Connor BrookeHow do you increase social media engagement?
Heard it said that engagement is the currency of social media. How do you keep your fans/followers engaged?
Before going further let us make sure that we are on the same page when we talk about engagement.
Let’s go!
Social Media Engagement Defined
Engagement doesn’t mean x amount of time you spend on Facebook, Google+, Twitter or other social media platforms. It’s not that.
According to wiki:
Social engagement refers to one’s degree of participation in a community or society.
Engagement in social media is an action that is performed by your followers/fans when they come across your post, or tweet.
Some Examples of Social Media Engagement
Engagement may include any or a combination of the following. (Please note that these are just some of the many types of social media engagement).
- Retweet (RT)
- Favorite
- Mention of your handle
- Click to a link you shared (though they didn’t leave a comment)
- Share
- Comment/Mention
- Review
- Like or +1 a post, or give it a heart if you’re on IG
Ways to Entice Engagement
I was asked a question recently on how a business should keep their fans/followers engaged. I replied with a couple of questions and one of them is this: “What are they posting?” I didn’t bother looking at the page because I had a hunch that I already knew the answer.
There are many factors that could influence engagement and one of them would be the types of content you share and how you share it based on information you have gathered about your audience or fans.
The examples below are what I’ve learned and observed over the past 5 years of doing social media for business. I would recommend that you experiment on either of these. Repeat what works; discard what does not.
- Ask a question with either yes or no answer or multiple choice answer.
You have smart social consumers but time is not what they have. - Ask a no-fail question.
Don’t make engagement hard for them. Ask very easy questions. - Type of posts that would need only one word as an answer.
Some don’t answer in just one word, right? It doesn’t matter! There’s engagement. - “Caption this” type of posts.
Do you see this done online? By the way, make sure that the image is yours; if not, that you have permission to use it. - Ease up on “buy-me” posts.
Practice the 80-20 rule. Meaning that 80% of your posts should be about your followers; 20% about you. There are many “rules” that others have created. It really does not matter which one you follow. The crux of the matter is to simply not talk about your product or business too often. In real life, no one wants to be friends with someone who talks on nothing and no one but his/herself. Have you met this type of person in your life? I bet you have. - Ask for help.
People like to help. Ask for help when you genuinely need help. I have done this a couple of times. In fact, one of the infographics I am working on for next post is a result of that. I got help and I have engagement. - Inspire your fans/followers. Share motivational quotes.
Who doesn’t love motivational quotes? People love to be inspired, to be encouraged and to be empowered. Sometimes, that positive quote may be the only encouragement that a small business owner (or anyone) reads in a day. Need nice templates to use for your quotes? Feel fee to use my non-branded files. It’s yours for free.
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This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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I see 7 ways to increase social media engagement, where are the other 8?
Thanks for your feedback Alex. I truly am very surprised. My ORIGINAL post lists 15. http://socialsuccessmarketing.com/social-media-engagement-free/