Information in this blog post was obtained from Social Media Today, Semrush and Moz.com
As digital content creators and content marketers, we are always thinking of our next post to make our content go viral and attract more followers to our social media accounts. But a high follower count isn't all you need for social media success. Something we really need to strive for to be successful content marketers is a good engagement rate on social media.
Social media engagement, as defined by Social Media Today, is the measure of how audiences are interacting with your social media content. Some key things social media marketing managers use to measure their engagement are, likes, comments, followers, shares, retweets, click throughs, direct messages and favorites. To help you get started on raising your engagement rates on your social media posts, we have compiled a few tips on how to improve your content and encourage audience interaction.
Know Your Platform
There was a time in the beginning of social media, where you only needed to create one piece of content and a social media marketer could copy and paste it across all platforms. But unfortunately, those days are long gone. To be able to achieve a good engagement rate across all platforms, it is important to know your audience. What are some things that are interesting to them? What is a trending topic circulating through your target audience? How does your audience respond to your interactions with them? How does your audience from one social media platform to the next differ? To be successful in creating social media content, knowing your platform is a key factor.
Tell a Story
It is important to keep social media content relatable! Using yourself, or creating a persona, to tell stories that your audience can relate to will make them trust your brand more. A social media marketer can tell people over and over their products or advice are great, but anyone can do that! Showing off how advice or a product has helped you or your persona will make your content relatable. A quick run-down of the steps necessary to create a successful story on social media would be:
Make your character relatable. Making your character an every day person will help your audience feel like your story is real.
Put your best elements first! Make your audience want to continue reading after the first line!
Create a conflict for your character. Keep it relatable, something the character will be able to overcome.
Have your character find a solution. A happy ending is a good way to keep your story in the minds of your audience!
Craft the story to be something your audience will listen to. Keep it interesting!
Make sure the story is authentic. Don't get too off the wall with storytelling. Remember, you want a believable story to provoke emotions from the audience.
Keep in mind, some social media platforms have a character limit, so make sure to adapt the story across your social media platforms in a way they will still make sense!
Storytelling is a great way to keep social media content relatable and makes it easier to keep your audience engaged.
Use User-Generated Content (UGC)
You're creating social media content for your audience, but maybe they are creating content for you! User-generated content is content that has been shared across social media by a user. User-generated content is a great tool for a social media marketer to utilize. Using content like this for your own marketing efforts helps keep things relatable. When your audience sees an unpaid, real response, they are more likely to put trust in your brand or you and more likely to engage with your content. Another great plus of using UGC for your own social media content, would be if you're running short on ideas or are needing a break, you can still promote your brand! Doing things like requesting videos and photos to be sent in to your page to have a chance at being posted is a great way to generate content and be able to make sure you have it ready when you are needing new ideas!
Use Hashtags
Hashtags can really make or break social media content! Using too many hashtags or irrelevant hashtags can cause your audience to not see your content, or to reach people that have no interest in your content. Getting your social media content out to a wide audience is great! But that only helps if it reaches an interested audience. Some things to do when using hashtags in your social media content are:
Do your research! Make sure the hashtag you are using is one that fits your content and one that your audience will be on the lookout for.
Don't be scared to use hashtags with a high competition rate! More competition can mean more users are searching for that content. More searches equals more views. This one is important!
Keep it short. More than one to two words in a hashtag is usually too much!
Double check spelling. Misspelling a hashtag can cause your post not to show up to your relevant audience!
Jump on trends! You can quickly reach a wider audience this way but remember, keep the hashtags relevant to your content!
Although hashtags will require some research to be successful in social media marketing, they will pay off! Hashtags do a great job of improving your reach, which in turn will help your engagement rates! Make sure you are utilizing this helpful tool!
Repurpose Content
If you have created lots of social media content in the past, why not find a way to recycle it? This is another one of those tips to keep in mind when you're feeling like needing a break! Take content you have already created for social media and repurpose it! Is there a quote from your blog post you particularly enjoyed? Think about making it into a graphic! Do you think your podcast could get more views by making it a video? Start recording video along with audio! Do you feel it could benefit your audience to hear what you're talking about in your latest blog post? Include a short video of key points made in your blog! Repurposing social media content is a good way to keep your engagement rate high. Keeping content easy to be repurposed is a fast way to spread your content across different platforms, improving your chances of increasing audience engagement!
Use Employee-Generated Content (EGC)
A new perspective is always welcome in social media marketing! Asking employees to create content for social media often provides your audience with a fresh take or new style than what they're used to! Asking employees if they would share their experience working with you on creating social media content is an amazing way to get your audience talking! People love supporting brands that treat their employees with respect and hearing it from straight from the employees can really improve your engagement rates!
When utilizing employee-generated content, keep in mind it is best to take volunteers instead of assigning this topic to an employee. You want an employee to create content for your social media that wants to and will enjoy doing it!
Research Times to Post
Did you know different social media platforms have different times and days of the week that they will generate the highest engagement rates? Traffic for social media sites varies greatly! Luckily, there are some great posts out there that already have those times figured out for you! Finding the right time for your different social media profiles is important! Once you have discovered the times and days that will be most likely to get your page more engagement, it will be easier to start scheduling your posts! A quick tip to scheduling posts is to post at a time where it will seem like your post wasn't a scheduled one. For example, instead of posting at 7:00, try posting at 7:03! Scheduled posts have the same reach as other social media posts, so why not give it a try?
Share Positive Customer Reviews
Good reviews can move your social media accounts or website to the top of search engines! Personally, I search through reviews before purchasing a product! In fact, according to Semrush, 67% of customers use reviews to make their decisions on purchasing. Getting a positive review can really attract your audience to your social media posts. So why not help get the positive reviews out there by sharing them yourself? As mentioned before, people trust products that others approve of! Improving your social credibility should be at the forefront of your marketing efforts. Because remember, it only takes one happy customer to get people talking!
Increasing your engagement is a great way to get your brand out there! The more people to interact with your post, the more likely it is to be spread out to a wider audience! Keeping in mind the key tips listed in this blog will help improve your engagement in no time!
Happy posting!
For more information on how to improve your social media skills, view my colleague Chris' blog here.
Resources
Published Oct. 24, 2022. (2022, October 24). The Ultimate Guide to Social Media engagement. Social Media Today. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/spons/the-ultimate-guide-to-social-media-engagement/634618/
11 ways to create engaging social media content. Semrush Blog. (2022, May 11). Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/11-ways-to-create-engaging-social-media-content/
Creating social media strategy. Moz. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://moz.com/learn/seo/social-media-strategy-video
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