How To Use The E.M.E.R.I. Score To Optimize Social Media Posts For Engagement

Last year we launched Fresh-Share—an Instagram marketing tool for small business owners.

Part of our job with Fresh-Share is to send members daily Caption Templates, Ready-To-Share Visuals, and Content Tips.

After designing over 350 unique posts for our members, we have developed a formula for predicting if a post has what it takes to generate engagement from prospects in the form of comments and likes.

We call it the E.M.E.R.I. Score.

A post needs an E.M.E.R.I. Score of at least 3 out of 5 to pass (and we never send out a post if it doesn’t pass).

Once you get in the habit of using the E.M.E.R.I. Score, you’ll be able to evaluate and optimize a post in under two minutes.

In return, your prospects will be eager to see your posts—giving you a consistent way to learn more about them, and deepen your relationship with future customers.

How To Use E.M.E.R.I. Score To Get More Comments And Likes

Here’s how to use the E.M.E.R.I. Score to improve social media posts on any channel—and generate more social media engagement.

First, draft a post as you normally would.

Then, ask:

Would my ideal customer find this post…

  • Educating
    Are you teaching them something useful?
  • Motivating
    Are you pushing them to succeed?
  • Engaging
    Are you using direct call-to-actions (eg. “Visit the link in our bio to find out more!”)?
  • Revealing
    Are you being vulnerable? Are you letting prospects peek behind the curtain—or glimpse the human side to your business?
  • Interesting
    Does your ideal customer care?

If your post doesn’t get a score of at least 3 out of 5, it isn’t optimized for engagement—and you need to bump up that score.

One interesting bi-product of using the E.M.E.R.I. Score is that it allows you to share content that isn’t directly connected to what you’re selling.

For example, you can share posts about your favourite local cafe, the music you play at work, or a favourite book—and by checking your score before publishing, you can make sure it still furthers the bonds the have with prospects.

This is a big advantage because it gives you a wealth of additional content to share—and allows you to build a social presence that is more authentic (and not overtly salesy).

The E.M.E.R.I. Score In Action

Imagine a photographer drafted the following caption for a behind-the-scenes post on Instagram.

Check out what we’re working on! ????

Since the post is showing behind-the-scenes content, we’ll give it one point for being revealing.

Let’s also give it a point for being interesting—since the photographer’s ideal customers would want to see this unique perspective.

That leaves us with a score of 2/5.

No bueno.

Ok, so we know that this photographer must optimize this post before sending it out into the wild.

The simplest way to do this is to work on the caption. I can see two natural ways to do this to get a higher score.

  1. Add an educational element to the post.

    Check out what we’re working on! Did you know that FS Photo has a full production team that can source unique locations, props (yes, including fancy cars), wardrobe, and professional models? ????

  2. Add a call-to-action to make the post more engaging.

    Check out what we’re working on! If we could produce a photoshoot for YOU (no limits)—what would you want us to create together? Leave a comment below. ????

You could find a way to make this post motivational…but these two are the most obvious ways for me to get to 3/5. And I don’t want to make the caption feel forced just so it scores higher.

That said…if you’re keen to maximize engagement, you can easily combine these captions to get an even higher E.M.E.R.I. Score of 4/5.

Check out what we’re working on! Did you know that FS Photo has a full production team that can source unique locations, props (yes, including fancy cars), and professional models? If we could produce a photoshoot for YOU—what would you want us to create together? Leave a comment below. ????

Next Steps

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