There are over three billion social network users in the world. A few years ago, you could create a successful social media marketing strategy with practically no budget. If you were present, you’d be seen – right?
Unfortunately, organic Facebook reach is a thing of the past, which is bad news for advertisers. The change has been so large over the last couple of years that some people have questioned what the point in organic posting is anymore. The truth is, it’s hard to get your posts seen without paying for them to be promoted. Other platforms have already begun following in Facebook’s footsteps. This means that companies will have to pay Facebook more to show their ads on people’s news feed.
A lot has changed in the last few years, especially when it comes to social media advertising. Your strategy can no longer be about existence. Brands must invest themselves in the world of social media and devote time towards their strategy to generate engagement. Otherwise, you may be losing out on authentic, genuine customers.
What can you do to improve your social media engagement?
– Analyse your target audience
It’s easy to get carried away with posting content which your target audience won’t necessarily enjoy or engage with. Finding the balance between being engaging and relating to your brand is vital, and the only way to do this successfully is to find out exactly who your audience is. Their attitudes, opinions and beliefs can reveal more than you think.
– Don’t just create engaging content, post other people’s
It takes a lot of time and resources to post your own content regularly online – making sure it’s engaging is even harder. This may not be cost-effective for your business. A great way to overcome this is to utilise other content; This could be sharing posts on Facebook, posting to Instagram, or retweeting on Twitter. If it stimulates your target audience’s thoughts and lead them to create good connotations with your brand, it’s worth posting! Make sure you always credit the original creator, and avoid spamming your target audience with an overload of posts.
– Engage with customers when they are in a comfortable state
Engaging with people when they are the most receptive and in a manner they are comfortable with will do you favours without you having to do much. For example, people will be interacting in a different way on Twitter thank they will on Instagram. Get to know your consumers’ tone on different platforms, because they may not be comfortable communicating on LinkedIn in the same way they do on Facebook. This is because people use different platforms for different things, and what may work well on one social network may not work on another.
– Present yourself as the solution to their problem
Offering practical solutions to your users’ problems will create engagement and has the potential to spread your brand through word-of-mouth. The more ingenious your solutions, the higher the engagement you will achieve. In an ideal situation, people will share your solution with others who are experiencing the same problems. This also improves your brand image, to make you seem helpful and invaluable to the consumer.
– The power of images and videos
Be visual and allow yourself to get noticed on a busy timeline or news feed. It’s one of the most powerful tools you can use: research has shown images can result in an 85% interaction rate on Facebook and increases retweets by 35% on Twitter. Your audience will engage with pictures and videos far more than a simple text post because it catches the eye.
– Allow people to reminisce, or excite them for times ahead
Enticing people to feel nostalgic can be very effective, as reminiscing the ‘good old days’ can bring back fond memories. Sharing a picture which can trigger this response in people will not only leave them feeling sentimental about your brand, they may feel eager to share their own similar experiences.
Another way to provoke a positive response from people is to use a seasonal approach. Whether it’s Christmas, Valentine’s day, summer or even just the weekend, excitement provokes positive emotion towards your brand.
– Respond to people
Be active, consistent and interact directly with your audience. Reply to comments. This will help build a long-term, meaningful relationship with your audience. By creating a conversation, your brand image will be affected whether that’s positively or not. If you’re using a copy-and-paste reply, you’re just telling your audience that they aren’t important enough for a genuine response. Plastering this message all over your social media platforms isn’t a good look. Creating conversation also generates organic reach, so you’ll be beating the algorithm, and probably saving yourself money!
– Ask questions
This could be in the form of Twitter polls, Facebook votes, asking for opinions on LinkedIn, asking for advice on Instagram or literally anything which will entice your audience to interact with you. You can ask questions that will benefit your research or business in other areas too, such as what people would prefer to buy/engage with. The possibilities are endless.
– Reward people for their engagement
Competitions or giveaways are great because people love free stuff. You should take advantage of this, not only to create engagement – but to grow your platforms. One of the most common but effective ways of doing this is asking people to like or share your page to be in with a chance to win something in return. Make sure you include a high-quality video or image to make your post more striking to the eye.
Why do we believe engagement on social media is so important?
Customer relationship is vital considering the competition most industries offer these days. It is also important to keep your current customer base interested in your brand and make sure you remain at the front of their mind. Consequently, this will increase your brand reputation, and your brand will continue to spread through word-of-mouth.
It also helps massively with customer dilemmas and complaints, and again, makes your brand more reputable. If customers can get hold of you quickly, problems can be solved easily. This means fewer negative reviews. Getting back to complaints and showing you genuinely care about your customers looks great on your company.
Producing social media content allows you to measure the success of your posts. You may not achieve your desired engagement goal on every post; however, it will be quick and easy to find out what works and what doesn’t. This then acts as a guide for future content, which will trigger more successful posts.
What are you waiting for? Here at Brandshare, we have become experts in this new and developing industry. We have achieved astonishing organic, sustainable growth for a variety of brands. If you are interested in generating immense social media reach and engagement, please give us a call on 01276 858 880 or go here to find out more.
