If you use social media and/or content marketing to promote your business or boost your sales, you might have noticed a dip in engagement over recent months. Social media algorithms are changing all the time and it can be really frustrating to try and stay on top of it.
It can take a long time to create an engaged following on any social media platform. By creating this engaged following, you know you have a community of loyal people who like and use your products or services. But if this large following can’t see your stuff, then what’s the point? You are wasting time, effort and resources if you’re creating quality content in the form of blog posts, videos, guides and brochures when there isn’t an audience there to read it.
Social media engagement determines how successful content marketers are and will eventually help with lead generation and hopefully increased sales. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat are changing their algorithms constantly and it is becoming harder and harder to be seen online than ever before.
We have come up with our top ten tips to keep your audience engaged on social media and build a loyal community of fans to interact with your brand.
Produce, post, share and comment on video content, every dayÂ
Video content gets priority over any other post on social media platforms. The more you produce, or the more you interact with other forms of video content, the better chance you have of appearing on people’s timelines. If you do it every day, you’ll soon notice an increase in your engagement.
Spend time consistently on the platform and use all the features which are available to you
You mightn’t believe it, but experts have said the current algorithm on Instagram needs to get to know you so that it can work FOR you. Despite many businesses and marketers complaining in recent months of Instagram punishing them and not letting their followers see their posts, apparently, the more you post, interact and engage with your following, the more chance you have of being seen.
This goes for all platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. If you designate some time every day to spending time on social media, replying to comments and interacting with followers, it should have a positive effect on your engagement levels soon enough.
Use hashtags
Use hashtags on all social media platforms to enhance your reach and attract the attention of potential new followers. Spend some time researching the most commonly searched hashtags and use them, along with some specific and general hashtags relating to your business and your clients etc.
Post, watch and engage with stories
Don’t forget about the story feature on all your social media platforms. If you haven’t already, check out our recent blog post all about social media stories and why you shouldn’t forget about them.
Post relevant and exciting footage of behind the scenes, demo posts or get-to-know the boss style short videos to really interact with your following.
Interact with your followers and those accounts that you follow
The more you interact with your followers, the more your posts will appear in their home feeds. You should also interact with the accounts you follow daily with comments and likes.
Respond to every message, as quickly as possible
Never ignore your followers and if they send you a private message, you should try to reply as soon as possible. On some of your social media pages, such as Facebook, people can see how quickly you respond to messages. If the response rate is low, this might put them off sending you a message if they have a query, and you could lose out on a potential lead.
Collaborate and ‘shout-out’ similar accounts
Share other posts from accounts you follow and tell your followers why you liked this post and how it relates to your business. By collaborating and giving other accounts a ‘shout-out’, they might do the same back for your and re-post your content, which is always good in the world of social media.
Use the 5-3-2 combo
Comment on five accounts you follow, share three posts from others and create two original posts every day. Experts have said that by following the 5-3-2 strategy, you’ll see a higher level of engagement from your followers.
There are lots of strategies like this for social media engagement. You should research which one would work best for your company or clients and create a social media strategy until you start to see real results.
Schedule your posts for the best time of the day
Every platform has certain times of the day when their users are most active. You can schedule your posts to appear on these platforms when most of your following is online. By using analytical tools, you can check when your followers like to scroll through Facebook or Instagram etc, and you will know what the best time would be to target them.
Use your headlines strategically
Using emotional or strategic headlines is really important to increase shares and click-through rates. By writing something interesting and emotive, such as ‘How to improve (something) so you will feel like a (something)’, will interest people and get them wanting to know more about the piece of content.
