An Ultimate Guide To Increase Social Media Engagement
You have a social media presence for your brand and you post on all your social media profiles. But with the passage of time, you notice that not many users engage and interact with your business.
If you are currently in a situation where you don’t know how to tackle social media engagement problems, then you are at the right place. In this post, we’ll discuss the best ways to increase engagement on social media.
Essentially, social media engagement is the amount of interaction your social posts get.
It helps you understand how your audience perceives your content and what response they give to it. Basically, engagement is the everyday actions people carry out on social media – comments, likes, shares, saves, reposts, and retweets.
When individuals engage with your content, it signals to the algorithm that your posts can be shown to more people.
Given the many benefits of having a strong social media engagement, modern brands with an online presence are always on the lookout for surefire ways to increase social media engagement.
Here’s a complete guide on how to boost social media engagement for businesses that will help companies and marketers alike. Let’s begin!
What is Social Media Engagement and Why Is it Important?
Social media engagement is the measurement of shares, likes, and comments that your content gets.
The different metrics that measure social media engagement include:
- Comments
- Click-throughs
- Likes
- Shares or retweets
- branded hashtag numbers
- Followers and audience growth
- Mentions (either untagged or tagged)
Now, let us ask you a question that will help you understand the importance of social media engagement.
Do you know what is the greatest measure of social media success?
No, it’s not just a big follower count. It is an “engaged audience.” You can leverage a highly engaged audience for revenue and long-term brand loyalty.
If you want to develop a positive brand experience, activity and engagement are extremely important for any social media channel.
An intentional social media engagement strategy also helps form connections and build valuable relationships with current and future customers.
In all, if a business has a solid social media engagement, this indicates that it is making an impact in the market. Apart from gaining popularity, the business is also getting a chance to boost its brand image and ROI.
How to Increase Social Media Engagement?
Social media engagement means a chance for your business to grow anytime someone interacts with your account.
Think about it.
When individuals interact with your business, it’s more likely that they will convert (e.g. signing up for a newsletter, purchasing your offerings, or trying your services).
Of course, you can’t simply sit and wait for your followers to interact with your business. You need to encourage them to do so. So, here are the best ways to increase engagement on social media!
1. Analyze Your Engagement
In order to measure your growth, you need to know where you are starting from. For this, you must note down these numbers:
- Your existing follower count.
- How many shares and comments you are getting per post (on average)?
- Other numbers you think are meaningful for your business.
Once you do this, you now need to keep a regular track of these numbers for any dips or jumps in engagement. Doing so will help you know what’s working and what’s not.
Tip: You can also choose social media analytics tools such as Google Analytics to do the math for you. It will help save loads of your time and effort.
2. Tweak Your Social Media Engagement Goals
It’s essential to have social media engagement goals because it helps you measure your success.
You can make tweaks to your existing goals or create new ones if necessary.
Just remember one thing while setting your objectives – Identify what works best for your business.
If your top priority is brand awareness, you may want to focus on producing social media engagement posts that appeal to new users. But if your priority becomes lead generation, you need to tweak your goal and concentrate more on converting your followers into leads.
3. Learn About Your Audience
It’s important to conduct audience research before you start engaging with them.
Understand what tone, language, and resources will resonate with your audience on social media. Let’s take an example to understand why you should do this.
A high-end jewelry brand will not use the same sort of language and tone on social media that a quick-service restaurant will.
Another reason we suggest that you get to know your audience first is that you will find out which social media platforms to use to interact with them. You will also get an idea about what type of content to share and when to publish your social media engagement posts.
4. Create and Post Valuable Content
Now that you have determined your goals and know who your audience is, you need to know what to tell them on social media.
Rewarding your fans with valuable content is an essential social media engagement strategy.
Take a look at some important points that can help you in this regard:
- Produce and post high-quality content that addresses the pain points and needs of your audience.
- When it comes to choosing the format, you should know what’s more effective on a particular social media platform. For instance, if you use Instagram for engagement, ensure you post artful photos to attract as well as interact with your target customers. Short form videos also work wonders on Instagram!
- In your posts, don’t just talk about what you have for sale or how great your brand is. Try to engage more with your audience by using talking points they like!
Tip: You can also use these ideas of social media engagement posts to get a little more creative:
- Polls
- Animated GIFs
- Contests
- An “Ask Us Anything” session
- Spotlighting customers
- Media upload contests
- Custom filters or stickers for Instagram stories
Listen Up: Here are some important social media statistics that can help you boost engagement on different social media channels:
- The best Facebook video length for improved engagement is between 2-5 minutes.
- Instagram posts with at least one hashtag provide 12.6% more engagement.
- Tweets with a GIF get 55% more engagement.
5. Post Consistently
The benefits of posting in a consistent manner cannot be emphasized enough. Here are some of the most important benefits of posting regularly:
- Your engagement remains strong
- You remain at the top of your followers’ mind
- You grow a loyal following
- You showcase professionalism and seriousness
- Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram algorithms favor your content, boosting your posts’ reach.
Your followers already see a lot of content in their feeds, so it’s best to post consistently so that you can grab as many eyeballs as you can.
Tip: So that you never run out of ideas and post in a consistent manner, check this video to learn how to multiply one piece of content and use it on different social media platforms:
6. Humanize Your Brand
Basically, humanizing your brand means getting personal in how you communicate with your leads, customers, or prospects.
Being human on social media lets you connect with your followers on an authentic level. It helps create a deeper connection with them.
Here are some of the steps you can take on social media to humanize your brand:
- Craft personalized posts. For instance, show off your team, office environment, and work culture.
- Share behind-the-scenes (BTS) anecdotes to show how your business works.
- Add humor in your content (but don’t change your brand style). You can infuse humor through reposts, funny posts, and memes.
7. Stay Topical
Sometimes you can run out of topic ideas to chat with your followers. On such days, you can join a conversation that’s already taking place. For instance, you can comment on trends or any current events. Just ensure you do so in a way that ties in with your brand.
Tip: You can also take advantage of a viral meme, a big sporting event, or even a holiday.
8. Create Live Videos
Live videos allow you to interact with your audience in real-time.
As per the latest statistics, 100 million users watch or launch live videos on Instagram on a daily basis.
You too can leverage these videos to create solid engagement with your followers. It’s the best way to directly connect with your audience and let them learn more about your business.
Here are the two most important tips to follow if you decide to create live videos:
- Make your live video around a subject (e.g. a tour of your company, a new product release, or even a simple Q&A).
- Advertise before you go live to excite and encourage your audience!
9. Use High-Quality Visuals
Your followers may already see a lot of content from other businesses on their social media feeds. You must take steps to instantly capture your followers’ attention to stand out from the rest. One such step is the use of high-quality visuals.
The type of visuals you can use include photos, infographics, videos, and GIFs. Share high-quality visual content with your followers as it appeals to people more than just simple lines of text.
Tip: If you have text in your post, incorporate a high-resolution, high-quality visual in it.
10. Reply to Your Audience
Responding to your audience is the easiest but the most overlooked way of boosting social media engagement.
Having conversations with your audience keeps them engaged with your business. Hence, we recommend that you don’t just post content and forget about it. Engage your followers in a conversation and start a dialogue with your brand. If people comment on your posts, don’t forget to comment back.
How to Measure Social Engagement?
Here’s platform-specific information on how to measure social media engagement:
1. Twitter
Engagement on Twitter falls into four categories, namely:
- Clicks on links associated with your tweets
- Retweets
- Mentions of your username
- Replies
To view Twitter Analytics, all you need to do is choose the Analytics tab, which is located on your Twitter profile. It’s also important to note that you need to set up a Twitter ad account to use this tool, although you don’t have to pay any amount for it.
Twitter Analytics helps you keep track of the engagement rate, the best social media posting time, link clicks, and reach percentage.
2. Facebook
To measure engagement on Facebook, you need to access Facebook Audience Insights. It helps you understand who your audience is, their activities, and their interests.
The Insights feature lets you see engagement and actions, reach and impressions, profile visits, and views.
3. Instagram
After you create an Instagram business account, you can access Instagram Insights. Here’s where you can view them:
When you tap on “Insights,” you will be able to see what your audience favors and engages with the most. It also tells you what your audience prefers, who they are, and what they do.
4. TikTok
If you have a pro account on Tiktok, you can access in-depth insights. You can see content statistics, profile views, and audience demographics.
Note: TikTok analytics can display the total count of your shared or saved videos. You can also check the total number of video clicks and whether people viewed the complete video or not.
Conclusion
Boosting your social media engagement can lead to an improved brand identity and successful business growth. Most importantly, it offers an incredible way to engage with the lifeblood of your business i.e. your customers.
Always look for effective ways to boost your social media engagement for rapid business growth and to build a solid reputation in the market. From posting consistently to creating valuable content, if you follow the tips we’ve discussed here, you can surely reap tremendous rewards in due time.
