With social media, don’t be afraid to get emotional. Some of the most memorable visual experiences are those that found a way to tap into the power of emotion.

Out of 1,400 successful advertising campaigns, those with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) as those with only rational content.

Why is this relevant to marketers? Marketers want to build their brand and generate action, and that involves inspiring emotion in your customers and audiences.

Tips to leverage emotion in your social media campaigns:

1. During your quarterly strategy session with customers discuss ways they can show their personality in a vulnerable way that elicits emotion. Have them pick three examples. Causes they care about. Employees they care about. Communities they care about, and plan how you can incorporate their passion into a social media campaign.

2. Use video. Nothing communicates emotion better than video, live or prerecorded. Brainstorm content you can create to showcase the causes or people your company would like to highlight.

3. Post, share, and follow up. When you launch your campaign, make sure all those involved are sharing on their feeds. Company pages have a very limited reach, but personal pages on LinkedIn, FB or Instagram go much farther. Also make sure you follow comments and keep the conversation going.

Also check out these points:

"Emotional marketing inspires people to act" from HubSpot blogs.

· Happiness makes us share … and sharing leads to increased brand awareness. If bad news sells, then good news travels fast. Studies show that good news and positive content spreads faster on social media than any other type of content. This phenomenon isn’t unlike the “social smile” in infancy, when babies reciprocate a smile. When someone is happy, we tend to mirror that emotion, which leads us to share any content that made us smile in the first place

· Sadness makes us empathize and connect … and empathy leads to increased giving. A 2007 study revealed that feelings of empathy lead to altruism and the motivation to act on behalf of others. It’s no surprise that organizations like the ASPCA feature sad photos and a moving song while asking for donations. Feelings of sadness inspire us to act and help people, which typically manifests in fiscal giving.

· Surprise and fear make us cling to what’s comfortable … and embracing what’s comfortable leads to increased brand loyalty. Marketers are typically afraid to leverage fear in their advertisements, for fear (literally) that consumers will associate negative feelings with their brand. But, the opposite is true. Studies show that eliciting fear allows your brand to be seen as the one good thing in a dark world, meaning your consumers will lean on you more when things take a turn for the worse.

· Anger and passion make us stubborn … and stubbornness leads to viral content and loyal followers. Think about that Facebook video about a local tragedy or political issue that has tons of likes and thousands more comments. Like happiness, strong emotions like anger and passion inspire people to share content. Studies show that producing content that purposely elicits anger and anxiety will lead to virality and increased views.

Sources:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/emotion-marketing

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2020/03/visual-content-best-practices-examples/