We all want our social media accounts to receive interaction, but for some businesses this is more easily achieved than for others.
If you look around Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and monitor what people are talking about, you’ll notice themes like insurance, accountancy or debt management rarely crop up. How do those companies in what might be seen as ‘dry’ sectors make themselves heard, yet remain relevant? Here are just three suggestions:
1. Humanise your accounts
Since online communication can be impersonal, people like the idea of a real individual behind it. Personifying your account can make your company’s social media appear a lot less corporate, and more engaging and friendly.
A company that has managed this particularly well is Opta, a sports data analyst that studies every kick of a football, swing of a cricket bat and interception of a rugby ball in all the top games. Even to a keen sport fan though, statistics like how many passes James Milner has completed successfully may not exactly set the pulse racing.
Opta seems to recognise this, and has created several Twitter accounts relating to the sports and nations it covers, all under the name of a character that converts dull statistics into interesting and sharable facts on events as they happen. The most popular is @OptaJoe – the main page for Opta’s football coverage with over 900,000 followers.
10 – Arsenal have equalled their longest home winning streak against a single opponent (10 against Everton, Jan 1997-Sep 2005). Domination.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 26, 2017
As you can see, the tweets have a distinctive, uniform format. They all begin with a number, followed by a related fact, and end with a one-word summary.
With OptaJoe having so many followers and his tweets enjoying so much interaction, I can’t imagine it bothers Opta too much that their corporate @OptaSuit Twitter page has a more modest 29,000 followers.
2. Consider humour
Not every business sector is a barrel of laughs – few are! – but there’s always the opportunity for a bit of wit. Appropriate puns can be appreciated if you’re a bit of a wordsmith, or you may be able to find something about your industry that could surprise people and change their perception. For example, the idea that accountants make great partners, or that software engineers are among the happiest employees.
Humour has to be handled carefully, but it can help to set your company apart and make its accounts a pleasure to follow.
3. Study the calendar
If you use Twitter regularly, you’ve probably noticed that there’s almost always one of those novelty days trending, such as today being Star Wars Day. These often seem tenuous and irrelevant, but they can also be used with a bit of creativity.
Some ideas for how businesses could use #StarWarsDay (coming from somebody who knows nothing about Star Wars, much to our Technical Director’s disgust) include:
– A dance or acting academy referring to their ‘stars’, meaning talented performers
– A green energy firm using a Lightsabre/’light saver’ play on words to get a message across about not leaving lights on
– A ten-pin bowling alley urging The Empire to ‘strike’ back
At Engage Web, we’re always looking for new ways to make social media and exciting, multiway experience for companies and those who follow them. To learn more about how we can give your accounts personality, speak to us today.
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