What is Social Media Engagement?
Social media engagement has to do with several actions, such as a “comment” on Instagram, a “retweet” on Twitter, or a “like” on Facebook, amongst many others. It refers to any interaction your audience has with your social media content. This interaction shows you that you have posted something that appeals to them or something they can relate to.
The “Engagement rate” is a major tool for social media analysis. It can be calculated by dividing the engagement volume by the number of users that may have triggered the engagement. Simply put, take your average amount of “likes,” “retweets,” and “comments” add them together, and divide the sum by your follower amount. Another way to go about this is to find out if you have access to social media analytics. This will show you the percentage of engagement your social media channel receives. Pay close attention to the posts that receive the most engagement as these posts serve as a guideline for you to show you which posts your audience love, and with this information, you can create more posts just like these.
Why Is Social Media Engagement Important?
Did you know that in 2019, social media users surpassed the 3.5 billion mark? Did you also know that, according to Statista Research Department, users spend up to 135 minutes daily actively on social media? What’s more is that while a lot of people use social media to connect with people and share opinions, information, and news with one another, about 30% of users majorly use social media to follow up on brands to make findings and purchase products. What all of this means is that social media might just have become the most influential marketing space for many businesses out there. Businesses looking for a good platform to market their products and services, and increase brand awareness now have social media at their disposal.
Irrespective of whether you are on social media, the truth remains that your customers and potential audience are on these platforms, paying close attention to their social media accounts for two hours or more each day. By establishing a social media presence, building your following, and engaging your followers, you put your business out there and give your followers a reason to engage with your posts.
3 Advantages of Social Media Engagement
- Social Media Engagement Offers Social Evidence of Your Business.
Social media engagement solidifies your business’s online presence and shows followers and potential followers that your business has successfully carved out its own space and created a reputation in the social media world. This serves as a form of endorsement and spurs more people to follow you and also engage with your posts.
- Social Media Engagement Boosts Your Marketing Reach
With social media engagement, you are able to reach a wider audience. People and potential customers can engage with your posts from all over the world, accessing your goods and services, thus expanding your marketing reach.
- Social Media Engagement Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Forms of Marketing
With traditional marketing, for you to reach 100,000 audience, you’d have to print 100,000 flyers or more, causing you to spend a lot of money for so little reward. But with social media engagement, your posts could get to 300,000 fans, and interested customers from far and near, without you having to spend the same amount spent on the flyers. It is more cost-effective than traditional marketing.
5 Tips for Social Media Engagement
If you have been seeking ways to increase your social media engagement, or to increase your social media followers, then follow these 5 tips to increase your social media engagement:
1. Let Your Posts Revolve Around a Topic, Not Only Your Brand
One common mistake social media managers make is making all their posts about their brand and their goods or services. Naturally, your audience understands that you want to make more sales, but they also want to see you meeting their needs. They want to see posts that show that you understand their challenges, and that you relate with them on an intimate level. Your potential audience wants to feel like they can trust you with their problems, and eventually, with their money. This means that you have to frequently upload posts that talk about different topics related to your brand. This is one way to increase your social media engagement as it gives your audience a reason to engage with your posts.
2. Host Question & Answer Sessions
As aforementioned, your customers want to see you meeting their needs and answering major questions they might have. By hosting question and answer sessions, you show your customers that you are helpful and they can depend on you. The questions could be about your business, brand, products, services, or even the industry you are in. When your customers feel like they can trust you, not only will they engage, but they will purchase your products or demand for your services.
3. Share and Repost Other Posts
You should share other brands’ posts that have to do with what you have to offer, and also followers’ and customers’ posts. These posts have to be related to what your brand does. By sharing them, you create a personality about your brand that people want to love and be a part of. Your potential followers or followers who do not engage your posts soon begin to do so.
4. Use Influencers to Give Your Content More Visibility
If you know of any influencers who might be the perfect fit for your brand and what your brand has to offer, you can strike a deal with these influencers, where they share your posts, or create content for you and share with their followers, in exchange for a discount, or a freebie, as you desire. By asking popular individuals to promote your business, you boost your visibility and expand your audience reach. Since the influencer has built a community of people that trust them, your products and services are more likely to appeal to these people after the influencer has posted about them.
5. Give Your Words More Emotions
Your potential audience wants to feel like they are communicating with another human being with the same desires as they have. By giving your words more emotions, you make your posts more humane and relatable. This also means that you can make use of emojis in your posts, comments, and tweets.
Other ways to improve engagement on your social media channels include making your posts more visual through videos, e-flyers, images, GIFs, etc. Adding relevant hashtags to your posts also goes a long way in increasing your visibility and giving your brand more awareness. Create polls and surveys every once in a while, to know what your audience thinks of certain services or goods. This helps you find out what appeals to them and what complaints they have. Think of it as an efficient form of customer feedback.
Finally, be more about quality than quantity. While this may sound cliché, it definitely rings true. Do not be so focused on increasing your number of followers and engagement that you no longer pay attention to the quality of your posts or even the quality of your followers. You want to build a social media presence that can be trusted, and the best way to do this is by constantly improving the quality of your services and the quality of your posts.