A high level of engagement should be one of the major goals for any business using social media. It’s a clear indicator that you’re making waves in the market and establishing yourself as a brand. It also helps to turn followers into customers, which can help with the growth of your business!
Think of engagement like a conversation. When everyone involved is contributing, listening and responding it evolves and becomes enjoyable for everyone. If only one person is speaking, it just becomes annoying to those who aren’t interested. Your social media strategy is the conversation, it only works if others are involved otherwise you’re just making noise that no one is responding to.
But why is this important? Many businesses forget the ‘social aspect of social media. People go to these platforms to interact with others, to be entertained, unwind, and discover new things. People don’t necessarily log on to have products pushed in their faces. This is why, if you don’t have a strategy catered to your target audience, you won’t get the engagement you’re looking for. Engagement essentially means interaction – and refers to likes, comments, shares, tags, and other functions of the various platforms.
So, if you aren’t seeing the engagement you need, follow the tips in this list to help your numbers!
Understand your Audience
This is crucial for achieving high levels of engagement. If you don’t understand your audience, your activity can fall on deaf ears. So, think about your target market and the type of content they typically engage with, the platforms they use, what time of day they are likely to be on etc. For example, if you’re targeting 18-21-year-olds with 3000-word blog posts or stale images, you won’t get the engagement you’re after.
Without this crucial step, you won’t get the desired impact from any of the next points. So, once you’ve taken the time to understand your target market and their behaviour, it’s to come back to the idea of a conversation. With this in mind, here are easy tips to increase your engagement.
Talk Back
The conversation is a two-way street – you can’t expect people to engage with you if you aren’t willing to do the same for them. When your followers comment on your post, make sure you reply! This shows that you care about your audience and helps to build a relationship between them and your brand.
Don’t be afraid to joke, ask further questions and have fun (within reason of course). This goes for both good and bad comments. If someone is raising concerns, make sure to address them as best you can. This shows that your brand is accountable and trustworthy. If you can respond to every comment due to time/resources, responding to some is better than none. Like as many as you can too.
Ask Questions
What’s the best way to keep any conversation moving? Questions! Incorporating regular questions is a great way to invite your followers to engage with you. This could be questions on the ends of your captions, questions in your stories, or any other aspect of your content. Even a simple call to action like ‘let us know in the comments!’ invites your followers to engage with you.
If you’d like to take it one step further, why not run a Q&A? This could be about you, your business, or any topic related to your product or service that will be of interest to your followers. You could do this live, or record the session and post it on your platforms. Make sure to promote this and ask your audience to submit as many questions as possible!
Run a Poll
Everyone loves a good poll. Come up with your question and answers (whether it’s directly relevant to your business or not) and share it to your profile and or/story. This invites your followers to not only engage with you but others who’ve submitted results too.
If you run this poll through post on one of your profiles, make sure to reply to any comments you receive. Don’t just start the conversation, be a part of it too.
Share People’s Content
If your followers post about your business in any way, return the favour by sharing this content! This is a great way to say thank you, and show your followers that they matter. The more you do this, the more likely they will be to return the favour!
Competitions
Running a competition is a great way to get a quick injection of engagement. Announce that you’ll running a prize draw (offer an interesting prize) and give clear conditions of entry, and a draw date. An example of the conditions could be:
-Like/Follow our Page
-Tag one friend in the comments
-For an extra entry, share this post in your story.
This will boost your comments, likes, follows, and shares. Make sure to retain this new wave of followers as best you can. Also, announce the winner publicly to show the legitimacy of the competition.
Post Fun Content
As we mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons people go onto social media is to be entertained. Just because you’re a business, doesn’t mean you can’t get in on the fun too. Find ways that you can entertain, and showcase your brand or product at the same time too!
This could be with short videos, memes, gifs, or any other form of content at your disposal. Don’t be afraid to get creative, and don’t take yourself too seriously.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! Follow these tips, and you should see an improvement in your engagement. If you’re still struggling after reading this, don’t worry, 99social is here to help. We offer complete social media packages for as little as £99 per month, so you can get the social results you need without blowing your budget.