Think social media is just about how many followers you have? Think again…
You could have 1,000 or 100,000,000 followers, but if these consumers aren’t engaging with your content, what good are they to your business?
After all, engagement is a crucial factor when it comes to beating Instagram and Facebook algorithms. If your engagement is low, Instagram and Facebook are not going to show your latest content to your followers.
The Instagram algorithm dictates the order of the posts that users see when they’re scrolling through their feed. Based on specific signals (the user’s likes, and the profiles they engage with the most), it prioritises posts, pushing the most relevant ones towards the top and giving them the most visibility, while other content ends up being placed further down in the user’s feed.
Facebook follows a similar premise: rather than publishing content chronologically, posts and ads are presented based on what Facebook sees as relevant to the user. But Facebook goes just that little bit further by centering content around the individual’s friends and family members, rather than prioritising content from businesses.
This is why encouraging engagement is key to social media success.
But social media engagement can seem elusive without the right guidance. Luckily, Relevance has all the tips to get your followers liking, sharing, commenting and messaging!
Here’s how to increase your social media engagement
Engage with your audience
Social media is all about being active and being social (hence the name); you need to engage with other accounts! Communicate with accounts that have a similar target audience to you, and most importantly, communicate with your existing audience. Remember social media was originally created for people, not brands. So be human and spark conversations; consumers will begin to connect with you.
Respond to comments and DM’s
Similar to engaging with your audience, you should make it an aim to respond to all your comments and DM’s (direct messages) within 24 hours to help build trust and your likability. The algorithms will also notice your timely engagements with your followers, and see this as your brand being actively social; it’ll help push that particular post to a wider audience.
Whether positive or negative, responding to consumers helps them connect with your brand on a personal level.
If a consumer does post a complaint, dealing with the negativity in a timely, well-thought-out manner can reverse the effect.
According to Sprout Social, if a consumer posts a complaint and a brand responds well to it, 45 percent of them will post about that positive experience on social media. 37 percent will share it with friends elsewhere online, 37 percent will buy from that brand again, and 36 percent will share it with their friends offline.
Use polls
Using the Poll feature in your Instagram Stories, or adding a poll to your posts allows you to get feedback from your audience, making them feel like their input is valuable, thus building a stronger relationship.
Consumers love to feel listened to and valued. Showing you care about your consumers’ opinions and value their feedback will result in an increase in brand loyalty. Not only this, but using polls encourages users to engage with your post, showing the algorithms that your post is valuable content and thus pushing it to a wider audience.
Show your face
Humans don’t relate to businesses, but they do relate to other humans. To boost that social media engagement, it’s time to inject the relatable side of you. Go behind-the-scenes: show the people in your team, or take a sneak peek into the creation process of your products or services.
Showing the relatable side of your business will help users feel more relaxed and comfortable talking to your brand, thus increasing your engagement.
Share your latest post on your story
Want to make sure your latest post is being seen by your audience? Share it to your story! Tell your audience to tap the image to go check out the post. A quick win when it comes to increasing the reach of your post.
Want your story to reach even further? Include the location sticker and multiple, relevant hashtags – change the hashtag text to the same colour as the image, reduce in size and hide in the story. -This will help your story reach the explore page for the hashtags and location used.
User-generated content
Take advantage of your brand’s user-generated content. It’ll delight your customers to have their images on your feed and show authenticity to your brand.
This is a great, strategic technique for those whose audience shares images of their products on social media. Encourage your following to share their photos using a specific hashtag, and integrate these posts into your social media strategy and content plan.
Always remember to credit the user correctly.
Monitor your content
One post performs better than the other? Make a note and produce more content in line with your best performing posts… it’s obviously what your audience likes! Report on your social media efforts at least once a month and use the insights to influence your next month of content; this can help you continue to produce quality content your audience connects with.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to send your social media engagement through the roof. Facebook and Instagram can be the most effective tools in your digital marketing arsenal, if only you know how to use them. To learn more or speak to our social media experts, get in contact today.