Increasing Your Social Media Engagement

January, 2019

All lime, no tequila doesn’t cut it for your cocktail and it won’t work for your social media engagement either.

Content is queen and social media engagement is her lover.

You’ve put the meat in the bun, but where’s the relish? You’ve skimmed a few social media marketing books, but where’s the public affection?

The start can almost feel too easy: Post content on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the others that speak to your audience. Gain a few followers. Keep your content interesting. Share visuals.

Then you notice you don’t have much engagement, if any at all. Where are your social media fans and why aren’t they liking, retweeting, and sharing their love of your business?

First question: Are you liking, retweeting, and showering them with love?

Authentic engagement goes a long way in social media. And, this is important, so does directly and promptly responding to every comment and inbox message that comes your way. Doing for others what you want done for yourself truly helps your brand.

When you come cross a post that feels like your fans would appreciate it, share it and tag the original poster. Send love hearts to your favorite posts, thumb up those great visuals, and comment on all the things that feel good to you and your business.

Next question: How are you curating conversation on your social media platforms?

Initiate conversations focused on your audience around the industry you serve. Never can it always be about your business. Mostly always (and sometimes slightly frequently) should it be about your fans.

Ask ‘em questions, create quick surveys, and strategize giveaways that require liking, commenting, and sharing your social media posts.

Third question: How are those hashtags going?

Make a hashtag list that speaks to all the areas of your brand and industry. You’ll be able to use this list to spark social media posting ideas and craft engaging posts. Each platform has their own respective hashtag norms and Social Media Today does a great job explaining the differences.

General rule though - don’t go hashtag stuffing your posts. Just like keyword stuffing can harm your content, using tons of hashtag can give the wrong impression on some social media channels.

With these three pointers - engagement, conversations, and hashtags - you’ll begin to see more social media engagement on all your posts. Unless you stop being interesting. Then it’s time to hire a social media consultant.