How to Increase Engagement on Social Media?

There are many issues of social media marketing you may get into. But social media engagement will not be one of them. We’ll help demystify this marketing jargon so you can use it for your business.

What Is Social Media Engagement?

Marketers go on and on about the need for a brand to increase engagement on social media. But what is social media engagement? And why should you care about it, too?

Any interaction by a user with your social profiles is considered a form of engagement. It can be in the form of a post like,  share,  link click, leaving a comment, or sending you a direct message.

Every social media platform has its own different forms of interaction. But, the three main forms of engagement that are universal and relevant to look at are likes, comments, and shares. These engagements generated by a piece of content on your social accounts are great determiners of your brand’s success online.

Let’s take a look at the other benefits of monitoring your online engagements.

Why Does It Matter?

• A high engagement rate is social proof of your social media success. You are connecting with your audience, and your popularity is evident.
• Lots of likes and comments on your posts show your audience’s interest in your brand and products.
• Customer loyalty is evident with the show of love in the comments and reactions.
• Your brand gets bumped up by social media algorithms, and gains increased exposure on the platforms.
• Engagement is valuable content feedback. The insights help you construct strategies for your next marketing campaign. Do more of what garnered tons of engagements.

Ways to Measure Social Engagement

Social engagement is measurable on social sites thanks to visible engagement metrics. Here are ways you can see for yourself how your brand is faring on the internet.

1.      Look at Analytics

Analytics is a social media tool that automatically gathers information and shows your page’s performance. Engagement metrics like the number of likes, comments, and shares are shown per post. Based on these numbers, you can infer the success of each content you produce.

2.      Manually calculate your engagement rate

The simple formula to get your engagement rate is by getting the total number of engagements and then dividing it by the total number of your followers. It would look something like this:

 The number of likes, reactions, comments, and shares divided by the total number of followers equals the engagement rate of a post.

A social media engagement rate of 0.174% is a great number on Facebook. If your posts are constantly hitting numbers around this rate, you are doing well.

3.      Look at your call-to-action success

Another way to tell if you have successfully engaged your audience is to see if they followed your call-to-action instructions. You may ask users to leave a comment including a keyword, share your content with a set caption, or send you a direct message to easily monitor this.

If users followed the instructions, then you are sure that they listened to your message. They have also interacted with your post, which increases your engagement rates on the algorithm.

4.      Monitor your click-through rate

The next level of engagement is the click-through. This is when users click the link included in your post. This link is usually set to redirect potential customers to your external website or e-commerce page.

Driving traffic to your main webpage is the main goal of social media accounts. If people are clicking the link to your page, then you are succeeding immensely. Because this is the step that generates money for your brand.

Tips for Improving Social Media Engagement

Now that you know how to measure your brand’s success using engagement metrics, we move on to the next part. This is where you will learn how to increase social media engagement.

●   Monitor your online presence using social media analytics tools

Social media platforms have built-in analytics that brands can access for free. With this, you can monitor your progress with every campaign you launch.

Mark your starting point – your current number of followers, the average number of views, and the average interactions per post. This will be the baseline of your metrics. You will compare the numbers after implementing your new campaign to improve engagement. If the numbers increased across the board, then congratulations! You have succeeded in your quest.

●   Know your target audience

Define the demographic of the clients you want to reach. This helps you determine the voice and kind of content to publish. Find out the type of content they are fond of and the type of personality they will feel a connection with. Knowing your audience makes it easier for you to connect and engage with them.

●   Create engaging content

Besides producing valuable content, you can make it engaging by initiating interactions in posts. Start a conversation, create polls, ask for audience opinions, make contests for user-generated content, feature user comments, and submissions, and create custom frames and stickers your followers can use online. This will encourage people to engage with your content.

Extra tip: Video content performs the best among the different types of social media posts.

●   Include a call-to-action

Aside from making interesting content, another way to organically generate engagement is to directly tell your audience what to do. Call-to-actions are the instructions you give out to people in order to support your brand. This can come in the form of telling them to like your page and posts, sharing your content, clicking the link to visit your e-commerce site, and/or purchasing your merch.

●   Create a social media content calendar

More is not always better. You could just be spamming and irritating users on the platform. What you need to do is to post smarter. Scheduling posts based on your audience’s social media behaviors is a great way to optimize your content. Know the best times to upload to get maximum exposure and engagement on every post.

●   Hop on the pop culture train

Be on the lookout for what’s currently trending or the relevant hashtags. Share your two cents about it and include the hashtags. You will gain more exposure with this simple trick.

●   Keep it real

Show the human side of your brand. Create a relatable persona, include genuine reactions to your posts, and interact with commenters on your posts. It makes social media users feel they are interacting with a real person. They will feel a special connection with your brand that may translate to brand loyalty.

To Wrap It Up

Social media engagement is valuable information that you can use to your advantage. Couple that with these tips to increase your engagement rates, and you have a solid social media foundation for your next marketing campaign.