These days, having an influential online presence is required to ensure that customers are aware of your brand. Social media has provided plenty of opportunities for companies to reach out to their target audience and make them aware of their existence. It enables them to provide them with content that informs them how they can help them with their products and services.
However, one of the more critical aspects of social media is engagement. Feedback has become a critical component for the success of many organizations. By being able to reach out to customers, companies can spread awareness of their products or services.
They can also help their customers if they are having an issue and attempt to ease any frustration caused by the problem.
Having an effective social media engagement is necessary if you want to make an impact on your target audience and industry.
It’s now about maintaining the top rank in your field and making meaningful relationships with existing and future customers. Doing so heightens your brand both online and offline.
It’s important to ensure that you are taking the time to engage with your customers through social media. For this guide, we are going to tell you everything you need to know about social engagement.
What is social media engagement?
Social media engagement is best defined as a measurement of how people interact with your social media profiles and content.
The term encompasses a wide range of actions across every social media platform. For instance, engagement may include:
- Likes on Instagram
- Shares on Facebook posts
- Retweets on Twitter
- Re-pins on Pinterest
- Click-throughs
- Mentions
- Using brand hashtags
- Comments on YouTube videos
Whenever you receive a notification on your phone from one of these social media platforms, that is a social media engagement. When your phone pings you about a retweet, comment, message, follow, direct message, friend request, or any other of these functions that increase interaction across the platform can be labeled as engagement.
Regardless of the social media platforms you are using, there are tons of ways for potential customers to engage with the content you provide on your social media page. The primary goal of your brand is to maximize your engagement through these platforms.
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How to boost social media engagement
Social media engagement is critical for the success of your business, regardless if you are a small business or a massive eCommerce company.
Social media is one of the best tools you will have at your disposal to interact with your target audience in real-time and build relationships within your industry.
When people start to learn more about your business, they are more likely to convert, meaning they will purchase something from you, try out your services, or sign up for your email newsletter.
Social media allows you to bridge the gap between your brand and customers, which helps build brand awareness and loyalty.
Analyze your engagement on every social media platform
Before you can get started on boosting your social media engagement you need to assess your current level of engagement.
You need to figure out how much your audience is interacting with your social media posts.
Note down the number of existing followers, the number of comments and shares you are receiving on average per post, or whatever numbers are meaningful to you.
Now that you know your audience engagement level, you can start making plans to improve upon it. There are several ways to calculate this across varying social media platforms, with tons of online tools out there to assist you.
Here at Missinglettr, we provide you with a way to track performance and advanced analytics. Our platform’s analytics solutions seamlessly integrate with other tools and enable you to keep track of your social media engagement with a powerful intuitive dashboard.
Afterward, make sure you are keeping consistent track of this data so you can frequently spot jumps or dips in engagements that offer you valuable info on what’s working and what needs adjusting.
Build a social media engagement plan
If your current social media engagement isn’t working like you wish it would, it is time to make some adjustments to your strategy.
Of course, not every business is going to share the same strategy. Every company has a unique set of business goals, which means their social media strategy is as well. As you develop your approach, it's critical that you come up with specific goals and metrics you wish to achieve.
The goal you come up with should be measurable such as specific numbers. The purpose could vary from reaching a particular number of new followers every passing month to sharing a certain amount of relevant content.
Remember to keep placing measurable steps in motion. It is not enough that you claim you wish to acquire many followers, but how you are planning to get them. You need to come up with an action plan that ensures you can achieve these goals instead of claiming that you are going to get them.
Know your target audience
It can be challenging to strike up engagement from people you don’t know who you are talking to. The language, tone, and resources you use to appeal to one group may differ from another.
For example, a more casual tone may work if you're selling a clothing brand to a younger audience. However, using a similar tone to sell a content marketing tool to professionals may be counterproductive.
It’s essential that you know your audience to determine how you can reach out to them. Find out what social media platforms have the target audience best suitable for your product or service and figure out the best time for you to publish your content.
Figure out what type of content is most likely to catch the attention of your target audience. Plus, come up with a brand voice that makes you instantly recognizable by your target audience.
Remain active
One of the easiest and effective ways to increase your social engagement is to merely engage more on social media platforms.
You shouldn’t just make a post or run marketing campaigns when needed. Take the time to respond to your audience, reply to DM’s, and follow other brands in your industry. Like or share any relevant posts and images as well.
Like all great relationships, it’s a two-way street where everyone benefits. People don’t like it when they are ignored and use it in one-way communication. That won’t help your brand build a positive relationship with the target audience.
The people will expect your company to respond to them when they inquire about your product or services.
Engaging with your audience offers you the chance to convert them into promoters. One useful or enjoyable interaction can convert them into loyal customers. Every bit of interaction counts, regardless of how small it may be.
Produce and share content
Content that provides your audience with something valuable and addresses their pain points is vital. It helps gain the attention of your target audience and shows them how valuable your product or service is for them.
However, you don’t want to talk about how amazing your brand is or what you have to offer.
For a clothing brand, posting your latest designs will only get you a small amount of attention, but providing fashion tips for how to dress up at an important meeting is offering a valuable service and information to your target audience.
You could even encourage your followers to share how they look when dressing up for a meeting.
However, you need to be aware of the type of content that best suits each platform. Posting appealing images on Instagram works best, while videos or longer text posts are exceptional on Facebook.
Don’t hesitate to get creative with your posting ideas:
- Ask your audience questions
- Spotlight customers
- Start a content
- Conduct a survey
- Animated Gifs
- Start an AMA session
Generally, the only way you can figure out what type of content works for your audience is by observing and taking notes.
Don’t hesitate to experiment with your content and note down how your audience reacts to your posts. Make adjustments when needed and continue repeating.
Cross-promote your content
If possible, make sure to cross-promote your content throughout the various social media platforms you use to increase your engagement. Promoting your content in a variety of locations will help maximize the number of people viewing your content.
One of the simplest ways to effectively cross-promote your content is by including links to your other social media accounts. That allows your audience to follow every location you post at.
For instance, add a link to your YouTube account in the bio section Twitter account or put your Facebook profile URL in the description for your YouTube videos.
However, if you plan to cross-promote your content, you need to ensure that the message you send is tailored-made for that specific platform. The way you post on Twitter shouldn't be similar to the one you use on Instagram.
Maintain a consistent brand voice in line with the social media platform you are cross-posting to boost engagement.
Post frequently
Another crucial step towards gaining epic engagement is by posting regularly on every platform you are on.
You shouldn’t only post when you have newly available content on your social media profile and then post nothing for months. It is crucial to have a consistent posting schedule.
Posting frequently enables you to remain at the top of your target audience's minds. It also helps the algorithm in these social media platforms find and favor your content more.
Your post will start to show up far more frequently on people's news feeds, whether they are potential or existing followers.
Automation tools are excellent for ensuring that your social media profiles are posting consistently.
They allow you to set aside time to schedule several posts at the start or end of the week or month. Best of all, it empowers you to have more free time to engage with your users daily.
Missinglettrprovides you with a calendar that enables you to schedule your post months in advance. You can also review any drip campaigns you start up and keep track of your curated content. All of this can be done in a single, intuitive calendar.
Remain topical
There are going to be days when you're not sure what to post about. If that’s the case, consider joining a conversation that is already occurring.
Comment on any currency events or trends that tie back to your brand. It provides you with a chance to connect with your audience conveniently.
Any trending event, massive sporting event, holidays, or viral memes are excellent opportunities to post something.
Drive conversation
Conversation can be a skill that some people have an issue getting a handle on. However, it is an essential skill when you are engaging with your audience online. As a brand, you need to practice engaging back and forth with your audience.
You need to react to the conversation that flows in your direction, such as incoming mentions, comments, or direct messages.
However, you also need to be proactive in these conversations. Take the time to start up conversations with individuals who are speaking about your brand. However, these messages don’t need to be DM’s. It could be them speaking up publicly or making a comment on someone else's posts that follows you.
Sometimes your audience may misspell your brand in these hashtags, so you should take note of those misspellings. It offers you a chance to reach out to those customers to correct them and start a conversation with them.
If your company has a Hashtag associated with your brand, you could easily catch the conversation stirred up by your target audience.
That way, you can easily insert yourself in a conversation with your audience and even help with any issues they may have with your product or services.
Conclusion
Social media engagement is the driving force behind any successful social media marketing strategy. If you want to grow your social media presence and boost your brand awareness, you need to ensure you continue engaging with your audience frequently.
Use this guide to maximize your social media engagement on a whole new level.
If you need extra help staying on top of your engagement, check out our platform.
