I saw it again today.
The Twitter post from a company I follow and do business with. It was shared almost 24 hours prior to my seeing it – and as always, it had only three likes and no other engagement.
This is a company that has existed for over a decade and has branches nationwide with top-notch services to booth. Instinctively, I opened their Instagram and Facebook pages simultaneously. The same skeletal engagement on pages with almost 800,000 collective followers.
I remember being at a bank once and watching two ladies converse intently. A closer look and I saw that they were peering at the IG page of this same company and the next thing I heard from one of them was “This is why I advise people not to buy followers. See how they don’t even get engagement on their pages, they must have bought all these followers.”
I sighed because I knew the people that worked behind the scene at this company, managing the social media pages. I also knew that they’d never bought followers – but what seems to be the problem? Why are their verified pages with loads of followers getting trickles if any engagement?
I’ll break it down into a few points…
Vary content offering
Variety they say, is the spice of life. This also comes to play in how you share content on social. Many people have ways they prefer to consume content. Some prefer still images, others short videos, and some even infographics, podcasts and more.
This company we’re using as a case study can amplify their content reach and engagement by varying its media and content offering. Bring some spice to what you offer on a regular basis and you’ll keep your audience excited to see what you’ve got up your sleeves.
Audience understanding and preference
When creating content, one mistake that content creators make is assuming they know the type of content and discussions that will pique the audience’s interest. Why guess when you can simply ask them?
I’ve come across posts that put out quizzes from time to time asking their audience what they’d prefer to know more about their products or company. When you gather this insight, it helps you to tailor your content creation to what you know your audience wants to see and will be happy to engage with.
Embrace user-generated content
Everyone likes the spotlight to fall on them every now and then. Use this to your advantage by giving your audience the chance to create content that syncs with what your brand is all about.
For instance, say you’re a fashion brand, you can run a challenge asking your audience to share a pic with a classic vintage ensemble – you could attach a small incentive or not. When they tag you, you simply share these across your social platforms. They’ll be happy to engage and invite their friends to do the same, after all, it’s all about them. You get free content and free engagement – a win-win if you ask me.
Content strategy analysis
Revisit your content strategy after each quarter. See what worked and keep doing them. Discover what didn’t work and either cross them out or find ways to improve on it.
It makes no sense to persist in doing something that hasn’t yielded the results you desire.
Monitor the competition
Never stop checking what the competition is doing that’s working. If it worked for them, chances are it will work for you. You can take it a notch higher by improving on whatever ideas they have that are bringing results on their social media platforms.
There – are five surefire ways to boost engagement on your social media channels. Note that these ideas also work for improving traffic to your blog posts as well.
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