One of the challenges I often see with my student and clients is that there aren’t enough people engaging with their content online. And you may be experiencing something similar. You’re diligently posting and creating content, but no one is liking, commenting, sharing or engaging with your social media posts. You post something amazing and you’re wondering if anyone is seeing it.
What you need is a social boost! You need to dig deep and figure out how to re-engage those fans and followers you already have and find new fans and followers in the process.
I go really in depth with this concept in my program called Social Boost. It’s available inside of the Savvy Social School. But today, I’m going to give a little peek behind the curtains so you can start getting some social media buzz today.
Know Your Numbers
Before you can grow your accounts and get more engagement on social media, it’s important that you understand where you are today.
One of the best metrics for understanding the buzz around your social media accounts is to calculate your engagement rate.
You can calculate your engagement rate by taking the total number of engagements (which are likes, comments, and shares) and divide that by the total number of followers.
Platforms like Facebook already have this done for you and it’s located in the your Facebook Insights.
Let’s use an example: Let’s say you have 100 followers. And let’s say 10 people liked, commented or shared your posts this week. That means you have an engagement rate of 10%!
Understanding your engagement rates gives you the opportunity to understand the quality of followers you have acquired so far on social media.
You may be thinking: what’s a good engagement rate? And that’s a good question. The answer is a bit complicated as it depends.
Averages across industries range from 1% to 5% and higher. And to top it off, the more followers you have, statistically speaking, your engagement rate will decrease.
Try A Game or a Contest
People love free things. So why not use their natural love for something free as an opportunity to connect with them.
Try creating a game or a contest on social media in order to encourage your fans to engage.
The easiest contest to create is simply posting an image of your product or offering and writing the contest details in the caption. You can ask users to participate for their chance to win by liking, commenting, or sharing the image.
You can make up the rules but remember to keep them as simple as possible. Anything too complicated will scare away those who don’t know and trust you yet.
Also be sure to check with the specific social media platforms rules. For example, you can’t have a contest that requires people to “like” the Facebook page, per Facebook’s rules.
Two of the tools I recommend for contests or games are Rafflecopter and Gleam.io.
Simply Ask
I challenge you to take a look back at your past 5 posts and see how many times you asked your audience to do something.
Sometimes, the reason no one is engaging with your post is because it may not be clear what kind of engagement you’re looking for.
I find that the easiest way to prompt engagement is to ask a question. In fact, if you can find a way to ask a question in all of your posts as often as possible, chances are you’ll see your engagement go up.
Be Responsive
When customers engage with your posts or send you a message on social media you’re presented with an opportunity to get to know your customers and build a relationship with them. Answer their questions, respond playfully when appropriate, and go above and beyond to offer excellent customer service.
While it may seem like it’s that one customer you’re engaging with, you’re actually broadcasting your own ability to engage with anyone who sees that post.
If someone leaves a comment on your post (whether it be a short comment or a more thoughtful one) and you decide not to respond, anyone else who seems that comment may think that you as a business are not all that interested in participating with your audience.
On top of that, the person who left the comment may not want to comment again since their previous comment went unnoticed.
Unless you’re Oprah or Beyonce, respond to all of your comments. Those extra seconds spent on being present can go a long way to encouraging future engagement.
Be Proactive
Social media is social. And most of the time, it means you have to take the first step and initiate conversation.
Don’t sit around waiting for someone to comment on your post, go out there and be social, comment on other people’s posts, engage, and like I mentioned in last week’s podcast episode: participate in the community.
I honestly believe the fastest way to boost your social media engagement is to be engaging.
Find out where your ideal person hangs out. Do they tweet during a certain tv show? Do they post in certain Facebook groups? Do they always use a certain hashtag on Instagram? Whatever it is, find out and go meet them.
So get out there and network.
