Effective Methods to Engage with Your Followers and Keep More Coming
If you’re a social media influencer, marketer, business owner, or just want to boost your online presence, you’ve definitely thought about how to increase audience engagement.
We all know the tried and true method of directly engaging with one’s fan base in order to gain their trust and loyalty, but let’s be honest here. It’s impossible to dedicate enough time to this, and it’s far from guaranteed that it’ll be successful, given social media’s sophisticated algorithm.
Hence, social media marketers and influencers now consider engagement to be the holy grail for Facebook advertising. Customers are more likely to come across your company as the platform expands and more users like, follow, share, and tag other users.
Below are some important metrics that will enhance your audience engagement:
1. Respond Actively And Consistently To Opinions and Feedback
Engaging with your people on social media is most effective when you take the time to develop genuine connections with them over time.
What people actually need is responsive discourse, interaction that they know will make a difference, and not just stuff that can be hacked and made “viral.”
Although as many as 65% of brands have used social media, the vast majority of these companies’ attempts to communicate with their audiences have been unidirectional.
If a brand doesn’t respond to comments or messages on social media, it sends the impression, “We don’t actually care that much about you,” which is counterproductive to the brand’s marketing efforts.
So what is it? Strive for genuine two-way communication with your target audience. If you do this correctly, it can enhance the number of prospects who see your post in their news feeds, which promotes engagement.
Get back to people as soon as possible, but avoid using canned responses. Standard responses are fine in private messages but look unprofessional when they are repeated again and over in public comments.
2. Include The Essential Graphics In Your Postings
Statistics and studies abound, all of which point to the same result: appearances are important.
Buzzsumo found that tweets with graphics can get over 150% more retweets compared to text-only updates, while Facebook posts with visuals result in 2.3x the engagement rate.
Nonetheless, if your response to these numbers is to increase your image output, you’re missing the point.
Since images cannot have links added to them, most publishers get around this by including the link in the caption, which is only half as effective as publishing a link with an appealing sample image.
3. Create A Humorous Vibe
People will stay engaged with you for longer if you can make them laugh. Follower engagement can be increased by posting pictures with clever comments or showing off the staff’s goofy looks while serving clients.
Don’t be shy about posting funny or informative memes or even creating your own. When using humour in marketing, keep in mind that moderation and high-quality visuals are essential.
Rather than posting random memes, your attention should be directed toward the content you serve (as humorous as they might be). A harmless deviation from the norm once in a while is, nevertheless, encouraged.
4. Provide Unique Content In Carousel Posts
It’s possible to include up to 10 media types (photos, videos, text graphics, etc.) in a single carousel post on Instagram.
The uses for carousel posts are endless. Carousel articles that provide value, whether by giving educational content or advocating for a social cause, tend to do well in terms of likes and shares.
It’s a 10-for-1 offer if you think about it because each slide in your carousel post is a potential engagement driver.
5. Improve Your Prowess In Using Tags And Hashtags
Besides sharing natural, visually appealing content that doesn’t come off as an ad, you can boost your reach and engagement by piggybacking on popular themes and collaborating with other accounts. Keep in mind that you’re using a social media site; as such, you should improve your tagging and hashtagging and actively seek out opportunities to involve people in your conversations.
6. Utilise A Clique-Based Marketing Strategy
Clique-based or group-based marketing is a popular tactic among influencers right now. Let’s pretend that one influencer is trying to sell you something. You can bet that many of their fans also follow other influential figures operating in the same field. Your brand’s exposure will increase thrice if these influencers also write about your product or service. There is undeniable strength in numbers at play.
7. Clearly Communicate Your Message And Call-To-Action
This present day and age are one of openness and honesty. 66% people feel cheated when they discover they’ve been tricked into reading paid or sponsored content (and this is true across all forms of advertising, not just social media).
The key point is that one should not be coy about their desires. Posts with obvious CTAs, such as “download,” “follow,” or “retweet,” have an engagement rate up to 23 times higher than those without. Directly addressing your readers and asking them to do something will increase the number of times they engage with your posts.
8. Offer An Intriguing Giveaway
Free content is always well received. Hence, it’s clear that freebies should be a part of your marketing mix.
But this isn’t just a random freebie. In 2022, promotional items must be well-thought-out, interesting to both current and potential customers, and true to the brand’s values.
With the appropriate incentive, whether it’s a product, service, or experience, you can drive massive participation.
To sum it up
Audience engagement on social networking sites is a long-term relationship investment. Be a good listener, be genuine, be consistent, but switch things up every once in a while; if you haven’t figured it out already, social media is about creating relationships. Not everything has to revolve around you and your requirements.
In return, you’ll gain insight into your consumer base that can be used to enhance your offerings and strengthen your organisation for the long haul.
Relationships require time and effort, too, so don’t give up hope if your engagement rates don’t increase dramatically overnight (but if they do, find out what your audience responded to and tuck that away to revisit at a later date).
Keep in mind that social media is an ever-changing environment, and be prepared to adjust your approach accordingly.
