What is Engagement Content for the PAGER Method With Examples
The “E” of the PAGER method for social media strategy is Engagement, and it can be tricky to make since they’re the most unusual posts. But these are the posts that help build your relationship with your audience because you are asking them for their opinion. And if there’s anything social media has taught us it’s how to express our opinion. Let’s break down what Engagement posts are, the various forms they can take, and how to include them as part of your overall social media strategy.
Quick Overview of Engagement Content and Why You Need It
In the PAGER Method of social media, the “E” stands for Engagement. These are the posts where you want to get your audience to comment, tap, slide, or somehow or other respond to your posts. You want to make sure that you include these into your content mix for a few reasons.
The first, is that you want your audience to know how much you value their thoughts and opinions. What better way to let your audience know that you value their opinion than by asking them what it actually is?
Another reason why it’s important to include this type of post is because when someone taps, slides, comments, or shares a post from you, that person is more likely to see your content in the future.
Not only that, but often algorithms will only show your posts to a small subset of your followers - the most engaged ones. When those followers react in some way to them, then the social media platform will show your content to a larger group of your followers.
So in order to get more mileage out of your posts, you want to make sure that you regularly are posting content designed to get your audience talking.
Engagement posts can be:
Polls
Sliders
Answer with a GIF
Answer with an emoji
This or That
Open Ended Questions
Games
When Engagement Posts Go Wrong
The problem with posting this kind of content too often is that it can start to feel annoying to your audience after awhile. It can feel a little needy.
With the PAGER method, though, you are only posting this type of content once a week - twice at the most - so you can be sure that you have the right mix of content.
Remember, you have Promotional content as part of your PAGER system, so you do have another post throughout the week designed to help you hit your business goals. More on Promotional posts here.
Brief Review of the PAGER Method
I came up with the PAGER method as a way to vary the kind of content you publish on social media in a way that also drives engagement and revenue goals. The idea is that once a week you publish posts that fit in specific categories:
Engagement
Random
To make putting out so much content easier and faster, I recommend creating those posts in big batches, storing them in a Content Stockpile, and then scheduling or automating them using your preferred scheduler.
Let’s get into Engagement content for the PAGER method.
Polls
Remember how much you loved multiple choice questions on a test? They were great. Most of the work was done for you, and you just had to shade in a little circle. Way easier than a short answer kind of test question. It’s the same with polls.Polls are a great source of Engagement content because they require so little of your audience member. Just a tap. They don’t have to think too much, they don’t have to type too much. They don’t have to do too much. Polls show up in Instagram Stories, Linked In, Twitter, and Facebook Groups. Of course, features change every few days (as do social media platforms), but polls are a helpful type of post to keep in your content mix.
Sliders
Both Instagram and Facebook Stories (although platforms and features can change) offer a slider sticker. This is a simple way to get interaction on your posts. And, of course, the more people interact with your posts, the more your posts get put in front of people.
Answer with a GIF / Emoji
Sometimes people don’t want to tap out an entire sentence to comment on their phones. But they do want to respond. This is when it’s fun to add some posts that prompt audience members to use emojis or GIFs to reply. They don’t have to type a whole lot, but emojis and GIFS can convey more emotion than a This or That post could. CNET put out an article with prompts to answer with a gif.
Open Ended Questions
Another way to get people talking is by, well, talking to them! By asking open ended questions you’ll be able to get your audience to voice their opinions about topics that are in your niche. Bonus! You get insights into what kind of stuff they’re thinking about that you can use in upcoming posts.
I like the app PostDeck.io for open ended questions or, as they call them, Conversation Starters. For about $5 each month you can get unlimited prompts. Those prompts work for your open ended questions as well as your General content.
Games and Beyond
Obviously, when it comes to this kind of content it’s important to recognize your brand and your audience. These types of posts are not right for every type of brand. But they can often get your wheels turning so you come up with posts that are interactive.
Games posts usually stop people in their tracks and get them to pay attention and engage with the content.
These change all of the time, and when you start looking for them, you’ll find they pop up often. Look for trends that are happening now and then put your own spin on it.
Or, if you don’t have that creativity at the moment, then just share or retweet someone else’s!
How Often to Post Engagement Content
Engagement content is designed to be posted once a week as part of your PAGER content mix. Ideally, you’ll post five times in a week. This means that other times you post in the week will include:
Random posts.
Pro Tip 1: Post most engaging content during a time of the week when your audience is ready to have some fun. So, maybe not on a Monday morning when they’re getting back to their desks from the weekend, but perhaps on a Friday afternoon when they may randomly check social media, but not want to digest something too heavy.
Pro Tip 2: If publishing an Engagement post in Stories, remember that the content will disappear in 24 hours. So if it’s scheduled and timed correctly, you can have your audience interacting with the content from a Saturday morning to a Sunday morning - potentially a prime time for your audience to have fun with your posts.
Schedule and/or Automate Your Posts
Once you’ve created a big batch of Engagement social media posts, upload them to your social media scheduler. My favorite is Meet Edgar, because it’s the only social media schedule that’s started by a mom and it works the best with the PAGER system. Meta has its own free scheduler for Facebook and Instagram. And many of my clients like Later, Lately, and Hootsuite. Use whichever works best for you and your workflow.
You can, of course, post the content that you make each day as well without scheduling it. But I am more of a proponent of creating posts all at once in a batch, scheduling it, and moving on. It’s a much better use of your time and creative energy.
Start Making Engagement Posts Today
Now you have a simple method to create posts that will help you meet your goals for your business. To recap:
Commit to making twelve pieces of Engagement content
Schedule or Automate the content
Respond to comments!
Need help with implementing the PAGER system? Learn more at an upcoming Simplify Your Social Media webinar!
Annie Schiffmann believes when people experience the performing arts on a regular basis they change for the better. An award-winning actress and content creator, she started Downstage Media to give brands social media strategies that engage audiences. Because engaged audiences show up.
It’s time to simplify social media for small businesses and brands. The PAGER Method is a social media strategy that you can easily use on any platform and in any niche. You’ll know what to create, ensure that your content isn’t too salesy, and still promote the events and initiatives that your business needs to survive. Here, get an overview of Downstage Media’s own content method with examples.