use to create amazing visuals.
Try these four ways to enhance your images:
- Play with color: Use complementary or contrasting colors. Ideally, your viewers should be able to recognize your content just by the color scheme.
- Simplicity: Don’t cram in text and too many things into your visuals. Use empty space to accentuate what matters.
- Use templates: Free templates on Canva allow you to create professional designs within minutes.
- Add movement: GIFs or mini videos will be more successful than still images in Instagram or TikTok.
5. Utilize Hashtags and Trends
Use hashtags to bring your posts in front of the masses. Use the right hashtags to reach more people. Be careful not to overload your posts, though. The right ratio is usually between 3 and 5 relevant hashtags per post.
Additionally, social media trends are a great means to build your following, so keep up with them. Partake in a viral challenge, explore a trending topic, or post relevant memes. If you take advantage of the trends, it will help extend your post’s reach.
Create With Confidence!
Creating interesting social media posts is not too hard. You can establish yourself by knowing your audience, being consistent, using visually interesting images and narratives, and leveraging hashtags and trends. These are just some suggestions — you need to play around, be creative, and create relevant content for your followers. Enjoy posting!