In a time when so many people use social media to follow pages of their favorite news, product, brand, etc., it’s important to drive engagement on your posts so that yours is seen by as many people as possible. The more engagement your post gets = the more likely they are to see a post by your page in the future. The more people that see your posts = more people being directed to your website or page. And no matter your business goals, you probably have positive benefits from having people driven back to your website or page, right?
Right! So let’s talk about how you can increase engagement this year.
- Know your audience and create a social media style guide. A social media style guide defines various aspects of how you will present your brand on your various social media channels. It helps you maintain consistency through the creation of a social media vision statement, audience summary, brand voice, style standards, use of hashtags per social channel, etc. Check your analytics to see a general idea of your audience demographic. Test a new tone: Don’t be afraid to vary your voice and test a new tone to see if something else works better. Let engagement be the gauge of what works.
- Post current and relevant content. Consider tapping into trending topics and doing event-based marketing on social. And don’t be afraid to share other brands’/people’s posts that are relevant to your values and voice. But don’t be a robot, that shouldn’t be the only type of content you share.
- Cross-promote your accounts. If someone follows you on one social media outlet, who’s to say they won’t want to follow you on another?
- Tailor posts related to holidays and events. These holidays and events become a great conversation starter and promote engagement that you might not have had otherwise.
- Ask questions! People love to answer questions, give advice, and give their opinions. The new algorithm on Facebook prioritizes active interactions like commenting and sharing over likes and click-throughs. Use polls and other similar features on Facebook and Instagram.
- Time it right. Post when your followers are most active. From your Facebook page go to insights -> posts -> when your fans are online. Also, if your Instagram is a business profile (if it’s not, maybe it should) or has over 10,000 followers you can check under insights -> audience.
- Be active and consistent. In relation to responding to comments and messages and how often you post. The biggest key to social media engagement success is to build long-term, meaningful relationships with your audience. Your followers are more likely to continue engaging with your page if you are consistent with how often you post and if you respond to your audience.
- Use Wit and Humor. People use social media to be entertained; not to be sold to. If all of your social media posts are overly promotional you might end up losing your audience’s attention. Instead, use humor regularly in your posts to entertain your followers and increase social media engagement.
- Feature Fans and Customers. One of the most effective ways to increase social media engagement is to feature your customers and turn them into brand advocates. Remember to get permission to use someone else’s content. Also, use contests to promote your brand, increase engagement, gain trust, and recruit people who use and/or recommend your brand.
- Post videos. Longer videos with higher completion rates will be ranked higher on newsfeeds. Live videos do especially well because they promote the most engagement. They get 3x as many views as a regular video. Check out this article for tips directly from Facebook on live videos.
- Use stories! They’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Tips for Instagram stories & Tips for Facebook stories.
Stay up to date on social media trends or ask me something, let’s engage! Follow me on Twitter @andrea_stegman and our club @ad2madison.
