[Infographic] Social-Media: An Effective Guide To Increase Engagement
Why go Social?
Social media is beginning to take its rightful throne in the world of marketing as for many businesses it’s the key catalyst for brand growth. If done right, it’s domino-effect can create waves of positivity for many businesses to boost brand awareness and increase conversions to improve company profits.
Promoting your brand through social media is therefore vital to businesses, but getting your content on these channels isn’t what gets you the sales. The key to becoming a successful social media user is in the engagement. Follow these top tips for increasing social media engagement below to achieve business growth:
Be Active and Consistent
The biggest key to social media engagement success is to build long-term, meaningful relationships with your audience.
Hacking and “viralizing” your content isn’t going to cut it anymore – what audiences really crave is responsive conversation, interaction that they know will make a difference.
The problem companies face is that while up to 65% of brands have adopted social media, their engagement efforts have generally only been one-way – they’re using social as a bullhorn, rather than the walkie-talkie its designed to be.
Social media care is one of the most effective forms of new marketing, which means that if brands don’t respond to comments or messages, their real response is, “We don’t really care that much about you.”
The solution? Genuinely engage in conversations with your audience.
If done well, this can lead to a cascade effect, increasing your post’s organic reach and visibility on news feeds, which then leads to even higher engagement rates, and so on.
Respond quickly and consistently to as many comments as possible, and never use cut-and-paste responses. Standard answers are acceptable for private messages, but don’t look flattering when plastered one after another on public comments.
Acknowledge People Publicly on Social Media
Sometimes, people dismiss their acts of kindness towards others; (“little things”) without appreciating their worth. So much so that when a colleague or business partner says “Thank You”, the immediate reaction is to recoil as if you did not deserve the accolade.
A much better option is to acknowledge the other person with a simple “You’re Welcome” and a smile. Not only are you making people feel appreciated again, but you are likely to benefit from a favorable act in the future.
Recognizing people publicly on social media can go a long way towards building a relationship and getting them to know, like, and trust you.
Ask for Feedback and Reviews
Need to conduct a focus group? You have the best pool of candidates right at your fingertips.
Ask your followers for feedback on your product or service, and respond to each of their comments (especially the negative ones).
Strike up a conversation about a trending topic and ask them what questions they would like to see answered in the next blog post or webinar.
Ask them how they tackle certain challenges or what was their best experience with regards to a certain product or platform (great for some under the radar UX research). The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to come up with great questions and better content. Social media engagement needs to move beyond eliciting likes, shares and emojis to making real connections with consumers.
Alternatively, set up a poll just for fun. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all have built-in poll functions for you.
Recognize your Fans and Post User-generated Content
There are clear benefits to using user-generated content for campaigns, the most significant of which being the increase in social media engagement rates.
Fans appreciate being recognized by their favorite brands, and reposting user-generated content is a great way to strengthen your community and include your customers in the conversation.
Make your Posts Visual
Just like emoticons, images and videos are also great additions to add to social media posts and marketing content in general. These act to create a more appealing post that users will want to read, but it also caters to those of different browsing styles who may disregard plain text posts altogether. Including an image, GIF or short video into your social posts can make it attractive to all types of users and also increase the accessibility of the posts.
Power of Suggestion: Always include a Great Call-to-Action
Be sure to tell your audience what you want them to do at the end of every post. Ask them a question that they can answer in the comments. Tell them to visit the link in your post. When you tell your audience what you want from them, they are more likely to act upon it.
Final Thoughts
Modern entrepreneurship demands that people use every tool at their disposal. Yet today’s smartphone technology and social media platforms offer oceans of information ripe for the taking.
Social media marketing and engagement will continue to be a vital component for business branding, establishing individual credibility, and growing expert status. There are a number of simple techniques you can use to enhance your business profile, and thus make your activities appear more real to potential customers and subscribers.
