Do you want to increase engagement on social media? And drive more clicks to your content?
The key is understanding human behavior. Why people like, comment, share, and even save your content.
In this post, we explore the psychology behind social media engagement and how you can use that psychology to drive clicks.
What are social media engagements?
Social media engagements are the likes, comments and shares you receive from your posts. It can also be the saves your posts receive.
Each one tells us something different about our posts:
- Like – The user enjoyed the post, agreed with it or found it valuable
- Comment – The user thought the post was engaging enough to leave a response
- Share – The user thought the post was good enough to share a link to it with someone
- Save – The user saved the post so they can view it whenever they want. These are called “favorites” on some social media apps
This is how valuable social media engagements are for creators.
They help you see which posts your audience likes best. This is something you can’t get from social media views alone.
Most engagement metrics focus on the number of views and likes a post receives, but comments and shares hold a lot of weight as well.
It doesn’t take much effort to hit like on a post, but leaving a comment and sharing it with a friend says “I liked this so much that I felt compelled to write out a comment and share the post with a friend rather than scrolling to the next post.”
And when it comes down to it, the more engagements a post receives, the more it’ll be favored by social media algorithms.
Why has social media become so popular?
The invention of handheld smart devices has made it easier to interact with social media on the go. You’re no longer limited to browsing YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on your desktop computer or laptop.
Still, our reliance on social media goes much deeper than that.
According to studies, interacting with social media apps causes large amounts of dopamine to be released into the brain.
Cleveland Clinic defines dopamine as a neurotransmitter that’s made in the brain. It plays a big role in body functions like mood, memory, attention, movement, pleasure, motivation, behavior, cognition and sleep.
It’s also a hormone that’s important in other bodily functions not related to the brain.
But in the brain, dopamine is known as the “feel good” hormone. It allows us to feel a sense of pleasure, a sensation the brain rewards us with by pumping dopamine into our brains when we do activities we enjoy.
As such, research indicates that our bodies are hard wired and compelled to do activities that increase the production of dopamine, including interacting with social media.
We’ve become “dopamine addicts” as a result, as Stanford psychiatrist Anne Lembke explains in her book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.
Related Reading: What is a Social Media Detox?
In an interview with Stanford Medicine’s Scope blog, Anne states that,
“We’re wired to connect. It’s kept us alive for millions of years in a world of scarcity and ever-present danger. Moving in tribes safeguards against predators, optimizes scarce resources and facilitates pair bonding. Our brains release dopamine when we make human connections, which incentivizes us to do it again.”
In short, when we browse social media, we’re seeking out human connection. And because our brains reward us with a sense of pleasure through the production of dopamine when we interact with social media, we’re compelled to do it again.
How to tap into human behavior to encourage your audience to engage
If you want to develop a social media strategy that relies more on strategies that align your content with what users want out of social media and less on sales tactics, you need to create content that fosters human connection.
This means creating content that’s more relatable, offers validation, is helpful and is more engaging.
You should also be more consistent on social media so that your audience has more content they enjoy from you to scroll through.
1. Create more relatable content
Try being more candid on social media.
You don’t have to post personal details about yourself or share every moment of your life, but you should get more candid about the moments that relate to your niche.
Try posting more Instagram stories. They’re short-form posts that have a maximum length of 60 seconds and only remain on your account for 24 hours.
You can use them to share updates about projects you’re working on or challenges you’re currently facing, or you can use them to give your audience play-by-plays of adventures you’re going on.
As for the rest of social media, use short-form videos and carousel posts to share any failures and accomplishments you experience in your niche.
If there’s something you’re currently struggling with in your niche, no matter how small, make a post about it. Chances are someone else in your niche is having the same problem and will feel seen knowing someone else is going through the same thing.
Others may even have solutions for you, which will drive engagement.
2. Create content that validates your audience’s opinions
You probably have thoughts, feelings and opinions about yourself and certain things in your niche.
Maybe you feel as though you should be a lot further than you currently are. Maybe you hate a certain product everyone loves. Maybe you have a unique way of doing things that differs from the norm.
As an individual, the unfortunate truth is that you’re not as unique as you think you are. But as a creator, you can use this unfortunate truth to your advantage.
Think of everything you do differently in your niche, and consider any insecurities you have.
A lot of social media users come to social media to validate opinions they have about themselves and the world around them.
If you open up about all of those thoughts, feelings and opinions you have, you just may validate the thoughts, feelings and opinions some of your audience members have.
Alternatively, this strategy can be less serious. You can take a common myth in your niche, and run a few tests to see if it’s true or not.
3. Help your audience without expecting something in return
Social media has definitely lost its social aspect over the last 10 years.
What started as an innocent way to experience human connection through a computer has turned into a grifting colony littered with ads and sales pitches.
You can really do a lot to improve the landscape of social media and attract a more engaged audience by spending more of your time creating content that’s genuinely helpful and isn’t just an ad in disguise.
Come up with content ideas that are funny or helpful, and spend as much time on them as you would a sponsored post.
Only this time, don’t worry about including an affiliate link or product mention. Just focus on providing value.
4. Try to come up with more engaging content ideas
If you want your audience to engage with your content more, you need to create more engaging content. It’s that simple.
A lot of tips we already mentioned will help you create engaging content, but there are plenty of ways you can tweak your content to increase the amount of views, likes and comments you receive.
For starters, you can begin each video with a hook. A hook is a one to three-second clip that’s exciting enough to capture your audience’s attention as soon as they scroll onto your video.
If you’re creating a tutorial, try starting it by showcasing the exact problem you’re trying to solve, like a door hanging off its hinges in the home improvement niche.
You can also try explaining what your video is about in those first three seconds. Using our example above, you could simply talk to the camera and tell your audience, “I’m going to show you how to fix broken hinges in under two minutes.”
If there’s an exciting portion of your video, showcase it first to give your audience a little preview, then play the video from the beginning so your audience can see what led up to that exciting moment.
It’s all about coming up with ways to prevent your audience from scrolling past your video and encouraging them to watch it all the way through and interact with it.
5. Become more consistent on social media
If a social media user connects with your content, chances are they’re going to want to view more of your content.
This is why it’s important that you become more consistent in your social media strategy.
Use a social media scheduling tool like SocialBee to publish content in advance.
And if you add a new content type to your social media profiles, keep at it, and post more content that belongs to the same style.
If a social media user likes one of these posts, the algorithm will recommend more to them, even if they don’t go to your profile to view them themselves.
Final thoughts
If you want to get engagement on social media, you need to have an understanding of human behavior.
You then need a plan. A strategy so you can tap into human behavior.
Once you do, you’ll see more likes, shares, comments, and saves on your content.
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