When we use social media for business, we’re looking for engagement. It’s not fun when we’re simply posting content, day after day, without anyone engaging with our content. Also, social media platforms tell us it’s important, and they do so through our reach.
There is no secret here, organic reach has suffered across all platforms over the past few years. Think of it like this:
Facebook is your favorite coffee shop, you’re in there every day. One day, you start to bring in your own coffee. The next day, you’re actively trying to send Facebooks customers to your coffee shop down the road. Facebook does not take kindly to this.
It’s not far from the truth. When you are trying to build your social media presence organically (not paying for advertising), you are using the social platforms, not paying for ads, and trying to get their customers to click a link to your website, article, etc. The social platforms like a few things here:
- When you pay them.
- When their customers stay on their social platform.
Building your engagement was always challenging; it has just become that much more challenging over the past few years since organic reach has suffered. You’re not out of luck just yet as there are a few things you can do to increase engagement with your content. Let’s dive in.
What is Social Media Engagement?
The simple answer is that engagement is a representation of how others are interacting with your social media profiles and content. Some actions for engagement are:
- Likes and follows
- Comments
- Replies
- Direct Messages (DM’s)
- Shares
- Saves
- Clicks
- Mentions (@)
When you have high engagement, social platforms know that your content is connecting with your audience and that your audience (their customers) like seeing your content.
Why is engagement important?
Engagement is important for a few reasons. For starters, as we mentioned above, engagement allows social platforms to know that your audience enjoys and relates to your content. The last thing Facebook, Twitter, IG, and others want is their users to leave their platforms. When users enjoy the content they see, they are less likely to leave the platform to do something else.
Engagement is also important as users expect brands to engage back. Your audience enjoys interaction (we all do). When we are involved in interactions, it creates a greater sense of well-being which keeps us on the platforms longer. This leads to better organic reach. Users love seeing positive interactions with brands and are more likely to share that content.
Interactions and engagement also help to build relationships, which are very good for your brand. We can learn from our audience and improve our brand and their experience.
Simple ways to boost engagement
Post consistently – This doesn’t have to be at 2 pm every single day, but you do want consistency in your posting. If your audience knows to expect your posts midday, Monday through Friday, they are more likely to see and engage with your posts. If you do not know when is the best time to post, run some experiments by posting content at various times throughout the day. Understand what time frame your content gets the best level of engagement, then post around then and analyze your results.
Be social – When others engage with your content, engage back. Thank them for their kind words, address complaints quickly and professionally. Talk with your audience.
Choose the best hashtags for your brand – Hashtags make your content more findable, just don’t overdo it. In our experience, one to three hashtags work best. Knowing which hashtags work best for your brand is where keyword research comes into play. Similar to timing, if you do not know which hashtags are best for you, play around with them. Run similar content with different hashtags and see which performs best.
Focus on user-generated content – user-generated content is POWERFUL. Not only does it bring down marketing costs, but it also produces content that you know your audience will connect with since they created it!
Create a visually consistent feed – especially on visual platforms (like Instagram). In addition to posting consistently, create a feed where your posts that is visually consistent. Give your feed a look that matches your brand identity.
Be a storyteller – Do not simply give your audience information on your brand, product, or service. Be a storyteller. People love to connect, and storytelling has the magic to connect them with your brand. How does your product make others feel? How do others enjoy your product? What are other uses someone has found for your product? These are all examples, and there are a plethora of other ways to connect with your audience through a story.
Bonus, do you remember when we discussed user-generated content above? User-generated content is incredible for storytelling. Share the user-generated content that resonates with you and your brand.
Use long captions – long captions are trending and enable your brand to connect deeper with your audience and bring a more human feel to your brand, using storytelling and authenticity. When you use long captions effectively, it stops those scrollers on your content. You know the ones, the ones that scroll right past your content, catching their eye and reeling them into your content.
While there is no single, silver-bullet method to improve your engagement, there are some tried and true methods that may work for you and your brand. What are some other methods that have worked for you to improve engagement? Please share your input in the comments below as another may be looking for ways to improve their engagement, and your method may work best for them too; it’s always great to help others.
Until next time, keep smiling.
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