Young adults were the first to adopt the idea of social media and are the most common demographic to continue using this internet-based form of communication. However, over the last several years, many more demographics have followed this trend. Social media is a modern way of distributing information to a variety of people who are most receptive to what you share. For this reason, many brands have clung to the idea of social media marketing to enhance their business performance. Brands can share posts for many reasons, but not all are good. In Social Media Marketing, the word “engagement” gets tossed around, but few brands know how to achieve it.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT 5 SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES THAT WORK
1. Ask Questions
One of the best ways to engage with people is by asking a question. Posing a question invites people to share their opinion on a particular topic. People like to think things through, so asking a question that is too dull such as “How are you?” will not gain anything. Instead, try asking an opinion-based question such as “What are your thoughts?”. It is also important to keep questions personal; people love to talk about themselves; Thus, asking a question that involves something about them is likely to get feedback.
2. Use Expressions
Sharing your brand voice behind a screen can be difficult; however, using expressions can help your audience get a sense of your brand personality. Using emojis in captions, comments, and direct messages is an easy way to share your brand voice. In addition, creating unique ways for your customers to interact with your brand will help your brand awareness grow and enhance your engagement. Using expressions can be done through custom story stickers, filters, and brand-specific hashtags that users can click on, allowing your brand to be discovered by like-minded people.
3. Create Incentives/Offers
Your social media does not have to be competitive or interactive 100% of the time. Instead, you can engage customers the old-fashioned way by providing them with incentives and offers. For example, asking your customers to fill out a survey for the chance to with a free t-shirt is entirely acceptable. Another engagement strategy is providing users with platform-specific discount codes, for example, “Insta15”, for 15 percent off your entire website. Not only do tactics like this allow you to learn more about your customers, but they also help your engagement rate grow.
4. Focus on Video
Nowadays, people spend hours scrolling through social media and looking at different things, but video content dominates the field. Success lies in capturing your audience in the first couple of seconds. In addition, video has the power to draw out strong emotions leading viewers to comment, like, and share the post.
5. Manage your Community
Community management, at its core, is how your brand uses the opportunity to interact with your audience to your advantage. Staying up to date with any comments and direct messages coming in and replying to them promptly and friendly is very important. It lets you talk with your audience and engage them with your brand. Speak to your customers in a personable way using your brand voice, unlike a robot. People want to speak with people. For example, if you call a help center and get directed to an automated speaker, you will likely get frustrated. But, if you are directed to a live person, the likelihood of your frustration level growing is very slim.
OPTIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY WITH CANDYBOX
Implementing excellent engagement strategies on your social media can be challenging, especially if you don’t see quick results. However, like most things, if you stick with it long enough, the results will positively impact your business.
Now that you’ve learned about five different social media engagement strategies try using them yourself. If you get stuck and need some help, contact us, and our social media team is happy to help.
Looking for more ways to elevate your digital marketing strategy? Check out our recent blogs: Tiktok Strategy and Best Practices, 7 Tips to Remember when Monetizing your Blog, and more.
