To get more engagement in social media, one has to really be an icon of something, be the best in something, the pinnacle of something. This has been true for the last couple of years. With the surge of free internet usage around the globe, people can now become Social Media Stars.
These lucky few have been blessed with the knowledge, the status and even the aesthetics to become as such. Gorgeous content, great writing, and, sometimes, the over-the-top executions of social activities like parties, travel, and even the infamous selfies. Almost every one of us now, most especially the millennial generation, has at least 3 or 4 active social media accounts; but only a few get those 10,000 double taps, 10,000 post views, or even 10,000 retweets, or even the buzzing 10,000 page views in a day.
Social media engagement is one way to quantify your online success as a brand, identity or even a business. Properly driving traffic and even timely content postings are just some way to keep those numbers going, getting you more engagement on social media.
But how do they do it?
Personal conversations to get more engagement on social media
For those who are using social media platforms that allow you to converse with someone in an instant, please do so. If you are still on your way to the top, talking to people within the niche you are in is a great way to kick-start your engagement numbers. Being personal and connecting with them genuinely, even reaching out to businesses you have been admiring from a distance, can greatly help you out to get more engagement on social media. If you already have a business and have a solid following, chat with them from time to time and see how they are doing and if your products have been satisfying their needs or if they have some feedback they would like to express but feel embarrassed about.
One-on-one conversations, with a strong focus on an interaction of great quality, can get more engagement on social media. By giving time to react to a follower’s comment on your post will make them more engaged in the process of it all, plus, you’ll have more fun too because you are able to build stronger connections with them on the get-go.
Some would just result to “batch and blast” their followers on their accounts, hoping that this can help push the numbers up. But on the contrary, it actually decreases any activity or post engagement because their followers would feel that the host is simply ‘good enough’.
Never “Batch and Blast”
As said in the previous item, “batch and blast” is a lazy attempt to get more engagement on social media. Its purpose is to post the content – theme, format, headline and everything in between – on different social media accounts all in one go. Though this is very convenient and such a tempting way of posting your contents, this is actually giving your accounts adverse effect. Instead of gaining more engagements, followers tend to ignore 4 out of 5 accounts, which leave you with only a single engagement per person per account.
Although it’s pretty time consuming and labor intensive, creating unique content for each of your platforms can be the move you can do to get more engagement on social media. To really get the best out of each account, you should understand that each platform acts and engages differently because of the culture of users found within them.
Facebook is more casual and in-depth while Twitter is more into quick gabs and instant attention-grabbing. Instagram deals more with the aesthetic of the content while Google+ goes to a more serious written agenda. All of these accounts have strong strengths and quivering weakness. Taking time to formulate the perfect headline, and in some cases, hashtags can go a long way. This shows your followers that you are dedicated to satisfying their online hunger for great content, day in and day out, without the slightest bit of laziness or mediocrity.
Analyze your data
Unless you’re still new on social media, your accounts have a goldmine of information you can use to get more engagement. Determine which content was your best received and which was the worst one. This gives you a hindsight and an insight into what kind of post you should invest time on and which ones to drop.
Visual stimulation
Be it black and white or multicolored, your posts should always be visually stimulating to the eye. To get more engagement on social media, investing time to plan, create and execute a great concept will pay off in folds. With some other hosts, they would feel entitled to engagements because they have been patronized for so many times already. But, what they fail to understand is that creating and posting bland and mediocre content is as good as not posting anything at all. Followers crave for more visual stimulation every time they go online to their units or phones. They also invest time and effort just to read and get updated by you. The least you can do is to satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst for more. Hard work pays off.
Perfect timing
Monitoring your social media engagement is a good strategy to get even more engagement to your social accounts. With social monitoring, you can see which days and what times of those days are prime content posting spots for you to take advantage of. Organize them into a chart so you can efficiently maneuver through your accounts within a week. But you have to analyze it all first. Take note of the time and day that your followers tend to go active and flock towards each platform.
These are the most effective ways to gather more engagement on social media. Take into consideration it’s not as easy as 1,2,3 so you have to be hands-on with the many approaches you do try. If it feels like it’s a little too difficult there are always the 3 key reminders and practices to go by to keep yourself and your engagement in check:
#1 “Kid, it’s not all about content”
You also have to get to know the communities you create via your engagement on social media. Things like: Who they are? What they’re like? What social media tools do they like to use? And how do they like to use it? Are some crucial questions, because these will help you build a stronger foundation for effectively gathering more engagement on social media.
#2 They call it social media for a reason
Most organizations and businesses will and can get caught using social media simply for an announcement and or news. As a business minded individual you have to step back and remember that social media is, in fact, a conversation between you and the very audience you are trying to engage with.
A simple way of doing this is building relationships with members of your community by connecting with them on a regular basis and seeking out their opinions not just sticking with your own. Take the time to talk about current events and get more engagement on social media.
#3 Add value to everything
Time is everything; we all know that. When you start getting connected on any social media platform, you are asking audiences and potential members to spend their time with you, instead of elsewhere; this is natural. Provide them with rewards and freebies; getting on their good side is always a good first step. Teach them something worth listening to and that would enrich their knowledge of something else. You have to make sure to add value to their lives in the simplest way, and simply because of that, they’ll keep coming back.
Wrapping it up
Getting more engagement on social media can be one of the easiest things, possibly as easy as making a community member feel like they themselves are valuable parts of the network. And just like any other community, members like to feel like they belong somewhere where they have their own voices, and where they are heard. So ask and reach out to your community for their opinions on different aspects. What they think about a specific product or even their recommendation on the improvement of a certain feature could be everything.
Always encourage them to share their own knowledge and expertise with others as well, remember this isn’t a one-man show. You could always simply start up a moderate conversation and leave it be, don’t always stay in control.
It’s also about having fun, so don’t forget to relax and ultimately enjoy your audience. In return they will feel the same way; this will not just highlight your brand or service it will help it shine with a spotlight you never knew was there. You are the frontier of your brand, how you handle the more engagement on social media is a reflection of multiple capabilities you might have.
Doreen Brodsho says
Personal conversations, especially if a brand is completely new, gives way to word of mouth marketing.
I remember reaching out to a YouTube celebrity ( had 1000 subs back then ). When that YouTube celebrity responded to me, that made me feel very special and I went on to contact other of my friends to watch his channel.
The channel now has over a million subscribers….
Adam says
Wow, nice one !
Weston Fauble says
Many Great Social Media Marketers mention how social media automation is only good if you also take the time out to engage with your fans or followers, otherwise there is no unique element in your brand, making you drown in the pool of thousands of others like you.
Adam says
That is completely true – you cannot automate everything, automate just the tedious tasks and keep engaging with your followers yourself.
Luz Chaderton says
Are Giveaways a good way of engaging with one’s audience?
Adam says
Yes, but it needs to be done correctly.
Tod Nickles says
+1 for mentioning how each social media platform has a different atmosphere.
You can’t post the same content on all the platforms and expect to see the same amount of engagement.
The key is to understand the platform and tweak one’s content in accordance with its user psychology!
Zora Mcneary says
The software’s like Hotjar and Google analytics are quite good at analyzing social media traffic that arrives on one’s web page. People who market without analytics are pretty much wasting a lot of their advertising budget.
Adam says
That is quite true.
Rodger Gerchak says
Aside from engagement, visual stimulation has a high correlation with conversion rate optimization. I don’t quite remember which website it was, but they showed, with statistics, that by changing the color of their ‘ buy ‘ button from green to orange increased their conversion by 5%!
Tanesha Wilbon says
Does anyone knows a good social media analytics software?
Adam says
It depends for which platform you need it for..
Ruth B says
Thanks for sharing guys! Well, as you said “Batch and Blast” is not recommended, it doesn’t mean that all followers will be following all accounts, there are different people are using different platforms. However, for sure optimal solution is to have unique content for each social network.
Milton says
Triggering emotions what drives engagement on social media. Visual stimulation, great story or both components combined it’s up to you. But if you want engagement, you can to leave some impact on your followers.
Nadia says
Even though this article 2 years old we can find very useful things here. Thanks for sharing these everlast facts and tricks, so to say, with us. I’ll try to implement them and upgrade with newest trends and we will see if it will be enough 🙂
Rikki says
Awesome stuff Jarvee, thank you. I would add that question & answer sessions are an awesome tool to create more engagement in general on your social media. Followers love these! This was they can learn more about your brand, story, and product and get information about what they were in.
Bixente says
I saw in multiple places and read in multiple articles about the importance of perfect timing of post-release and content presentation. If all are talking about that, then it means that is really important 😀
Bjorn Jacobsen says
Thanks for sharing these important news and facts with us, we can find everything in one place, great product and people behind it.