Different Characteristics Of Social Media & Why You Need To Understand Them

Last Updated on April 22nd, 2022 at 4:50 pm

characteristics of social media

Social media marketing changes frequently. So, content creators and content strategists are always striving to make effective content that will compel Instagram’s users. In this guide, we will show you the five different characteristics that you should know to create great social media content.

Each Instagram users have different thought about what makes content compelling. However, there will always be something that will never change.

  • The content should catch the audiences’ attention.
  • It should be interesting to read on
  • It’s easy to digest

However, these stipulations don’t give you a lot of information when you want to create engaging social media content. Keep reading this guide to dig deeper into what makes good content on social media.

5 Different Characteristics Of Social Media

1. Entertaining

First things first, content needs to be compelling and catch audiences’ attention.

Your posts should stand out from the crowd. It needs to be unique among others in busy and competitive online content platforms. No matter what your content is – beautiful photos, humor, vulnerability, great design, important data, or something else, they should, at least, entertain the audience. so, the brands can catch audiences’ eyes.

2. Aspirational

You should know the difference between Inspirational and Aspirational.

Creating inspirational content, that makes the urge within your customers and encourages them to do something, is awesome. However, it’s just fleeting but not a good method. The better way to build your strong community is to provide your audiences with that initial inspiration content as well as the long-term aspirations then they will come back and engage with your content.

Your social media content should inspire your customers to aspire to a goal. This goal will be different for different brands. Some brands

That goal will be different for different brands. It depends on what you provide your customers. For example, some brands should create content to motivate their customers and encourage them to prepare carefully for their next journey. Other brands should inspire their audiences to work more productively by giving them business tips and tricks. Still, others should include a call to action to push their customers to connect with themselves or their families and stay away from the distractions.

You should really understand your services and products and create content that is align with your goal.

characteristics of social media

3. Actionable

When a customer decides to click the following button of brands via social media, newsletter, or catalogs, they spend their time and effort. It means they will go through your feed or website to research and explore your brands and content. To keep them engaging with your content, the brand needs to go beyond entertainment and aspirations.

The brand had better provide actionable content. For most brands, this can easily be updated on the new products, sales, maintenance recommendations, or curated accessory suggestions.

However, there are more things that you can do. Sometimes, brands need to highlight worthy causes they can support, produce educational content so they can take advantage of the products, or share curated information the brand has gleaned from being an authority in the space. Brands should still provide their customers with everything they need to take action, to ensure they will come back for more in the future.

4. Joinable

Brand loyalty these days is based on people feeling like they are a part of a community. How to do that? Just let your customers participate in your community through events, a shared mission, or just a hashtag that they can identify with.

Creating a feeling of belonging and building a strong and close community is one of 5 key characteristics of social media.

5. Pay Off

Everyone wants an incentive above and beyond the prior points to let a brand have a place on their social feeds and in their inbox. It takes their time and attention to follow and engage with a brand, even passively, and brands need to provide something in exchange for that. No matter what it is, promotions, giveaways, or welcome gifts, brands should do something to deserve their customers’ efforts.

Take Advantage Of Characteristics Of Social Media

The most important thing to notice is that not every post that you publish to your social media channel will include all these elements, and especially not in equal measure.

All of your brands’ content (like your profile, or your communications strategy) needs to do all of these characteristics of social media. Sometimes, your content will be entertaining or actionable. Other times, it will focus on making your brand joinable, or it will be exclusively about the payoff.

It’s what social media marketers need to spend time researching and working on. They need to keep all these elements in mind when creating social media content to engage their customers. And do things to keep them coming back for more.

If you are looking for a growth plan for your social media channels, Buildmyplays is here to help you! We have a few social media-growing solutions that you may want to try.

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