Social media engagement is a buzzword that marketing folks like to throw around. What does it really mean? First off, we have a question for you:
Why do you scroll on social media?
Is it to laugh, connect, get your mind off the million-item long to-do list taped to your fridge? Regardless, something draws you to your favorite accounts. Our guess is that you enjoy engaging with the content and the community. But what does it mean to engage with content? And how can we translate that into a business’s need to grab target market attention?
Successful brands engage with their audience
When was the last time you took pleasure in being told something repeatedly? One mistake that brands make in the world of social media is getting caught in a loop of “broadcasting to” instead of “engaging with” consumers. Yes, it is important to tell your customers about your amazing brand and let them know important info about your industry. However, if you want them coming back for more, you will have to dig a little deeper.
Engaging your audience may look like:
- Creating hashtags for your business, industry, events, and campaigns
- Highlighting your employees
- Publishing stories or reels
- Showing customer testimonials
- Sharing articles and other interesting things in real time
- Sharing more about your company culture
- Using “User Generated Content” (UGC leverages your brand evangelists)
By engaging your audience, we mean simply making them feel part of the dialogue. Asking their opinions or opening the floor for comments is another great way to engage consumers to be part of the discussion.
Engaging with a focused message
If you want your consumers to feel truly engaged, it is important to keep your messaging focused and purposeful. That is why we recommend only using few social media platforms where your target market
lives, instead of trying to post across all networks. This way, you can help consumers feel more engaged on these platforms, especially since many of them have different posting requirements.
Customer service is engagement
When it comes to engaging your audience, customer care matters, especially in the form of responding on social media. If you have comments on your feed, reply or like them so those who are entering into the discussion can feel engaged with a real person on your end. Conversations still mean something to consumers, and it is a great way to engage more users on your social feed.
If all else fails, make them laugh
Unless your business is something too serious for a good belly laugh, expect your consumers to engage the most with wit, sarcasm, and general silliness. It doesn’t mean you throw yourself, your employees, or your competition under the bus. But finding a fun, new way to relate to your target audience through humor can be a boost for your number of followers.
In fact, a whopping 72% of consumers are more likely to purchase something from a brand that uses humor on social media. Why are we all starved for a laugh? I don’t know … have you read the news lately? We do, however, need to throw in a caveat. As a PR company, we are begging you to make sure you don’t use humor that could offend anyone or invoke the need for a PR statement. OK, off our soapbox now.
Engaging with your consumers is one of the merits of social media and the reasons it has become such a popular way to market a brand. Make sure to post things that you yourself would find interesting if you were scrolling. Mix it up and encourage consumers to comment or talk to you. Ultimately, a community will begin to form surrounding your brand (but we will save that one for the next blog).
