In this digitally focused day and age, all businesses need to maintain a social media presence. Social media has changed how we communicate, share information, learn, research and engage with the world.
As of last year, Facebook has over 2.93 billion active monthly users, Instagram has 2.35 billion monthly users and TikTok is now reporting just over 1 billion monthly users. The potential reach for businesses on social media far exceeds any newspaper advert, television commercial or billboard that traditional marketing could provide. With monthly stats like that, businesses can’t afford to ignore their social media engagement strategy.
Why is Engagement so important?
Social media strategies for businesses can focus on multiple areas from growth to conversion. And while these elements play a critical role in a business’s marketing strategy, engagement is key to a high-performing social media marketing strategy.
Boosting an account’s engagement with its ideal audience will boost all the content in the algorithm for that audience and lookalike audiences. This means that content designed to create engagement can bring new customers in, boost the reach and brand awareness, and increase the impressions of the consideration campaigns and conversion campaigns for that brand.
Engagement doesn’t just boost the brand account and its marketing efforts, it also fosters strong relationships with the customer base. An engaged customer base on social media can become brand fanatics, loyal to the brand for years to come, which of course is the dream for businesses everywhere.
How do you boost engagement?
Engagement is important, but sometimes it can lose among the consideration campaigns, brand education and conversion campaigns. If you’re looking to shift your focus to engagement and supercharge your social media strategy, try out these tips.
Create a group
Gather your most loyal followers and regular customers in a Facebook group. Share additional tips and information, tell them about upcoming product launches or sales first, and offer up the space to ask questions. One of the biggest advantages of groups is that when you post in a group it sends a notification to members that there’s a new post there, you don’t get that with any normal social media feed.
This group can act as your own ready-made focus group, you can ask questions about your product and engage your customers in a semi-private space where they can be honest. It also fosters a closer relationship between these high-profile customers and the brand.
Get Social on your Socials
It might sound simple, but it is one of the hardest parts of managing social media. A brand account needs to maintain a consistent personality and tone and get social with other accounts.
Before posting content and after it goes out, you need to be on the brand account reaching out to similar accounts in your niche and responding to their content with authentic comments.
Craft your social media content and copy with engagement in mind, ask your followers for feedback, and ask questions. Or tug on those heartstrings occasionally, talk about struggles the business has had, and find relatable problems your product solves. Remember when manipulating emotional responses on social media always do this in good taste and with authenticity.
You need to be answering questions, comments and DMs as they come in once your content goes out. It’s also important to build online relationships with your customers, affiliates and influencers in your niche. You need to actually engage with their content and offer genuine responses not just hollow one-word comments like “Love this”.
Go live
Going live is a great way to engage with your following, you can do it once a week if you have the time or limit it to important announcements. It’s a great idea to make lives an actual event, tell your email list, tell your followers on both platforms, create an event page, and do reminders, all of this can increase the likelihood of people watching when you go live.
Plan out your lives, if you’re not making a special announcement offer something of value, and do a Q and A with your audience. Show them how to do something connected with your niche or product or interview someone about your industry. Whatever you do in your life, keep it interesting and relevant to your niche.
Consistency
Create consistency and your audience will know where and when to show up. Post on specific days at specific times and even post similar content on similar days. Not only is this great for working with the algorithm, but it can also be a great way to train your audience to show up at a specific time to engage with your content.
Give them what they want
There was a time when brands had to recruit people to do extensive market research to understand what their customers wanted. These days you can tweet at a brand if you don’t like their packaging. Brands shouldn’t be hoping to change at every little whim of their client base, but they should be taking it into consideration.
And when it comes to your content, your customers and followers’ feedback is key. Look at what they respond best to, and look at the questions that get asked consistently, this can show you valuable content that you can create. Whether it’s a response Reel on Instagram to a recurring comment or a how-to guide in a carousel post or story set, crafting content that directly responds to your followers is a surefire way to boost your engagement.
Final Thoughts
Social Media Engagement is a crucial component in any business’s marketing strategy, following these tips can help you build your account, boost your engagement and take those followers to customers and then brand fanatics.
