Their eyes dilate. They salivate from the mouth. They are practically paralyzed with curiosity.

No, I’m not talking about cats, seduced by the stimulating lure of catnip. I’m talking about your audience upon seeing your catnip post.

As social media professionals, our main goal is to engage our audience. Easier said than done, right? If we don’t post images that are engaging, our audience won’t care. So how do we figure out which visuals will work and which won’t? Here at CSU, we have a pretty good grip on the visuals that do well on our social platforms. We like to call these things catnip. Yes, that’s right. Catnip.

So what’s our catnip? Well, it’s a few things…

From Facebook posts alone, the six images above collectively received approximately 20,000 likes, 2,000 shares, 500 comments and reached nearly 300,000 people. Now that’s some serious catnip! So how can you make this work for you? Here are some simple tips…

1. Identify the images that resonate most with your audience. Call them catnip.

2. Use your catnip sparingly. Audiences may get catnip-fatigue if you post them too often.

3. Sit back and watch your stats climb!

Oh, and if you can figure out a way that your mascot can have cute, cuddly babies… we highly encourage it.