Social Media Engagement Guide

Are your Social Media posts a stream of consciousness? Have you wondered why you aren’t getting likes, comments and shares? Read on for our checklist for getting your engagement going :

1) What’s your Social Media strategy?

What outcomes are you looking for from your Social Media activity?

If you just post away, without considering how to target your posts and seek out the responses you are looking for, you are unlikely to get the engagement levels that you feel your gorgeous posts deserve.

Set yourself intentions for your Social Media content, and check your Insights data to see how you are getting on.

Social Media engagement is a game of strategy, so don’t just leave it to luck!

2) Who are you talking to in your Social Media posts?

Only a fraction of your audience see your posts, so post every day … even multiple times a day!

This is because the platforms decide who in your audience is most likely to be interested in your content, and shows your posts to them. If they respond, they show your post to more people like them.

So, consider your audience, divide them into groups who are important to you, and create a plan that talks to each group with intention as if you were talking directly to a person.

3) Are you on the right platforms?

There’s an old marketing saying “fish where the fish are swimming”, which means focus your marketing activities in the media that your audience engages with.

Yes, more is more when it comes to Social Media – the more platforms you are on, the better re-enforced your message will be. However, don’t waste your time creating posts for platforms that your target audience are unlikely to be using.

Hubspot have recently produced a report demonstrating the trends in platform usage – Tik-Tok, Facebook and Instagram are the winners, and Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest the losers.

4) Have you optimised your Social Media posts for each platform?

If you post exactly the same content, in exactly the same format on each platform, you are missing a trick. The different algorithms are set up to encourage different behaviours.

Here are some current examples …

LinkedIn likes you to keep people on their platform – put links in comments rather than in your body text

Insta is currently loving live video, and will show this kind of content to more people

YouTube wants to encourage time on their site, so is favouring longer videos at the moment

5) Is it clear what you want your readers to do?

If you want people to respond in a certain way, it’s normally simplest to ask them!

Check that your Call to Action is clear, and that it’s directly relevant to your post. You’ll see our Social Posts for this blog will contain a call to action about our Content and Social Media services, not our Online Advertising offer.

6) Are your social posts eye catching?

It always surprises us how many people post without adding an image. They say a picture speaks a thousand words for a reason! Even better, video is not only eye-catching, but it holds the viewer on your post whilst they watch your reel or video content.

7) Have you got your post timing right?

Visibility of your posts depends hugely on the responses of the first “sample audience” for each post, so consider when your target audience will be scrolling on each platform.

As examples…there is little point in posting about family recipes at 1am, but a post about online gaming could do really well!

Most platforms give you reports on when your posts were viewed, but if you are getting mixed messages from your data, Hootsuite research says the most popular times on line are 10am on Tues, Weds & Thurs, so this isn’t a bad place to start.

8) How do you respond?

The clue is in the name “social media” … it’s all about triggering responses. If someone comments (positively or negatively), reply to them and get the conversation going, close down the issue, or simply say thank-you. Social Media is a platform for people to engage with people after all!

This is particularly important if you are posting on a business profile – your responses will be seen as a view into your customer service proposition.

In our experience, posts about people’s stories, featuring your own photos, get both the best reach and prompt the best engagement because they make the most impactful personal connections.

Summary

Embrace Digital. Stay Human.

Social Media is all about connecting people with people. Genuine connections are not made up of one way traffic – that’s just broadcasting.

Create a plan that allows you to post genuine stories and content which are engaging and helpful for your audience to get the conversation going.

If you’d like support in creating your Social Media strategy, we’d be glad to help. Contact us here for more information.