We live and breathe in a highly digital world. Almost everyone has a Facebook account; nearly half of those users have Instagram, and a percentage uses Twitter as well.
Anyone can use and post on social media channels, but few brands can actually make themselves seen (Check out the 20 coolest brands on social media in the Philippines). Even fewer can utilize these channels to create meaningful interactions with their customers.
Effective social media strategy is more than just posting Facebook updates or Instagramming or tweeting about your products and services. If you truly want to stand out, doing just the bare minimum won’t cut it.
Though sharing relevant content and keeping your consumers up to date with what’s happening with your brand isn’t a bad thing, it is not enough to create engagement.
So why is creating engagement important in the first place? Well, imagine if you have 30,000 Facebook followers, but your posts barely get one or two likes or, sometimes, no comments at all. There’s no point in having a large audience if they’re not interested in what you have to say. You have to encourage conversation to establish better brand awareness and drive brand value.
So what should you do?
It starts with understanding what engagement can do for your brand. Social media engagement has significant impact on the visibility of your content. The more people engage with your content—through liking, reacting, commenting, or sharing—the more others will see your content in their own news feed. Furthermore, brand visibility through social media helps build consumer confidence; majority of people try out new services and brands through recommendations from friends and family.
To boost customer engagement through social media strategies, keep in mind the following:
Establish a connection with your audience.
Creating great content, such as infographics or blog posts, is a good place to start engaging your consumers but don’t stop there. Think of a way to share your content in a way that will make people stop and pay attention, and better yet, get them talking.
One way to open up conversation is through asking questions. For example, if you run a fitness club, you can ask your audience what they think of cheat days on their diets.
Respond to your audience.
Once your audience answers your question or writes a comment, you should engage back. Have an open dialogue with them; the audience likes to feel that there is a genuine human connection between them and your brand. Responding to them can encourage more conversation and may even increase your post’s visibility.
Aside from answering comments, you can also utilize tools that let you monitor mentions of your brand. Looking for and answering mentions will show that you are paying attention and that you value your customers’ feedback.
Make sure that you respond if your customer tags you in an Instagram post or story for an engaging two-way communication process. This will make your brand more attainable and relatable, since it shows that you are making an effort to reach out to your audience.
Post consistently and regularly.
It is challenging to get your own content to stand out amongst a sea of other social media content. To increase the chances that your audience will see yours, try posting during hours when they are likelier to be active.
Your content should also be posted consistently and regularly but not as frequent to the point that it’s irritating. Let your audience know that you are there and give them useful and entertaining information. But never hijack their social media pages!
If you need answers on how frequent you should post on social media, see the link.
Carefully craft your content.
Remember: quality over quantity. This may seem par for the course, but unfortunately, lots of people still forget it. Even if you generate numerous content, but if the quality is lacking, your brand will suffer for it. Instead of focusing on dumping content in one go, take the effort to make sure that the content you will be putting out is relevant, timely, and interesting enough to capture your audience’s attention.
Final Thoughts
You can’t boost your engagement with just one post a week or with poor-quality content. You need to be consistent with interacting with your audience to make sure they don’t forget about you, and you need to foster a mutually beneficial relationship with them through meaningful dialogue. This is a challenge you must undertake to improve brand awareness and your social media presence.
If you want to get the best digital marketing campaign results without fuss, check out our services at LeapOut Digital. If you’re ready to launch a remarkable campaign or simply wants to speak with someone to learn more about it, don’t hesitate to contact us.
