Because Zuck doesn’t like it unless your audience does.
Just putting out content isn’t enough anymore; every brand and its mother has a social profile, many even have regular content! What they lack is social media engagement. Engagement is what makes your socials stand out and pay off.
We’re talking real engagement, not the kind you pay for. Content that gets real people liking, talking and sharing is the gold standard in social media marketing. But how do you achieve this elusive engagement? We have some ideas.
1) Be a human
To increase social media engagement you need to be engaging. Is your 3 paragraph Facebook post about the new office coffee machine exciting for your audience? Do they care about that staged photo of your suited employees looking hard at work? Maybe they do but we doubt it.
You don’t have to abandon your brand identity to make your content more engaging. Ask your audience questions relevant to what your post talks about. Make use of interactive posts like polls and quizzes. Smile in your photos. However corporate your brand might be, we guarantee you can maintain your professionalism while ensuring people smash that like button!
2) Video. Video. Video.
Did you know that social media posts with video get 48% more views? Or that video content is favoured by the infamous algorithms? Or that 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service through video?
British Study Centres saw the power of video marketing when we worked with them on their football and language program. They wanted to grab the attention of parents and students across the world to generate increased traffic and interest and that’s exactly what they got. The video gained almost 50k views through a Facebook campaign in under a month and resulted in increased in traffic of over 100% to their websites with large increases in their key markets Spain (+665%), Mexico (+2.5k%), UK (+199%), Ireland (+1.5k%) and Brazil (+300%). With stats like that can you really afford not to be using video?
3) Talk to the people!
When people do start engaging, engage right back! Ask them follow up questions, share some extra info with them, send them a little thank you. The person who takes the time to comment on your post and doesn’t get so much as a like in return will not be commenting again. Appreciate your fans, show them how much you value their social media engagement, make them feel special.
Is social media engagement really worth the effort?
That depends if you think increased website hits, increased sales, a happier customer base and an amazing brand reputation are worth investing in.
If you think yes, it’s worth it, and want to leverage the power of engagement in your next social campaign, we’d love to help. Whether you’re in need of a sports commercial or something totally different, drop us a line.