13 Psychological Tips for Creating Compelling Social Media Content

Posted on by joran
13 Psychological Tips for Creating Compelling Social Media Content

If you asked what the crucial element of any social media marketing strategy is, I’d immediately say “your content.”

That’s right. 

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your cover image is or how many followers you have. If you’re posting the wrong stuff, you’re wasting your precious time. 

Most people don’t seem to understand this, though. 

They spend hours and hours setting up their profiles and growing their followings, but they almost forget what is, without question, the most crucial element of social media marketing.

Don’t be that guy.

Instead, use these 13 psychological techniques to turn your mediocre content into something extraordinary.

People will inevitably start engaging with every post you share if you apply them. 

Are you ready? 

Let’s rock and roll.

Table of contents

1. Use The Right Images

Images help you express your ideas more clearly, not to say they improve your content dramatically. I find this pretty obvious, considering how our brains process visual information. 

Alex Turnbull puts it well in his article “The 8 Types of Images That Increase the Psychological Impact of Your Content:”

“For one thing, your brain (and your reader’s brain) is better at processing visuals than text. Ninety percent of the information our brain gets is visual, and it processes that information 60,000 times faster than text.

And visuals, when they complement your text, help your message connect: 40 percent of people will respond better to visual information than to text.”

Now, you don’t need to include images in all your content, but when you do it, make sure you use the right idea. According to Alex, seven types of visual content tend to perform very well. 

Here they are:

  1. Stock photos
  2. Screenshots
  3. Charts and graphs
  4. Personal photos
  5. Still frames from TV shows or movies
  6. Infographics
  7. Custom art
  8. Comics

Related reading: Social media trends for 2023

2. Use The Right Colors

When it comes to your social media images, colors play an essential role. Why? Because – as point 4 will cover – they help you create the right environment for your content and evoke the right emotions.

For example, bright colors – like yellow and red – might evoke more positive emotions in your followers than dark colors – like navy blue or gray. 

Depending on your goals, you need to choose your image colors carefully. And to help you start on the right foot, I’ve listed three posts that will show you everything you need to know about the psychology of color:

3. Use The Right Words

It’s not about what you say, but HOW you say it – word selection directly impacts your audience’s response. In simpler words, how you frame your message will determine the success of your content. 

For instance, you could turn generic content like “How to get more Twitter followers” into an engagement magnet by adding some power words to it:

“From Unknown to Celebrity: How to Get Insane Amounts of Twitter Followers Super Fast.”

As you can see, by adding the words “Celebrity,” Insane,” and “Super Fast” to that content, its perceived value increases exponentially. 

Doing so is because some words have more “emotional weight” than others, and when you include some of them in your message, people react more positively to them. 

Now you might be thinking:

“Great, but where can I find some power words to use?”

Well, I’ve good news:

Jon Morrow – author of Smart Blogger – has created a list of  317 power words you can use every time you create new content. 

4. Start a Conversation

Many people forget that social media is about “being social.”

People will pay more attention to a natural conversation than self-promotional content or an advertisement. 

So instead of being a pitching machine, you should be more human and use your content to start honest conversations with your followers. 

How to start a conversation? You ask.

Two tips:

  1. Ask questions – our brains are wired to answer questions automatically. When you ask questions to your followers, they tend to respond, especially if those questions are relevant. 
  2. Ask for feedback – if you’re creating a new product, brainstorming topic ideas, or even launching a new business (in case you’re building your brand), you can ask people for their opinion. This will increase your engagement and activate the “endowment effect,” and people will be more loyal to you. 

For example, Trunk Club tends to use many questions on its contents. This has increased their engagement-per-content ratio. 

5. Leverage the Authority of Others

People are much more likely to engage with brands or names they’re familiar with. So, starting out, you’ll have difficulty trying to go viral (unless you create something unique). 

But not everything’s lost. 

If you leverage names or brands your prospective audience already follows, they will be more likely to share or comment on your content. 

Every time you mention an influencer or a famous brand in your content, tell them about it. People will recognize that name immediately, increasing your credibility, and more people will engage with your content.

6. Feature Other People’s Work

Have you ever heard about the reciprocity principle?

It states that, as human beings, we feel obliged to reciprocate favors.

If you constantly share other people’s blog posts, comment on their updates, or fave their content, they’ll be more likely to return the favor in the future. 

Remember, the more you give, the more you get. 

7. Leverage The Most Powerful Emotion in Marketing

Do you know what the most powerful emotion is in marketing?

Some of you would argue it’s excitement.

Others would say it’s happiness.

But the correct answer is CURIOSITY.

Believe it or not, people will do crazy things to alleviate their curiosity. If you can leverage it in your social media marketing strategy, you’ll entice more people to click your links. 

But, to do it, you need to understand what curiosity is in the first place. So here’s a simple definition from Derek Halpern: 

“Quite simply, curiosity, as defined by Loewenstein, is an innate human behavior triggered when people feel there is a gap between what they know and what they want to know.”

To evoke curiosity through your copy, you need to create a gap between what people know and what they want to know. 

Derek has a great formula to do it. Here it is:

[New, Cool, and/or Hopefully Remarkable Thing] + [Desirable Outcome]= [Curious Reader / Viewer]

8. Stand For Something

People aren’t loyal to brands but to what the company stands for. 

Let me explain this concept with a famous example:

TOMS – the shoe company – has been built upon the mantra: “One for one; for every purchase you make, we will help a person in need.”

Instead of saying, “Our shoes are awesome. Buy them now,” they built TOMS based on something people would naturally stand for: Empathy.

So instead of just sharing regular content – as everyone does– you should always find what your company stands for and its content. 

That’s what TOMS does:

Now, how can you discover what your company stands for?

 Here are some questions that will help you figure it out:

  • What do you do? – every company in the world knows what they do. For example, SalesForce helps businesses manage and organize their customer base; Kissmetrics allows businesses to interpret analytics data much more simpler. To know what your audience stands for, you need to start by understanding exactly what you do. 
  • How do you do it?– once you know what you do, you need to know how you do it. What’s your unique selling proposition? What differentiates you from your competitors? Why would people choose your instead of your competitors?
  • Why do you do it? – if you can answer this question, you’re all set. Why you do what you do is what your company stands for. 

9. Talk Less About You And More About Your Audience

People don’t care about your “revolutionary” products or services. They only care about them and their problems. 

Instead of spending so much time talking about why people should buy your products, you need to spend more time understanding their problems and desires.

Once you know their biggest challenges, fears, and desires, you need to talk about nothing else. 

Believe me. It’s the only way to earn your audience’s trust. 

10. Understand Your Audience’s Psychological Profile

Here’s the brutal truth:

It doesn’t matter how many psychological principles you learn; if you don’t know how your audience thinks and behaves, all that information is worthless. 

And here’s why:

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to treat your audience. I mean, what works for others may not work for you. 

Instead of just throwing darts in the dark, you need to understand how your followers think and then apply the strategies and techniques that better fit that thinking.

This way, you’ll be more effective at marketing. 

11. Apply The FOMO Technique

FOMO stands for “Fear of Missing Out.” 

And in the words of Joseph J. Sanchez, “It refers to the psychological anxiety we feel when we’re not present for an event, as our brains swirl with the endless “what if” possibilities that could occur in our absence.”

This technique works exceptionally well when you have an upcoming event with limited spots available or any other limited offer or bonus. 

For example, in the content below, you can see the phrase “Only a few left in stock.” If you wanted that shirt, that phrase alone would push you to buy it immediately. 

The FOMO technique works like magic. Just remember to use it ethically. 

12. Dramatize Your Ideas

If you’ve read Dale Carnegie’s famous book “How to Win Friends And Influence People,” you’ll probably remember this point – to win people to your way of thinking, you need to dramatize your ideas.

People have a minimal attention span, so they don’t have time to process complicated information. There’s just too much noise out there. The easier you make it for them to understand what you’re trying to say, the better. 

When you dramatize your ideas, you simplify your message and make it more compelling for the viewer. Here’s what Nathan Magnuson has to say about it: 

“Drama doesn’t change the facts. It personalizes them. Lack of drama can undermine your message, the way my boring presentation slides used to undermine my solutions.”

The bottom line is:

Instead of just presenting boring information to your followers, be creative and make it more entertaining and digestible. 

13. Keep It Insanely Simple

Nobody likes hard stuff. Period. 

Jargon, buzzwords, or complicated words should not form part of your marketing vocabulary. Why? Because you’ll reduce the number of people who understand your message. 

There’s a lot of noise on social media, and if you aren’t able to express your message in a clear, straightforward fashion, you’ll lose the attention of a considerable part of your audience. 

You don’t want that.

Then keep it as simple as you can, always. 

Final Words

The takeaway here is simple:

If you want to be a better marketer, stop talking about yourself and start focusing on your audience. Only then will you be able to connect with them deeper and earn their trust.

And once you have their trust, selling becomes a whole lot easier.

Hopefully, these ideas will help you create more effective marketing content that resonates with your audience.