Social media platforms have become almost mandatory to increase sales and better customer relationships. To use social media effectively, and to your advantage, you must ensure actual engagement between yourself and your target audience takes place. Mostly, social media is about using content creation and thought-provoking statements to engage your target audience, with minimal efforts of obvious sales-pitches for your business.
You might be wondering how to engage your target audience. To engage effectively and thoughtfully, you must know your audience and understand their needs. What do they need to know? What do they find interesting? Why are they even following your social media in the first place? Understanding your audience is the number one rule of social engagement. They’ve followed your social media for a reason and now it is your job to get them to stick around.
Once you’ve researched and gotten to know your followers, provide them something they need. You want to provide such newsworthy and relevant content that your followers go to your social media to keep in the loop of their industry. Simply ask yourself, what would you want to know if you were the CEO of your followers’ businesses. The goal of your business-related followers is to increase sales, help them do just that and become an asset for them.
When posting content, think of a question to ask your audience. Asking questions of your audience will garner responses and start the conversation. Be careful, this rule is a bit tricky, however. Simply asking a question won’t get your engagement juices flowing. You need to ask a thought-provoking and open-ended question to get your audience involved. Be sure the content, from which you’ve birthed your question, is interesting to your audience – or else they won’t bother to even read it (this goes back to knowing your audience, know what they most likely want to hear and not hear).
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, give your social media a personality. No one likes to communicate with a robot through the screen, and in the same token, no one likes to hear a response to a statement made three months ago. Your audience wants to know you’re a real human being with real thoughts and interests. Ensure appropriate timing in your responses to your followers. Be sure to post content regularly to keep your social media alive. Developing a personality should be the most important rule you focus on when hoping to engage your audience. Be a likeable person, be a real human being behind the keyboard, and provide specific and appropriate responses to your audience.
Refer to my 4 rules of social engagement below for a quick look back on how to engage.
