As social media’s marketing role continues to grow year over year, consumers will continue to see businesses taking to blogs, Facebook and Twitter to get their attention. It has become extremely important for brands and businesses to not only have a solid social media presence, but one that is valuable, interesting and actionable – inspiring users to like, comment, share and retweet. That’s what sets apart the modern from the mediocre.

Consumers’ feeds are flooded with updates each day, from their friends, family members and businesses. There’s no way they could possibly take the time to read, respond to or repost every single update. So, which ones are they responding to and reposting? Have you ever wondered what words catch consumers’ eyes?

It may seem like the kind of thing where there are differentiating opinions – where different words intrigue different people. While that may have some truth to it, there are some words and phrases that have been proven to improve engagement between consumers and businesses.

How to be actionable

Using action-oriented words in your blog titles, Facebook status updates, tweets and other social media posts, can improve your social media response by increase their chances of being opened, read or shared. By action-oriented words, I mean ones like check, click, donate, download, repost, retweet, share, want, buy, enter, etc. that trigger a response. And don’t just use them plainly in your posts – use them in your hashtags to leverage them for SEO purposes. That way, anybody looking for “donate” or “download” will find your content.

So what do all of the best, action-oriented posts have in common? According to Shortstack, blog post headlines containing these words are more likely to be shared: smart, surprising, hacks/hackable/hackers (hacks meaning “tricks” in this case), science, history, huge/big, critical.

A highly shareable Facebook post performs at least one of the following functions: warns, inspires, unites, advises (how-tos), amazes, amuses or gives (offers, discounts and deals).

Tweets containing these words and phrases are more likely to be retweeted by other users: free, top, follow, Twitter, media, you, please retweet, retweet, 10, how to, social, post, social media, help, new blog post, blog post, check it out and great.

The takeaway: The trend seen across all of these platforms and trends is that users want content that is helpful (“hacks” and “how-tos”), enlightening (“surprising” and amazing/amusing) or provides them with some sort of advice, gift or reward. Employing these tactics in your blog titles, Facebook posts and Twitter updates can inspire more action than you are currently receiving from your friends and followers.

What it means for your business

When consumers read or share these posts, they are showing interest in and support for that action, they are sort of socially “opting in” – it’s safe to say that they are interested in your products and services. You can keep a running list of people who have engaged or participated with your social media content and consider them as prospective leads. You can engage with these consumers one-on-one to open up a direct line of communication, paving the way for future opportunities.

When users share or repost your actionable social media content, it inspires their friend lists – who may or may not have heard of you – to stop, notice your post and hopefully take action, too. Therefore, these words give your posts built-in amplification. These organic shares will also help contribute to your credibility and transparency, showing that you don’t need to use questionable means to acquire engagement or leads.

Now that you know what words, phrases and themes make an inspiring, actionable post, the rest is a no-brainer. Use them to promote your best content, resources and latest developments on social media. Your friends and followers will be sharing them in no time.