Creating better LinkedIn engagement is an important goal for building your audience. One thing I love about effective content marketing is how it uses psychology and an understanding of human behavior. Part of being a great marketer is not just understanding what people want but understanding why people want what they want. So I’ve taken this strategy right from a Psychology 101 class and applied it to immigration marketing. If you want better LinkedIn engagement, I have two words for you: Emotional Priming.
This is why emotional priming creates better LinkedIn engagement
For those who don’t know what emotional priming is, let me explain. Psychology Today defines priming as, “exposure to one stimulus influences how a person responds to a subsequent, related stimulus.” When translating this concept to content, I’ve interpreted it to mean that when someone starts to read your article, watch your video, or listen to your podcast, they should FEEL something.
Creating emotional priming for your content creates better LinkedIn engagement because people connect with your content as soon as they start interacting with it regardless of the medium or format of the content. When people feel a connection or an emotion, they are much more likely to engage either by writing a comment, liking the post or even just looking for more content that you’ve created.
How to create better LinkedIn engagement with emotional priming
Having a great hook is essential. If you listen to good podcasts, often they start with a snippet from the episode that’s particularly exciting in order to grab your attention. If you watch a movie trailer, it’s always emotionally intense and slightly mysterious to create intrigue. Written content works the same way. If you are writing a LinkedIn post and trying to create better engagement with the reader, you want to focus on writing an introduction that will stop them from scrolling on past your post.
The funny part is, it’s actually easier than you think. And that’s because, in my opinion, human beings, as complex as we are, are also quite simple. For example, if you start a post with “I’m so excited about…” or “You know what’s frustrating?…” or “This really upset me…”., you actually PRIME the reader with that emotion, which follows them into the rest of your post.
They naturally take on that emotion, even if it’s given to them with no context, and want to know WHY you feel that way. Subsequently, their likelihood of actually reading your post is higher.
Here are the outcomes of using emotional priming to create better LinkedIn engagement
Once they’ve read your post, there are two possibilities.
They agree with your emotional appeal, continue to empathize, and will take action to support the post either by commenting or liking the post. The alternative is that they will disagree with your emotional appeal and are moved to respond in a comment as to why they disagree. Provoking a positive or negative response doesn’t matter, what matters is creating that emotional reaction that drives people to notice and engage with your content.
A word of warning though, I don’t recommend doing this every time you post. It may burn out your followers/readers, they may start to associate your content with a heavy emotional burden, and eventually start skipping your posts. You don’t want your content to come across as clickbait with consistently dramatic turns. Plan on using the strategy once or twice a month if you are a regular content creator to draw people in.
If you’re drawing a blank on other content ideas or you’re looking for more ways to better LinkedIn engagement, check out this GMI Rocket post that will help you brainstorm and create a variety of engaging immigration content for social media.
