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As small business owners, we invest a lot of time creating valuable content, posting the content and then waiting for our customers to engage with it. And many times on social media, we see that even the seemingly good content does not receive as much engagement!
This blog is an answer to many of our clients with small business social media marketing packages. When we create and schedule social media posts for brands, business owners don’t know what else they can do to connect and engage on social media. People need two way interactions in order to make connections...with people and brands.
This service helps them PLAN mindfully and we create their CONTENT effortlessly, now all that is left is for them to ENGAGE fully to ACCELERATE DIGITALLY.
Social media engagement with meaningful conversations impacts small businesses from brand awareness to brand loyalty.
So, let’s dive into what Social Media Engagement actually is and how you can improve your social media engagement strategy?
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT?
Social media engagement is a measure of how people are interacting with your social media accounts and content. The term can cover a broad range of actions across all social platforms. For example, engagement might include:
Likes and Favorites
Comments, DMs, Replies
Shares and Retweets
Saves
Clicks
Mentions
The Engagement has historically been a common metric for evaluating social media performance but doesn't necessarily translate to sales.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
People need meaningful conversations, whether it’s from having a great experience or having customer service issues.
See the below image by sprout social, where In the study, they examined the reasons why consumers message brands on social media.
DID YOU KNOW?
Answering a complaint on social media can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%.
Moreover, social media posts with more active and thoughtful interactions will get more reach building long lasting relationships.
HOW TO INCREASE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT:
Be social, connect and start the conversation;
Social media engagement is all about being social online, initiating the conversations, getting to know them better, providing value and building relationships just like our other everyday social interactions.
So, stay true to your brand, engage, connect and be social online.
2. Understand the components of an engaging post;
Check out The Sprout Social Index™, Edition XVI: Above & Beyond, they identified what types of content that brands want from social media, including 68% wanting images, 50% wanting videos and 30% wanting text-based posts. You need to check your own analytics to see if these types of posts are the ones that are the most engaged with.
3. Have a consistent voice, be consistent in engagement. Set time aside everyday to engage with most active accounts and 5 new accounts everyday.
These are the 3 engagement Strategies to start with:
Comments: Always leave meaningful and specific comments that spark conversation.
Direct Message: Before you direct message another account, make sure you engage with their content so that they are familiar with your account prior to your message.
Share posts, resources & blogs in groups and personal profiles: the following images indicate which icons represent the "share" button on different platforms.
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
Mobarakshah Assadi:
Note: Don’t Forget to Reply to all the mentions, reviews, comments.
LISTEN, MONITOR, OFFER VALUE, BE CONSISTENT and BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Brand Inspired ideas for engaging posts:
Everyone loves good collaboration.
Love her content and reels. Humour goes a long way if that's what your audience seeks.
The Sprout Social Index, Edition XI: Social Personality report found that 3 in 4 consumers want humour from brands but only a third want that humour to be snarky.
Anita educates and connects with Reels, and feed posts aren't the only spot for engagement. Stories, Reels, Direct messages all count towards engagement numbers.
People wish you connect with your real story, they wish to be part of something. Behind the scenes, Polls, questions and involving your tribe with the process sparks engagement.
5. Thecanteens : Showcase what's new and ask questions
In order to increase social media engagement, you need to be consistent in showing up for your audience with content and interaction. Set aside daily time blocks for replying, engaging with new prospects, and to the accounts who engage with us.
You need to understand and analyze the current engagement and build strategies for coming term.
Hope this helps, do share your results or questions below.
If you need you can calculate :
Engagement Rate for Instagram
Total engagements per post / number of followers * 100 = Percent Engagement Rate
In Instagram, engagements are likes and comments.
Engagement Rate for Facebook:
Total engagements per post / reach per post * 100 = Percent Engagement Rate