How to Increase Engagement on Social Media

By Lauren | February 24, 2015 | 0 Comment

Driving engagement on social media is everyone’s end goal when developing a social media strategy (at least for most people). Social media is all about engaging with consumers and interacting with others,but knowing how to do that is the hard part. Engagement seems like an easy thing to get on your social platforms, but there has probably been many times you’ve shared content thinking, “wow this is totally going to drive likes, comments, shares, etc.” and it doesn’t. Here are some tips to help you build your social media engagement.

Be Consistent

Consistency is key. You can’t start a social media page and assume that it will run itself, or only pay attention to it when it is convenient for you. Social media takes commitment. It’s important that you post regularly, and consistently, otherwise you won’t garner any traction or gain the results you are expecting.

Be Original

Provide value to your followers. How can you stand out from all the clutter and offer your followers something that no one else is offering them? Think about creating your own visuals, memes, infographics, or blog posts to share. If you don’t have the time or ability to do this, try adding your own insight to pre-existing content. If you read a great article, share what your thoughts are on it, and ask your community what theirs are.

Listen

The best part about social media is that you can sit back and listen. Listen to what your community is saying, or people that fall within your target market. Listen to what people are saying about your brand, or company. Respond when you can, and take the input to better improve your business. Consumers want to know that you are listening to what they have to say and that you care about their input and feedback (even if it is negative).

Give a Reason to Engage

Contests or giveaways can be a great way to give an incentive to engage your community, but don’t do them so frequently that people are only coming to your pages for free stuff. Make sure to tie in any giveaway to what you are trying to accomplish. A contest for the sake of a contest is just the lazy way to get your engagement numbers up on your page. Here is some advice on how to run a successful Twitter contest, and make sure to check out Facebook guidelines before you try and run a contest on Facebook.

Use Visuals

Social media platforms are very cluttered and many people aren’t going to stop while scrolling through their news feed for a truck load of text. Use visuals everywhere! With Facebook, be sure to include a photo or video with every post. Twitter posts that have photos attached can also really catch someones attention as many people stick to 140 characters of text instead. Keep your text minimal, and to the point, and utilize visuals as much as possible.

Ask Questions

What better way to entice people to engage with your page then straight up ask them about stuff. People are inclined to answer a question that is of interest to them, and this can be a great way to start a discussion on your pages. Remember to always try to tie it into what you are trying to accomplish as a business, and don’t get to bummed out if you post a “great” question and no one responds, it happens!

Don’t Be Afraid of Money

The reality of social media is that it is heading more and more towards being a paid platform. If you want to really succeed, and reach your target, sometimes you are going to have to put some money behind it. The great thing about most platforms is you can experiment with just about any amount of money. Even if you only have $50 to spare a month, you can still reach more people with that! No budget is too small with social marketing, just like anything else, money talks, and you’ll begin to see more success on your posts and campaigns when there is money pushing out your content for you.

Have a Personality

All brands have their own personality. Determine what the tone, and personality of your brand is. How are you posting? What tone of voice are you using? How are you responding to people on social media? This personality should be in line with everything you do, but on social it’s a lot easier to have fun with it. Think of it this way – if your brand was a person, what type of person would they be? Is it a fun, hip person or a corporate person?

All in all, remember, engagement takes work! It isn’t going to happen overnight and you may have to experiment with different things till you really find out what is getting your audience to share, comment, like & engage.

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