So, you’ve realised you need to move with the times and get your business on social media – that’s where the marketing world is moving anyway, right? You’ve set up accounts on various social media platforms, and you’ve put a few posts out there – BUT… you’re seeing no engagement.
It can be SO frustrating to share some brilliant advice, exciting news, or hilarious office banter with your followers, only to get well, nothing back. Sometimes it can feel like you’re just talking to a brick wall!
Social media changes pretty much all the time, and it can be hard to keep up with what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes it has a mind of its own and we’re left baffled as to why one post gets thousands of views and the next reaches twenty people.
However, there are certainly ways to boost your social media engagement, and keep your results consistent. Read on for our top tips for how to get more engagement on social media.
Disclaimer: If you’re looking for an open and shut 3-step guide for guaranteed social media engagement, we’re afraid you’ve come to the wrong place. Unfortunately, it’s just not that simple, and there’s no one way that works perfectly for everyone. That being said, our top tips and tricks are a great place to start!
Keep it consistent
If you’re looking for consistent results with your social media performance, it kind of goes without saying that you need to post consistently to achieve them.
We’ve heard SO many people say they’ve given up on social media because it just wasn’t working for them, only to dig a little deeper and learn that they only posted for two weeks and then gave up when they didn’t see the results.
How often you should post on social media entirely comes down to how much you are able to post on a regular basis. If you are able to consistently post every day, then by all means post every day, but if you are never going to be able to keep up with that level of activity, start posting once or twice a week and maintain that level.
The worst thing you can do for your engagement is post twenty times in one week, and follow it with two weeks of radio silence.
If you only have a couple of hours a week to focus on your social media, it’s worth planning and scheduling your content in advance to ensure you are as consistent as possible.
Know your audience
It’s pretty hard to engage your audience if you don’t know who your audience is in the first place!
When creating any content for your social media, it helps to have a vision in your head of your target customer or desired audience. Think about their age and gender, what they like and dislike, and how they communicate. All of this will help you to produce content that speaks directly to your customer, and captures their attention.
Understanding your audience also helps you to know what times they are most likely to be active on social media, and therefore, what times your posts are most likely to perform well. For more information on the best times to post on social media, check out this blog.
If you’re struggling to define your audience, some social media platforms have useful insights to help you. Facebook for example, gives you a break down of the audience you are currently reaching, showing you the most common age, gender, and locations of your audience.
Ask questions
Of course, it’s great to get likes and reactions on your posts, but better yet are comments and shares. Social media is a place to be social, after all, so any way that you can open up a conversation or discussion with your followers is worth doing.
Simple ways of doing this, are by adding questions to the end of your captions, asking people to comment with their views, or running an interactive poll. This transforms your business page from a place people visit to get information, to a place people go to to connect, be part of a community, and be heard.
Once you start generating comments, it doesn’t stop there! Be sure to react and respond to each comment to further cement that relationship with your followers.
Show your face
Now we know a few of you won’t like this one… but your social media is about YOU! If your feed is filled with pretty product photos and fancy infographics, that’s great, but there’s something missing.
Most of your followers likely follow you because you’re not a faceless corporation, but because you’re a team (whether that be of one or many) of genuine people that they want to support and engage with.
Time and time again, the most engaging posts we see are pretty much always those that include people – especially smiling, happy people! Featuring yourself and/or your team on your social media, gives your page more personality, and helps your followers to see the human side behind the business.
If you need more advice on taking photos for social media, check out this blog full of social media photography tips!
If all else fails, get your pet on board
Okay, we are kidding… kind of. Though posting a photo or video of your pet is a pretty much guaranteed way to get engagement (don’t believe us, check out Janet’s VIRAL reel of her and Earl), it’s not always the best way to get your message across.
That being said, if you’re having a real engagement slump and there’s a way of getting your pet in the shot, it’s more than worth a go!
You will certainly see our SoPro pups featured on our social media from time to time. Who’s to say how much they have an impact on our engagement, but they certainly offer our followers a bit of entertainment and cuteness factor!
