90% of marketers consider social media to be the most important communication channel in their overall marketing strategy. A lot of brands use social media to promote products and services. However, if you’re on social media one of your biggest goals should be to increase your engagement levels, as this allows you to communicate directly with your customers.
In this blog, I explore 5 ways that social media can help you boost user engagement.
Tools
Creating content and publishing it on all your social media feeds is the best way to let the world know what your business is up to and what your values are. It also helps get your name out and, if you’re strategic about the content you write, can help you trend on news platforms, like Twitter. If you need help boosting your following and user engagement there are a few tools you can use to help:
Buffer – this is a great tool to build and track social media engagement. It allows you to manage your different social media accounts, while keeping tabs on your social schedule. You can also add hashtags and tag relevant brands as well as add graphics.
Canva – this user-friendly version of Photoshop allows you to modify pre-designed templates or create your own branded graphics. Sharing relevant visual content, like infographics or announcements, with your audience will ultimately help you boost your social media engagement.
Sniply – this tool allows you to share other articles on your social media account. The best thing about this tool is that a link to your website will appear on the article page and will drive traffic back to your website. Posting regularly means you’ll have a better chance of engaging your audience and posting about current topics.
Promoting Engagement
Engagement usually starts by posting content worth engaging in. Use polls on twitter or a funny graphic that will encourage people to share and tag their friends. Remember that people are more impatient these days when waiting for answers to their questions. When you create a piece of content always add a call to action at the end of it and ask people to like, comment and share with their friends! This helps increase your organic reach.
However, to build engagement, you will also need to be social too. Responding to comments is the best way to do this and gives you the opportunity to talk directly with your consumers. Instagram has also recently rolled out Q&A sessions, which gives you the ability to host a question and answer session with your followers. This can provide users with value, but it also shows that you are a helpful and engaging brand. Connecting with your consumers also allows you to show appreciation for positive comments and can make it easier to resolve negative situations. Plus, this is a great way to use the power of social proof to your advantage.
Create and share valuable content
Content marketing requires a lot of time and energy to be successful. It is key that your marketing efforts aren’t centred around your personal agenda, but instead focus on creating valuable content for your audience. This means that you’ll need to use ‘social listening’ to find out what topics your customers are interested in and what potential content they are looking for. As the attention span of most modern-day consumers is shrinking, it is vital that you create the right content.
Although the term “valuable” is subjective you need to determine what is valuable to your audience and to your company. To determine what is valuable you need to do your research. Tools such as Answer the public can help you identify the most commonly asked questions relevant to your business.
Buyer Persona
One of the best ways to find out what your customer really wants is to walk in their shoes. A buyer persona is a profile of your customer based on demographics, gender, income, interests, needs and other attributes. Creating a buyer persona allows you to create a personalised and tailored experience for your customer. We have a free customisable buyer persona template that you can use to get started.
Direct Conversations
A great way to increase engagement is to have a conversation with customers and get them talking to you. Asking questions about their personal experiences with the brand will allow you to obtain direct and honest customer feedback.
Your engagement efforts should help you build new and better relationships with your customers. Social media is a huge opportunity for business. But it’s not optional, it’s simply unavoidable. If you want to learn more about social media marketing, we can help you find your social voice by creating an effective social strategy and with our specialist social media software, we will open new routes to market your business. Find out more here!
