Use active language

Seek Social have always said that you should be direct when trying to obtain Social Media engagement. Part of that approach involves using ‘active’ language, or in simpler terms, telling your audience what to do. Put phrases such as "click on" "subscribe to", "register at" in your call to action and you’re sure to increase customer motivation… And Social Media engagement along with it!

Create a sense of urgency

There is a reason the term ‘Fear Of Missing Out’ (or ‘FOMO’) exists… That’s because the phenomenon itself exists too. As a result, Seek Social recommend using words that indicate some kind of limited availability, or a benefit for acting promptly. Words such as "now" "today" "soon", etc. – can drive customer motivation by planting the idea that they might miss out on something in your audience’s head. Putting these words in capital letters or bold font only draws more attention to your call to action… Something which makes them all the more effective at generating Social Media engagement!

Tease upcoming content or products

Think back to your driving test, or your first date. Remember those butterflies and the sense of anticipation? Well, there’s no better way to build anticipation than with a teaser. When done right you don’t even need to refer to what you’re teasing in your call to action… Just the knowledge that some ‘can’t miss’ content is on the way can create the buzz you want. In turn, this will lead to more Social Media engagement for you and your product! A secondary effect is that you can also create FOMO with a teaser. Don’t forget that sneak previews can imply that whatever you’re teasing was simply too big and too awesome to keep under wraps… And that FOMO sensation alone may well give the customer motivation to come back, as we discussed above.

Focus on ‘You Statements’

Don’t get us wrong, the Seek Social team know that promoting the positives of your product is a good thing. With a call to action though, you can take this to another level. By using what we call ‘You statements’ in your call to action you give your customer motivation to act (and thereby to give you Social Media engagement opportunities), by hammering home how your product can benefit them specifically as an individual, rather than a nameless, faceless ‘someone’ that they don’t know.

Make it sound easy

Now, the Seek Social team isn’t afraid of good old-fashioned hard work. However, we will freely admit that we prefer things to be quick, easy and painless – especially online. Your customers are no different. As a result, your call to action should emphasise the simple, straightforward qualities of whatever you’re promoting if you really want that call to action to drive customer motivation and Social Media engagement. That doesn’t mean you have to downplay the effectiveness of what you’re posting about though. You just need to promote that getting it to do that thing is also ‘quick and easy’, ‘intuitive’, ‘no nonsense’ etc.

Use layman’s terms

If you want to maximise the amount of Social Media engagement you can get from a post it’s important to make it accessible to as large an audience as possible. As a result you need to use layman’s terms where you can, and avoid jargon. However as above, that doesn’t mean you have to ‘dumb down’ and simplify what your product or service can do. You just need to use terms that are broadly understood when you do so. …There is a caveat to this though. If your audience is made up of industry pros or insiders, not using the right jargon could harm the amount of Social Media engagement you get from your post and your call to action. Seek Social’s advice is to consider your audience and adjust the language accordingly, erring on the ‘accessible’ side of things.