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Q: Why did the computer show up late to work?

A: It had a  hard drive

Have you noticed that the posts on social media that stand out often ask a thought-provoking question or even use humor to catch your attention? They are posts that make you stop and think, are something you can relate to, or something you can respond to. If so, you have discovered what many companies know is important- social engagement!

Social engagement is the final frontier. We are on a voyage to understand how to help convert the world of social from being just billboards in the cloud to builders of unique opportunities. Of course, there are a number of thoughts on this. If you Google creating social media engagement you will get many answers, from adding humor to beautiful photos to asking questions. But, what is the answer that can help technology resellers?

The Current State of Affairs

The best that we can do is share with you our experiences straight from reports that are generated from the over 24,000 users who share content through our application. Our audience is B2B companies that provide solutions for improving the workflow of a business’s data and information.

First, we can examine clicks by types of content being shared. The number of posts relates to the number of users that selected a type of content to share, which is then aggregated into impressions and clicks. As you can see the top three types of content that garnished the best CTRs are Solution Briefs, Thought Leadership, and Analyst Reports.

We also can look at the top topics of interest. First, what partners want to share, and second what customers are most interested in reading.

Partners are promoting secure remote work first over all else. That top promoted article called “Work remotely, stay secured” was promoted the most, and received a .6% click through rate.
The Red Hat product guide was a highly used piece of content and that received a 1% click through rate.
The highest rated customer topic across the board (based on click through percentages) was content referencing Security Solutions and Edge/Hybrid Computing models.

Leveling up

Currently, we are working on taking the content to the next level to generate more than just clicks. Our goal is to now create reactions. Reactions help us identify who is interested in the topic as much as it shows us the user is receiving information they need.

Here are the tactics we are testing:

Shorter social messages
Messages without links to content outside of LinkedIn (we believe the LinkedIn algorithm favors content that doesn’t click out).
We are going to publish content that asks for a reaction to get the consumer to participate in the conversation. The reaction could be based on getting a like, or a celebration, or a posted conversation.

As we test these tactics the goal is to provide the users access to the data that demonstrates interest from the consumer. These tests will create what we call the Social MQL, and will help the users of our application convert more content into opportunities and sales. And yes, as we test these different content types we will test humor…

Three Database Admins walked into a NoSQL bar. A little later, they walked out because they couldn’t find a table.

An SEO couple had twins. For the first time, they were happy with duplicate content.

A computer engineer, a systems analyst, and a programmer were driving down a mountain when the brakes gave out. They screamed down the mountain, gaining speed, and finally managed to grind to a halt, more by luck than anything else, just inches from a thousand-foot drop to jagged rocks. They all got out of the car.

The computer engineer said, “I think I can fix it.”

The systems analyst said, “No, I think we should take it into town and have a specialist look at it.”

The programmer said, “I think we should push it back up the hill and see if it does it again.”

Why not capture the attention of your customers with some humor? Let’s face it, we could all use a break to stop and smile. Whether it’s through humor, or a thought-provoking question, if your post can get a reaction, that is valuable information you can use to better understand your audience and what they relate to. It’s like the interests section on your resume- it’s there in order to help your audience connect with you. Living in a world of virtual handshakes, these types of connections are crucial to business success.