Social content is content that is more likely to encourage people to interact with others about the content, and more likely to share that content with others.
Creating content that is social is important because people come to your Community in great part for the content, and by creating content that is social, that is, gives them a way to interact with the content (share, vote, rate, and comment on) it raises the visibility of the content, which in turn attracts others to the community.
To make content that is social, follow these principles: make it personal, use @Mentions, make it participatory, and above all, make it easy to share, comment, download, and interact with the content.
What is Social Content?
Social Content, not to be confused with content on social media, means content that is more likely to encourage people to interact with other people about the content, and more likely to acquire and share that content with others.
Why is Social Content important?
Making content more social is important because frequently members and consumers come to your Community for the content. Once they are there, you want to encourage them to stay by creating content that is social, that is, that gives them a way to interact with it (share, vote, rate, comment on, and so on). This raises the visibility of the Community, which in turn attracts others to the Community. In marketing terms, the content is amplified.
Social content increases familiarity with other members and reinforces the sense that these are their peers; people return to the community every day to see what’s new.
Making content more social shines attention on those contributing to the Community and this attention has two effects: firstly, it enhances the status of those making the most impactful content, and secondly it encourages others to mimic the contributions of the stars of the community.
Sometimes, the Community Platform will reinforce this status and competitiveness with formal status rankings (this is known as gamification).
Social content, for example in a Community newsletter, can also provide entertainment in the form of guest columns, gossip, interviews, reviews, previews, etc. It is content that contributes to increasing social cohesion amongst members and helps build a stronger Sense of Community.
How do you create Social Content or make existing content social?
To create new Social Content or make existing content more social, follow these principles:
Make it personal – Highlight an action that a member has taken or a broader theme that is particularly relevant to the members in your community.
@Mention names of members – By mentioning members' names, using @Mention functionality, you give a direct call to action to those members to respond, to continue the conversation.
Make it participatory – Ensure that your content includes and ends with calls to action to respond, to comment, to ask a question. The data shows that content that ends with a question generates more engagement than content that doesn’t.
Make it easy - Make it easy to share, comment, download, and so on.
Elicit an emotion – Content should resonate with its intended audience on a personal social level. It should generate an emotion.
Maintain a single source of truth - If you are seeking comments, for example, on a document, do not email multiple copies to multiple people. Rather place the document in a central place where everybody can review and edit it. Having a single document achieves two objectives: you have only one copy of the document with everybody’s comments, that is, a ‘single source of truth’. As important, it enables everybody to see everybody else’s comments and enables people to engage in dialog and comment on those comments making the content participatory and social.
Model what you want to see mirrored - If you as community leader, community manager, Core Team member, Core Group member, want your members to be more social, then model the behavior that you want them to mirror. Do not email documents to members; put them in a central place and point members to them and drive social behavior around your platform and other Convening Venues where your members meet online. Show members by your actions that this is the behavior that you expect from them.
Share in real-time - When you are holding meetings whether in person or online, take notes in a shared document that is visible on-screen to all in the meeting. This practice makes sure that everybody is aware of the issues, the decisions, and the action items, and can comment and discuss before they get published. You can then post that document in a central place for attendees to revisit and for others who did not attend the meeting to view. It makes the content more social.
More examples of content that is more social include interviews, reviews and previews of events, success stories involving community members, photographs of community members both professional and personal (always very popular). In addition, previews of events such as annual professional association gatherings where community members might meet up are useful, but make sure that you add calls to action such as “Hey, I’ll be attending the KM World Conference in Paris this year. Is anybody else in the community going? Ping me and let’s get together for coffee.”
Blog » Making Content Social for Increased Engagement
Making Content Social for Increased Engagement
Summary:
What is Social Content?
Social Content, not to be confused with content on social media, means content that is more likely to encourage people to interact with other people about the content, and more likely to acquire and share that content with others.
Why is Social Content important?
Making content more social is important because frequently members and consumers come to your Community for the content. Once they are there, you want to encourage them to stay by creating content that is social, that is, that gives them a way to interact with it (share, vote, rate, comment on, and so on). This raises the visibility of the Community, which in turn attracts others to the Community. In marketing terms, the content is amplified.
Social content increases familiarity with other members and reinforces the sense that these are their peers; people return to the community every day to see what’s new.
Making content more social shines attention on those contributing to the Community and this attention has two effects: firstly, it enhances the status of those making the most impactful content, and secondly it encourages others to mimic the contributions of the stars of the community.
Sometimes, the Community Platform will reinforce this status and competitiveness with formal status rankings (this is known as gamification).
Social content, for example in a Community newsletter, can also provide entertainment in the form of guest columns, gossip, interviews, reviews, previews, etc. It is content that contributes to increasing social cohesion amongst members and helps build a stronger Sense of Community.
How do you create Social Content or make existing content social?
To create new Social Content or make existing content more social, follow these principles:
Make it personal – Highlight an action that a member has taken or a broader theme that is particularly relevant to the members in your community.
@Mention names of members – By mentioning members' names, using @Mention functionality, you give a direct call to action to those members to respond, to continue the conversation.
Make it participatory – Ensure that your content includes and ends with calls to action to respond, to comment, to ask a question. The data shows that content that ends with a question generates more engagement than content that doesn’t.
Make it easy - Make it easy to share, comment, download, and so on.
Elicit an emotion – Content should resonate with its intended audience on a personal social level. It should generate an emotion.
Maintain a single source of truth - If you are seeking comments, for example, on a document, do not email multiple copies to multiple people. Rather place the document in a central place where everybody can review and edit it. Having a single document achieves two objectives: you have only one copy of the document with everybody’s comments, that is, a ‘single source of truth’. As important, it enables everybody to see everybody else’s comments and enables people to engage in dialog and comment on those comments making the content participatory and social.
Model what you want to see mirrored - If you as community leader, community manager, Core Team member, Core Group member, want your members to be more social, then model the behavior that you want them to mirror. Do not email documents to members; put them in a central place and point members to them and drive social behavior around your platform and other Convening Venues where your members meet online. Show members by your actions that this is the behavior that you expect from them.
Share in real-time - When you are holding meetings whether in person or online, take notes in a shared document that is visible on-screen to all in the meeting. This practice makes sure that everybody is aware of the issues, the decisions, and the action items, and can comment and discuss before they get published. You can then post that document in a central place for attendees to revisit and for others who did not attend the meeting to view. It makes the content more social.
More examples of content that is more social include interviews, reviews and previews of events, success stories involving community members, photographs of community members both professional and personal (always very popular). In addition, previews of events such as annual professional association gatherings where community members might meet up are useful, but make sure that you add calls to action such as “Hey, I’ll be attending the KM World Conference in Paris this year. Is anybody else in the community going? Ping me and let’s get together for coffee.”
This article is part of the WBG Communities of Practice Toolkit licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The toolkit features practical resources to help you develop impactful Communities of Practice. 📖 Learn more about the Toolkit. ▶ Access the Toolkit.