When it comes to developing a positive brand image, reaching more people online, and staying relevant, there is no better tool than social media.
From big platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to more business oriented social media like LinkedIn, there is a social media platform for almost everything and everyone.
Getting people interested in your business and willing to engage with it online is a great way to build up your reputation and increase your overall sales, leads, and influence.
If you’re struggling to build a social media following, not getting enough attention on social media, or just struggling to manage your social media, check out these tips for increasing social media engagement.
Get A Baseline
Increasing your social media engagement starts with knowing where you stand to gain and what your current baseline is for engagement.
Social media engagement is the measurement of how engaged your audience of followers is with your business on social media – typically by the number of comments, likes, and shares on your social media posts.
Some businesses may also include the number of followers they have as a total metric of success on social media, but the number of followers is not typically a good indicator of engagement. Many people may follow a page or business, but never interact with it online.
Once you have a baseline, set realistic goals for increasing social media engagement and establish a plan for reaching those goals. Set out to get a certain number of likes or shares, increased number of followers, or other metrics.
A good way to set goals is to look at similar businesses within your industry and look at how fast they have grown and the number of followers they have.
Use Analytics
Determine who you are trying to attract, what type of engagement you want to receive, and discover how to best reach your goal through social media analytics.
There are several integrated analytics tools to help you measure existing engagement to get a baseline and figure out areas for improvement.
Most social media platforms have their own analytics, especially for businesses that choose to advertise. Analytics can tell you so much about your brand’s followers, target demographic, and other insights to help you boost engagement.
You can also use free and paid external analytics platforms to help guide your social media strategy.
Determine Which Metrics Matter
Once you have collected data on your current level of engagement, you can use that information to create a plan of action and optimize your social media strategy.
You may find that you have placed too much emphasis on certain aspects of increasing social media engagement and not enough on others.
Consider the number and consistency of:
- Post and page views
- Likes
- Shares
- New followers
- CTA clicks or landing page visits
- Other actions (website visits, purchases, etc.)
Determine which engagement actions matter most to you and what those actions convey. A social media management agency or consultant can help you figure out what story your current engagement analytics tell.
Create A Social Media Strategy
The most important aspect of increasing social media engagement is to create a social media strategy.
A robust social media strategy should include your target audience, posting frequency and type, and establish a post “voice” to use. In order to create interesting content, take a look at what posts have worked well for your business in the past and what has made competitors successful on social media.
Create a strategy based on your findings and learn to avoid posts that receive minimal engagement and don’t help build up your brand and customer relationships. If you are new to social media, you can see what competitors have done well and how you might be able to improve upon it in your strategy.
Time Posts Right
When it comes to social media, timing is everything.
Figure out when most of your followers or audience are online and post during that timeframe to encourage the most engagement with your posts.
If you are in the U.S., post when most people are awake and online. If you have a global business, post when most of your audience is online, even if you have to post twice or more per day to reach different audiences.
Each social media platform has general guidance on posting, based on research that other businesses have done, so you can experiment to determine when most of your followers and audience are online and responsive.
There are tools that allow you to schedule social media posts, so you and your team don’t have to be online 24/7 to meet your goal of increasing social media engagement.
Lean Into Automation
While the creative content you post should showcase your brand identity and be authentic, it’s also important to take advantage of modern social media tools and automation for posting and collecting information.
There are plenty of automated tools and features on the top social media platforms to adjust your posts, ad budget, posting time, and many other aspects of how you interact and post on social media.
Schedule social media posts, collect demographic data and analytics, and automatically adjust your ad spend or budget based on social media engagement and performance.
Several social media platforms allow you to schedule posts, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There are also many external tools for collecting data and automating posts to fit your strategy for increasing social media engagement.
Maintain Authentic & Consistent Brand Voice
One of the most important aspects of increasing social media engagement is how your audience perceives and resonates with your brand. Increasing social media engagement depends on how well you find and use your brand voice.
While every business will require a different strategy to connect with their audience and promote engagement, it’s a good idea to use the same language as your key demographic of followers and customers.
A company selling sneakers to skateboarders is going to have a different voice on social media compared to a luxury skincare brand or a workwear brand selling coats. If your brand is fun and young, comment on news that affects your demographic. Create posts with pop culture in mind.
If your brand is established and has a reputation for quality and innovation, comment on industry news and developments that your key demographic would be interested in learning more about.
If you’re a tech brand with new products or solutions rolling out, talk about the technologies behind them and stay active on relevant industry pages to pique the interest of potential customers.
Keep Things Relevant
For most businesses, social media is a chance to connect with customers, engage with followers, and keep up to date with what is happening in the world and in people’s lives.
It’s not enough to just be on social media. A business needs to give attention just as good as they expect to receive attention. Staying at the forefront of your industry and in the feeds of your target demographic keeps your brand relevant and on-topic.
Increasing social media engagement means providing value to your business’ followers, customers, and social media fans.
A good rule of thumb is to stay aware of industry trends and modern events. There should be a balance between posting content and commenting on other news and events.
It’s smart to comment on large events within your industry or post about news that affects your business or customers. Join the conversation when something happens and ask your audience for their opinion or input.
Keep A Calendar
While increasing social media engagement might seem simple, keeping track of all your planned posts across various social media platforms can become a lot to handle.
Create a social media calendar to help you stay on top of your posting schedule, but don’t be afraid to mix things up or add more posts when ideas or relevant events pop up.
It’s a good idea to plan posts for important holidays in your country and the countries that most of your customers or followers celebrate.
Strategically plan announcements to coincide with busy or off seasons, and reward follows, shares, and more through giveaways or other insider privileges. You may even find that some posts do better than others based on the day of the week or social media platform on the calendar.
Post Regularly
When it comes to increasing social media engagement, the more consistently you post content, images, and videos, the more people will interact with your business.
Your posting schedule will depend on your industry and the kind of engagement you want to elicit, along with the resources you have for posting content.
A good baseline is a minimum of post once per week up to several times per day, per social media platform. If you don’t already have a social media presence, it’s best to start out slow and then ramp up.
It’s a good idea to do a weekly post that engages people, such as a weekly poll, video, podcast, blog, or anything else that gives people something to look forward to and to engage with, along with daily posts to stay in people’s feed so they see your business.
Add Value And Be Unique
Increasing social media engagement means thinking outside of the box and creating unique value to followers and potential customers.
Don’t be afraid to showcase what sets your business apart from others – such as awards, reviews, creative, niche services, products, or industry-leading ideas.
Create unique and valuable content to share, including blogs, industry tips, how-to guides, and anything else to walk customers through a product or service. Help customers make informed decisions or let them know about a benefit or perk that they might not get elsewhere.
Share content and stories about your business or brand that set you apart from competition and draw people in to learn more.
Use High-Quality Images
One thing that all the largest social media platforms have in common is that people are much more likely to engage with good quality images. Using high quality images, graphics, and videos is one of the top tips for increasing social media engagement.
Whenever possible, use attractive photos and videos of real products or services. Short videos that tell a story are also a great way to boost engagement.
While content posts are good for building interest and engagement, photos should be used frequently as well – especially in links to blog posts or for short daily or weekly posts.
Images can be client submitted or images you take of your service, product, or as part of your brand. You can also purchase high-quality stock images from individuals or websites, if you need some images to get started on social media.
Engage With Posters
When it comes to increasing social media engagement, the more you respond, the more you can expect your followers to respond, like, share, comment, and connect with your business online.
Engage with posters by liking and responding to comments, posting polls, and occasionally engaging with other brands. Set standards for replying–including the type of comments you will leave, what is okay to say, and which topics to avoid.
It’s also a good idea to set some standard for replying to negative comments or posters that have an issue and are reaching out over social media.
Advertise On Social Media
Increasing social media engagement isn’t limited to organic posts and content. Many businesses choose to advertise to get new leads and encourage more engagement on social media.
Social media ads can also help you promote your business and get more traction on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Reddit.
Social media ads are a great way to promote brand awareness as well as showcase products and services you offer.
Be careful to include only ads that are relevant and add value – such as promotional offers or ads to differentiate your brand.
Get Expert Help from An Agency
Ultimately, increasing social media engagement is a marathon, not a sprint.
For a business that is new to social media or digital marketing, the best way forward is with the help of a professional.
Hire someone with the experience, knowledge, and resources to help you with increasing social media engagement and who will help you create a social media strategy.
Contact Jives Media to get started with a winning social media engagement strategy. Our social media marketing experts have the time and resources for increasing social media engagement with new and existing followers.
