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Tweet (& Facebook & Instagram) Like You Mean It: Social Media Loves Emotion

If you missed the Lunch & Learn talk, the idea of putting emotion into your posts might seem a little strange. You don't have to get too touchy-feely, but positive emotions and fun posts can give your business a great return on social media.

Man hopping out of his car

This Tuesday, I got to hang out with a lot of you at the Infomedia Lunch & Learn, and I shared our tips for social media strategy. On the Infomedia Facebook, we asked the group what you learned about social media, and one person said he learned the importance of promoting emotion-based posts.

If you missed the Lunch & Learn talk, the idea of putting emotion into your posts might seem a little strange. Don’t worry, I don’t mean that you have to get too touchy-feely, and I certainly don’t recommend letting anger and frustration seep into your social media messaging. But positive emotions and fun posts can give your business a great return on social media. What does that look like in practice?

Choose a form of social media that you enjoy

It’s very difficult to fake emotions in a world of quick posts and minimal proofreading. If you feel frustrated and confused when you’re posting, those feelings are likely to come through in your messaging, and that can be a turn-off. If possible, find a form of social media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. — that you feel somewhat comfortable with and enjoy, at least a little bit. If you like what you’re doing, creating likeable posts will be that much easier.

Create core messaging for your business that reflects a feeling or emotion

I referenced a fantastic talk about this topic — click here to see Simon Sinek give a TED Talk about creating core messaging for your business. This 20-minute talk will give you a clear idea of why it’s important to give your clients and customers a feeling they can resonate with deeply. Meaningful core messaging is essential when competing in the social media arena since most forms of social media are geared toward providing fun, emotional connections with friends.

Encourage customers and staff who engage with your social media

I love getting questions from the audience after a talk because it almost always gives me new perspectives and ideas, and Tuesday’s Lunch & Learn was no exception — an audience member emphasized the importance of creating social media posts that your staff wants to engage with, and that’s absolutely true. The kind of behind the scenes posts that perform so well on social media are often the ones your own staff will like and comment on — this kind of interaction can make your social media messaging seem even more authentic, and the additional interaction can also make your posts more visible to others, especially in a channel like Facebook.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to be part of the Lunch & Learn conversation this week. We’ll start our monthly (free!) Lunch & Learn sessions again after the holidays, so be sure to leave us your email in the space below if you’d like to be invited next time.

Carrie

About Carrie

Carrie has been copyediting and writing for fifteen years. Her skills were forged in the newsroom at The Birmingham Post-Herald and she’s a huge book nerd (she moonlights as Southern Living’s book reviewer), but a love of paper and ink hasn’t stopped her from mastering the digital world as well: She’s had a blog pretty much since they existed, and she’s run social media for companies big and small. Carrie’s always ready to take on a new communication challenge, lecture us about the proper use of semicolons, or defend the fact that her Instagram account is filled with selfies.

See more articles from Carrie Rollwagen

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