You’ve probably run into this issue before: Your team’s designer comes up with a visually appealing graphic—dare we say, interesting? You post it on Instagram at the same time you always do, and then you wait for the likes to flood in. Only they don’t, or at least not to your satisfaction. So, what gives? Why are people not engaging with your content, and how can you increase engagement on social media?
Your social media can always be improved, and there isn’t a maximum engagement level that you can reach. Having said this, there are ways you can get better social media engagement, and our social media experts are here to help.
What Is Social Media Engagement?
Social media engagement can’t be tied to one specific area––it’s a very broad term that covers a lot of metrics. Most major social media networks already have some component of engagement, and include it in their native analytics. The trick is to analyze social media engagement on a broader scale, and then examine it at a micro level.
On Facebook, engagement includes all of the possible ways someone can interact with your content on your timeline. This includes messages, mentions, likes, comments, and shares.
Engagement on Facebook can be divided into four different categories:
- Interaction with your posts: comments, likes, shares
- Interaction with your page: call-to-action button clicks and profile clicks
- Interaction through Facebook Messenger: direct messages
- Interactions with other pages on Facebook: mentions of your Page and commenting on other pages’ posts
Since this list is not a one-size-fits-all approach, you need to know other ways to improve your engagement.
#1: Take a Look at Your Current Engagement
If you want to know how to improve your engagement, you first need to analyze it where it is. We mentioned earlier that most social media includes native analytics, but there are specific social media management tools that can collect your data and summarize it up for you.
Social media management platforms like Sprout can help you navigate metrics and analytics on individual social media accounts. When looking at your metrics, you need to take note of significant changes. For example, if one post has a significant engagement rate over all of the others, it’s important that you pinpoint what made it stand out. Was it the time that you posted it? Did you use different hashtags?
Identifying patterns can help you hash out any other areas where your social media content might be failing to perform.
#2: Set Clear Engagement Goals
You need to set clear engagement goals so that you know where to focus your content efforts. If you want more engagement, then you need to create interesting content for your audience. Then, keep track of how many people interacted with your post, and what types of engagement you received.
#3: Understand What Makes an Engaging Post
In the Sprout Social Index, brands were asked to identify what types of content they wanted to see from social media. 68% wanted images, 50% wanted video, and 30% wanted to see text-based content.
Though images scored higher, it’s important to note that video content almost always engages your readers the most. It’s visually stimulating, and requires little to no effort on your viewers’ part.
#4: Create Social Media Strategy Ideas
There are various ways that you can create interest and interaction for your social media posts. Some strategies are more short-term, while others are more long-term. Still, creating a nice balance of both can help you get the engagement you’re looking for. Here’s what we recommend to get you started:
Get Silly and Creative
Humor, just like in face-to-face interactions, goes a long way on social media—especially if it’s the type of humor that your audience enjoys.
Create FOMO
The fear of missing out (FOMO) is a strong tactic to use when you want people to pay attention to your brand. When you include people on content that others haven’t seen yet, it makes them feel like they’re a part of an exclusive group.
Think Beyond Your Feed
Feed posts are not the only way you can get engagement on social media. Direct messages, comments, and story interactions all count.
Partner with Another Brand
Everybody loves a brand collab. Partnering up with another brand is a great way to intrigue your audience, especially if you partner with a like-minded brand.
Is social media not your niche? No problem! At Uptick, we have a team of social media gurus who are devoted to publishing engaging, compelling, and informative content. Sound like something you’re interested in? Call us.
