You probably know the value of social media engagement and the positive impact that comes with it. You’re getting content out there and seeing an increase in your business’s website traffic. However, finding the time to plan social media content can be a challenge for business owners.
Each post created for your business’s social media accounts should be crafted with care. If bland or repetitive, your audience will skip your updates. But, if you’re consistently staying on top of social media trends and sharing unique and engaging content, your followers will be more likely to pay attention to your brand. They will also be more likely to share it.
What is social media engagement?
Social media engagement is a measure of how people interact with your content. The number of interactions your social media posts receive can help you see if followers are actively engaged with your posts. This includes likes, comments, replies, retweets, saves, mentions, clicks, time spent scrolling, and so on.
While size of audience is one component of measuring social media engagement, your first priority shouldn’t be reaching a certain number of followers. People will find your brand if your content is engaging.
Why social media matters for business
According to Statista, 3.6 billion people are active on social media. They spend an average of 144 minutes per day scrolling through their timelines. With the fastest-growing reason for creating social media accounts is “finding funny and entertaining” content, you can be confident by giving followers exactly what they’re looking for.
Social media can provide entertainment value for your followers, help your business gain traction, and encourage an increase in sales or appointments.
How do I boost engagement?
Knowing the value of audience engagement is the first step to making necessary changes to your online marketing strategy. If you’re looking for ways to really boost interaction, we’ve listed a few tips here that might help.
- Know your audience. Once you know who your followers are and what they are looking for, it is much easier to recognize the type of content you should publish. Data is key. It can help you determine who your messages are reaching and how you should tailor it to exceed their expectations. Audience analysis can also help you understand what steps your business must take to guide customers toward a preferred action. For example, this can be making a purchase or signing up for your business’s monthly newsletter.
- Write strong captions. Captions can make or break a social media post. In order to boost engagement, you must first set an intention behind every message. Unless you are asking your followers questions, encouraging them to take an action or start a conversation, you can expect little to no interaction. When it comes to social media captions, put yourself in your followers’ position. Objectively, is this interesting? Would I stop scrolling to view/watch/interact? Does the visual complement the caption appropriately? If no, keep editing.
- Create a variety of content. Next, consider the variety of your content. Do your business platforms look like one big collage made up of similar graphics and photos? Alternating between posting social media polls, questions, stories, reels, videos, graphics, and photos can add variety to your business accounts. This helps keep your followers on their toes. Training your marketing staff on how to manage certain aspects of your business’s social media accounts might help when it comes to creating new content.
- Take the time to respond to comments. Responding to comments or replies shows your audience that you’re paying attention to their needs. Whether the comments include praise, feedback, or criticism, reputation management is a crucial part of engagement. People want to know that what they have to say about a brand is heard. Pro tip: create automatic replies for frequently asked questions. This will cut down on the time you spend replying with hours, directions, or other essential information.
- Schedule your social media posts. Planning your posts in a scheduling tool ensures that you reach your audience at the best time of day. The result is that you will still have plenty of time left to engage with your customers. Using social media scheduling tools can help you efficiently execute your social media strategies and ensure that your brand messages are being heard.
Need help boosting your business’s social media engagement? We can provide help with social media content calendars, visual design, scheduling, management of social accounts, and even digital ads. Contact us – we look forward to hearing from you.
