Many businesses use social media, but a lot of them struggle to get engagements. But why is engagement so important for social media? Engagement is an essential result any company should be striving to achieve on their social media. As It indicates prospective new customers. And when prospects like your business and what you do, it becomes easier to convert them into customers.

How to increase social media engagement

There are three main ways to help your business achieve better engagement on social media. Speed, optimising your content and engaging with your audience.

Speed is Key

Social media channels move fast. Speed is everything. Which means once you have posted, it is unlikely that a user will see it a week or even a few days after it’s published. Publishing posts at times when your target customers are most likely active is one of the best ways to ensure your followers will see your content, giving you the best chance of generating engagement.

Key takeaways to improve your speed and increase engagement:

• The first hour after you post is what will determines how well the content will do, be sure to be present and engaging with your followers during this first hour
• Understand when your audience is most active and post at the optimal time of day for your businesses platforms
• Optimise awareness through pushing content in that first hour e.g. use push notifications. In order to gain the attention of your followers.

Make the most of your content

It is important that you are using your time wisely and not spending every hour of the day creating content for your social channels. So be smart in the way you do social. You can use and post the same content across multiple platforms where relevant. Content is viewed differently across certain channels, so by creating a BIG piece of content and then breaking it down into pieces for different channels will help you to share your content in various different ways to your different audiences on your platforms. For example when sharing a video to YouTube, create a little snippet and share this on Facebook or Instagram as a sneak peak.

Key takeaways to make the most of your content and boost engagement.

• Use the same content across different channels, it might do well on some but not others e.g. your LinkedIn audience might like/share something more than your instagram audience.
• When posting content, don’t just share a link. You’ll get the best engagement from reposting the content on the new platform. For example, if you’re wanting to post the same content across both YouTube and Facebook, don’t just share the link to your YouTube video, actually reupload the video as a Facebook video.

Engage with your audience

Making sure your social media channels are as active as they can be. It is vital to show your audience that you are up to date and providing current content as your audience wants to see that you are present. They want to know what’s happening with your brand in the exact moments it occurs. Make sure you post, comment and respond to your content frequently to keep your audience updated and in-the-know. Frequently posting on a regular basis, can not only keep your followers following you, but also attract more. And on the other hand if you don’t post regularly, you may lose followers. Consistency is key to successful engagement. Being able to connect with your audience is what will keep them engaged.

Key takeaways to engage with your audience:

• Comments are better than likes, try to attract comments by asking open-ended questions to your audience and get them to interact with the content that you are sharing.
• Respond to the comments!
• Listen to people’s feedback, use it, share it and make the most of their human response.

So are you serious about increasing your businesses engagement on social media?

It’s simple: Be extremely active, post content on a regular basis, retweet and re-share user generated content, join trending conversations and be helpful to your audience on social media, every day with your knowledge and expertise in your industry. The secret to social media is hard work, dedication, and consistency.

At Firefly we are an agency who can help you manage your social media marketing campaigns. Let our experienced team help you get the most from your Social. Contact us today on 0800 448 971.