We’ve blogged several times about the importance of content on social media. In this post we are focusing on specific ideas to create engagement and share-worthy content for your fans.

Virality (potential for your content to go viral) is often overlooked by strategists and content creators, but is the most important piece of the puzzle. This is how you get the most eyes on content and, more importantly, your brand. Emotions play a huge role in making content go viral. If the article, image, or text provokes a strong emotion, you can guarantee a response. Sad, angry, happy, shocked – all of these can make a user click share. So how do you create emotional content? Here are a few specific ideas that may need to be tweaked, depending on your market or brand.

1. Personal content: If you are a musician and your feed is primarily promotion of your upcoming tours or gigs, it’s imperative that you start integrating a minimum of 3 personal posts per show promo. Some examples: pictures of you writing music, videos of sound checks, posts about traveling, or any other sneak peek into your everyday life. Let your fans walk a day in your shoes. Instagram Stories, Facebook Live and Snapchat are all excellent ways to do this without much planning or the need to have a professional photographer around.

2. Motivation: Quotes have come a long way in the social world. Remember the days when your MySpace profile was your favorite quote? “To live an extraordinary life you must resist an ordinary approach. – Frank McKinney.” People would post 90s looking gifs of pink ponies dancing around a “Once A Princess Always A Princess” quote. Oh you don’t remember? Guess that was just me. Today, quotes are a great way to post thought-provoking, motivational content. The “text as image” standard has somewhat evolved from gifs to graphic designs to e-cards to memes and so forth. The key to posting motivational content, like quotes, is to make it UNIQUE. Don’t do what everyone else did 5 years ago. Thinking of innovative ideas to inspire your following with video, boomerangs and pictures. Show your audience what truly inspires you.

3. Share TIPS: Share your knowledge and teach fans your trade. Give them a “behind the scenes” look! If a person is following your social feeds, than they likely care about what you do and who you are. This goes for brands and public figures alike. Tips can be shared in every possible type of post – blog, live, story, video, image, gif or caption. Here are some specific examples of sharing tips.

Designer/Artist: Share a time lapse video of you working on a new art piece and in the caption explain the details of the intricate process.
DJ: Post an image of you digging through records and list your top 5 favorite record stores.
Doctor: Have an assistant record a live Instagram Story while you explain the latest laser treatment and its benefits.

4. Cross Promote: In the ever growing world of social media, clients always want MORE… more fans, more engagement. The best way to organically grow your fan base and engagement is through cross promotion. This used to be a challenge for clients who lacked a great PR strategy. Now, the best way for a local client to cross promote is to do outreach, or promote other local venues and businesses in the hopes that they will share your content. Here are a few specific examples: Our client, Dr. Pam, is a Boca Raton orthodontist who knows her local neighborhood well and loves it. Dr. Pam posts herself eating at local spots, tagging her favorite brands in cute pictures, which then allows the brands to repost the great images to their own fans. This works seamlessly – her content, and therefore her business, continues to be shared by local and national brands just from posting about her daily routine.

Another great strategy that works impeccably for our client, G. Love, is one we use for G. Love’s Hot Sauce. As G. Love travels around the world on tour, he eats at a different local restaurant daily. He promotes the sauce by taking it with him and putting it on the food he’s eating at each spot, sharing, tagging, and promoting the chefs and restaurants, which in turn promotes the sauce.

What are some great types of content that you use within your social media strategy to stand out?