This was a mini social media challenge in which we had to post to a prompt for 5 days. The purpose of this challenge was to grow our page likes or Instagram followers and also have more engagement such as likes, shares and comments on our posts. The point of all this was to draw people to our blogs and have them subscribed or read our articles.
Since this was for Instagram or Facebook, it was best to create graphics. We also had to share it to our relevant Facebook group that allowed sharing of posts.
DAY 1 CHALLENGE
The first challenge was to share an inspirational quote that related to what we blogged about.
Mine was:
This did ok. I only had 5 shares from others and 11 likes. It did ok because normally I would get a few likes and no shares. Which made to think that graphics are better for sharing than writing.
The Odd Muslimah had this:
Our Amanahs Our Futures had this:
DAY 2 CHALLENGE
On day 2, we had to answer our audience’s #1 question that keeps them up at night worrying about it. We had to think about our niche and their biggest problem. The point here was to connect to our audience and draw them in on their pain point.
My post did really well.
On this graphic, I asked the question that my audience would ask and worry about and I’ve answered it on the graphic as well. This had 22 shares and 18 likes on my page. In a Facebook group that I shared it to, there were 19 likes and no shares.
The Odd Muslimah asked a question to her audience which she then tried to have answered in an Instagram live.
Our Amanahs Our Futures couldn’t think of a question that her audience would be asking so she just posted “Ask me a question”.
DAY 3 CHALLENGE
On the third day, we had to ask a multiple choice question. It could be a fun question or a question that will give insights into our audience. It needed to be short and by giving 2 or 3 choices, it saved our readers time to think about the answer so they were more likely to engage and respond.
Mine did really well in the group that I shared it to.
I had 33 comments and 11 likes in the group but on my page I only had 5 comments. Maybe it was that in a closed group, people felt safe to answer whereas a page is more open.
The answers to this question gave me insights into what type of parents my audience were. There was definitely a pattern. Where my readers had chosen the option D and gave their own one word answer, I could then use that word in my later articles or copy to describe my audience.
I now know what area to focus on in my future blog articles.
Our Amanahs our Futures had this:
DAY 4 CHALLENGE
On day 4 we had to leverage someone else work and share a popular video or post from that someone that complemented our posts or what we blog about.
I shared Dr Shefali’s How You Should Love Your Child video. On my page, I had 2 shares and 8 likes whereas in the group I had 7 likes and 2 comments. Not as much engagement as I would have liked but ok considering I usually have one or 2 likes on most posts. I guess I need to find something that resonate more with my audience.
DAY 5 CHALLENGE
The last day’s challenge was to share our story of why we blog and what’s the benefit to readers, that is, we had to “share our passion”.
I didn’t make a graphic but posted a royalty-free image of a child and in the description, I just wrote ‘The type of relationship that children have with their parents is so important to children’s learning. If parents are supportive and warm then their children will flourish under that care.
This is what I see every day when I see the children and their parents interacting.
Also as a teacher, parents often ask about their children’s progress and many would extend it to parenting advice.
This is why I blog and run this Muslim Parenting page.
If you haven’t already then like this page, visit my blog www.jameelaho.com and sign up to the mailing list.’ I didn’t share this to my group so on my page I had 2 shares and 4 likes.
What I realised long ago was that when I shared my blog posts to a group that had many members, my article had many more views. This is one of my strategies to get more eyeballs on my posts and I should have shared day ‘s challenge but somehow I didn’t and the numbers showed.
Overall, I had 50+ new likes to my page and 6 new subscribers to my mailing list. They are modest numbers but they are a start. For my Facebook page, in between posting links to my blog articles, I know to use graphics to answer my audience questions and ask multiple choice questions when I need answers myself and to share these to my groups. I will still occasionally post inspirational quotes and share other’s works – these will give it variety.
This was done using Facebook but I wonder how it would have went if I used Instagram with the same posts and graphics…I will test it out and get back to you!
- What I Learnt from the Social Media Challenge - December 23, 2018
- Cooking Activities for Ramadan - June 9, 2016
- How to Teach Through Project-Based Learning - October 19, 2015