Online content can take a lot of forms, from words to photos to videos. And content can live in a lot of different places: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, blogs, websites, etc. Regardless of the kind of content you create or where you post it, if engagement is low, you’re probably doing something wrong.
One of the questions that comes up over and over again in emails, comments, and messages to us is, “Why aren’t people interacting with my content?”
To answer that question, let’s look at three reasons people aren’t interacting with your content:
1. Your Content is All About Links
We see this on Facebook all the time: businesses, organizations, or nonprofits drop links into their Facebook feeds using Facebook’s auto-link feature. That feature is being downgraded in the Facebook algorithm, so you don’t want to keep “just posting links” there.
You also want to avoid spamming your audiences with links that aren’t relevant to your business. Putting a bunch of silly Buzzfeed-type nonsense out there bring you less success in the new Facebook algorithm than it did in the past. And it probably wasn’t bringing much return for you then.
Bottom line: If you’re posting a lot of lists, quizzes, and other spammy, link-driven contents on social media, you’re ensuring that people will ignore your content.
2. You Sell All the Time
Who likes following a business, organization, or non-profit who sells 24/7? Businesses, nonprofits, and organizations that are always selling on social media are forgetting one of the most important questions in content marketing: What’s in it for the customer/reader?
It’s easy to use social media to push sales all the time, but if you do, your engagement will most likely fall. Try using the 80/10/10 rule: 80{628954cb2bad821921117287c23504a7919be1893c483613421612ad8712cddb} of your content is educational, 10{628954cb2bad821921117287c23504a7919be1893c483613421612ad8712cddb} is informational, and 10{628954cb2bad821921117287c23504a7919be1893c483613421612ad8712cddb} is sales.
3. Your Content is Ugly
Whether it’s bad photos, bad graphics, or hard-to-read fonts, ugly content doesn’t get interaction. Even if you’ve got huge news to share, a killer offer to advertize, or something else of value — if your content looks ugly, people aren’t going to pay attention to it.
We wrote about three great online tools you can use to make your content more attractive in this post.
We all suffer from content suck sometimes. We’ve gone through times right here at The Rocket Group where our content was bad, and we lost followers. If your business, organization, or nonprofit is over-doing it on links, focusing too much on sales, or using ugly imagery, the good news is that it’s not too late to bounce back.
Sharing quality (not spammy) content, following the 80/10/10 rule, and making your content a little more attractive can help you drive increased content interaction. If you need a little more help, give us a shout! We’re always glad to help.
Tools We Use and Recommend:
