Tips for Getting Better Engagement on Social Media

Social media is considered a must-have in the world of digital marketing. In fact, by 2018, about 97% of all Fortune 500 companies were using social media marketing. But setting up profiles isn’t enough, and neither is posting regularly. Your business will only get the most benefit from your social media if you’re able to truly engage your audience rather than just posting into the void.

Driving engagement is more challenging than it might seem, and it requires a well-planned strategy. Even defining your engagement goals is a challenge because it can vary widely, generally from 1% to 5%, depending on your industry, audience, and other factors. Our social media specialists at McCauley Marketing Services have been creating strong engagement (and return on investment as a result) for our clients since the early days of social media, so we’re sharing a few of our top tips for boosting your engagement.

Consider Audience Value, Not Just Revenue Value

The ultimate goal for your social media content is to drive revenue for your business, of course. But social media users are the ones you need to appeal to because they’re the ones who will either patronize your business or not.

As you’re developing your content, focus more on content that has value for the users – not just content that encourages them to buy something or schedule an appointment. Users will only pay attention if they’re getting something of value like helpful tips, a how-to guide, and so on, so lean toward this type of content that will encourage them to share and respond. Be sure that you’re posting consistently and that you’re also posting compelling images and videos as opposed to text alone.

Learn to Share

One of the most valuable forms of engagement you can earn in social media marketing is for users to share your posts because it significantly expands your content’s reach. But if you want others to share your content, you need to recognize that this is a two-way street. No one wants to talk to the guy at the party who only talks about himself and doesn’t take an interest in them.

Rather than only posting your own content, share and interact with other pages’ content too. You could do this with your followers, your employees, or other professionals in your industry. Part of sharing and interacting also includes responding to comments on your posts. Ultimately, the goal is to interact widely on the platform(s) you’re using so you expand your visibility and so users can see that if they engage with you, you’ll reciprocate.

Join an Existing Conversation

Every social media marketer wants to reap the reward of high engagement that comes from sparking a great conversation. Ideally, that happens in the comments of your posts – you bring up an intriguing topic and users put in their two cents and discuss back and forth.

Of course, it isn’t easy to find a topic that’s enticing enough to get people talking, and the good news is that you don’t have to. Instead of trying to initiate a new conversation, jump into one that’s already happening. Keep an eye on trending topics and offer your two cents when there’s a topic that relates to your industry and expertise. Remember, though, that it’s best to keep it light-hearted and steer clear of polarizing topics to avoid alienating parts of your audience.

Get the Timing Right

Sometimes you come up with a post that you think is brilliant and is sure to pull great engagement, and much to your disappointment, it falls flat. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have a bad eye for good content. It might just mean that you posted at the wrong time and by the time your users were watching their newsfeeds, your post was buried by other content.

That’s why it’s so important to find the best times to post – ideally, at times when the largest percentage of your audience is on the platform. Facebook and Instagram have this data available for your use, showing you the most active times of day for your followers as well as the most active days of the week.

Keep in mind, though, that usually most of your engagement will come from a small percentage of your followers, and those people may or may not be online at the same time as most of your other followers. For that reason, you should always be testing different timeframes to see which ones lend themselves to the best performance.

At McCauley Marketing Services, we know all too well that social media marketing isn’t something that will open the floodgates of revenue overnight because it needs time to grow and build. It needs to match your overall marketing strategy as well for optimal results. The tips above will help your engagement, but they’re only a small part of a customized and focused strategy.

Remember that your social media marketing as well is merely a small part of a successful marketing strategy and that it needs to work collaboratively with your other marketing techniques to be successful. To help your social media marketing to be all it can be, call McCauley Marketing Services today to schedule a meeting. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more pro marketing tips.