Engagement metrics are typically a determining factor of a campaign’s success. Since measuring the return on investment in a marketing campaign is difficult, marketers use engagement as a key performance indicator to gauge how well potential customers receive their campaigns.
Fortunately, a good grasp of psychology can help improve engagement on social media. You can incorporate psychological principles into your campaigns to create a sense of scarcity, urgency, and reliability around your brand. With today’s social media software, you can even synchronize your campaigns to ensure consistency across your efforts.
In this blog post, we will discuss how you can boost your engagement online and the different principles you can apply in your campaigns.
Leveraging Reciprocity: The Power of Give and Take
Like brick-and-mortar stores give out free samples, you can use free content, tips, or entertainment to build a community around your content. According to Statista, the top video content types consumed around the world are music videos (48.2%), viral videos (35%), live streams (27.7%), and educational videos (26%). Using any of these can increase the chance of someone engaging with your campaign and possibly even lead them to follow your social media accounts.
For example, if you are managing a campaign for a bank that offers house loans, you can publish posts that discuss the steps involved in getting a house loan or the typical requirements of taking out the loan. Since you represent a bank, you will have credibility and those on social media might be interested in the added value you can offer them through financial literacy content.
As a result, you might even convert a casual doom-scroller into a follower and, eventually, a customer by taking them further down your marketing funnel. You can measure this impact by asking new customers how they heard about your products and services.
If you’re not sure how to create content that piques the interest of potential customers, try using proven tips for creating social media videos for your brand.
Apart from informative content, some other give-and-take strategies you can use are:
- Giveaways: Companies can promote their products through a fun online raffle that involves users following the company’s social media account and even sharing, liking, or commenting on a post to enter the giveaway.
- Exclusive offers: You can promote exclusive offers on your social media account and invite casual scrollers or repeat customers to follow your account to be alerted to future special offers.
- Free samples: When your company offers free samples, it makes your potential or existing customers use more of your products. It’s an opportunity to market slow-moving products in a win-win situation — you can offload some of your older stock while introducing your other products to your customers.
The Scarcity Principle: Creating Urgency
Scarcity plays a powerful role in driving behavior. When something is perceived as rare or limited, it becomes more desirable, prompting quicker decisions and actions.
Aspiring psychology majors often ask questions like “How much does a psychology degree cost?” Well, they can find comfort in knowing that the value one can reap from completing psychology programs can exceed tuition costs. For instance, when it comes to building marketing strategies that drive engagement, concepts like the Scarcity Principle can come in handy. As such, regardless of the answer to questions such as “How much does a psychology degree cost?”, leveraging your degree can surely lead to an increase in return on investment in marketing campaigns.
The scarcity principle is often seen in marketing through limited-time offers or exclusive content, which triggers a fear of missing out (FOMO) and encourages faster responses. To create this sense of urgency on social media, brands can use tactics like:
- Countdowns
- Limited spots for events
- “While supplies last” campaigns
- Influencer marketing
These strategies effectively push audiences to engage immediately rather than delaying action. Scarcity could even be a key principle behind conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies for marketers, especially with the latest uptick in FOMO purchases. According to the Product Marketing Alliance, 60% of people purchase items within 24 hours because of FOMO.
The Power of Social Proof
Social proof theory suggests that people are more likely to engage with content that others have already interacted with. For instance, Instagram and Facebook will show some posts in your feed that your friends may have recently engaged with. Typically, when users see that a post has garnered likes, comments, or shares, they are more inclined to follow suit, believing that the content is valuable or popular.
After all, coexisting on social media and having visibility over each other’s preferences can influence our opinions on social behaviors towards each other, material things, and businesses. It may seem sneaky, but using the psychology principle of social proof helps you target your market more accurately. Again, even though the answer to “How much does a psychology degree cost?” may vary, the applications of what you can learn by taking up the degree can convert consumers on the fence into customers of your brand.
Brands can use social proof theory by:
- Showcasing testimonials: When a skincare brand shares a customer’s success story with before-and-after photos, other potential buyers see the product’s real-life impact. Social proof comes into play because people tend to trust the experiences of others who have already used the product, making them more likely to purchase or engage with the brand.
- Featuring reviews: Posting 5-star reviews on social media or in ads builds trust by showing that other customers have had positive experiences. Social proof works here because potential buyers rely on the feedback of others when deciding whether or not to trust a brand, especially when they can see ratings and detailed opinions from fellow users.
- Sharing user-generated content (UGC): A fitness brand reposting a customer’s Instagram story featuring their progress demonstrates social proof by showcasing real users benefiting from their product or service. When people see their peers using and endorsing the product, they are more likely to trust the brand and engage with it themselves, as it feels authentic and relatable.
- Highlighting user interactions (likes, comments, shares): When a food delivery service reposts a tweet shared and liked by many, it amplifies the sense of popularity and approval from the broader community. Social proof kicks in as potential customers interpret the high engagement as a sign that others find the service valuable, influencing them to engage as well, whether through ordering or interacting with the post.
You can include social proof theory in your next lead-generation campaign strategy to improve conversions and increase engagement with your content.
Increase Engagement With Psychology Today
In conclusion, applying psychological principles such as the Scarcity Principle, Social Proof, and Give-and-Take can significantly boost social media engagement.
First, the Give-and-Take principle strengthens connections by offering something valuable in return for engagement, fostering a sense of reciprocity and loyalty among followers.
Next, the Scarcity Principle creates a sense of urgency by making limited-time offers or exclusive content more appealing, encouraging immediate action from your audience.
Finally, Social Proof builds trust and credibility by showcasing positive experiences from others. Whether it’s through testimonials, reviews, or user-generated content, highlighting how others have engaged with or benefited from your brand nudges others to follow suit.
Experimenting with these strategies is essential for finding what resonates best with your unique audience.
Remember to test different methods, such as using countdowns to drive urgency, featuring user interactions to build trust, or providing valuable content to encourage loyalty. All of these can help you discover the most effective ways to enhance engagement.
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