“The most human companies will win.” — Mark Schaefer

We publish a lot of content on our client’s properties and social platforms. Our website’s masthead says, “Our goal is to make an impact and build, with you, brands that are more human, more useful.”

How do these two things tie in together?

Although sometimes we simply fill a need to inform audiences of a certain point of information, at other times we are aiming to be conversational, to actually trigger deeper engagement.

And our clients are not alone.

All brands create a mix of content that aims to inform, educate or entertain, but at times, many of them also want to add a conversational level to the messaging.

But how often do we see marketers and brands try to create this kind of engagement and right away know that it will be a failed attempt at generating feedback, comments or any other form of deep engagement?

Buzzsumo published an article that outlines the words they have seen consistently work in creating engagement on conversational social media posts.

They based their analysis on the “Social Penetration Theory” that describes that people have 4 levels of disclosure:

  • A. Clichés
  • B. Facts
  • C. Opinions
  • D. Feelings

The further down this scale you go, the better you can understand someone.

Or a brand.

Brands should not be afraid to take a stand, either directly or through their employees.

At Toast, if you subscribe to our Facebook page for example, you will get a weekly article recommendation from one of our employees. This is an article that resonated with them, made them feel something, and aims to allow you to get to know us and the people that work on our client’s mandates.

This week, Giuliano Bossa shared an article about a specific word that generates longer view time when it is used in the first moments of a video. And that word is also part of this study by Buzzsumo. Which word is it? Visit our Facebook page to know!

In Susan Moeller’s research from the Buzzsumo article, the words that have been found to work pretty well in conversational content, on social platforms and others, are:

  1. Passionate
  2. Agree
  3. Think
  4. Feel
  5. Support
  6. Story
  7. Improve
  8. Hear
  9. You

So how often is your brand using these words and approaches in conversational posts? How well do these resonate with your audience?

Moeller digs deeper into the 4 levels of disclosure along with the words mentioned above, I strongly invite you to read the entire article and start crafting better conversational messaging.


Want your brand to have better conversational success with your audience? Let us know and schedule a consultation with our experts at Toast today.