The best way to describe social engagement is to compare it to a long-term relationship. This kind of relationship takes dedication to maintain, right? You require a readiness to adapt and to keep the future in mind. Social engagement is not a single interaction you have with your followers. It consists of the sum of the following metrics:
- Likes
- Follows
- Shares
- Comments
- Retweets
- Click-throughs
When these numbers are high over a period of time, you’re doing it right. If not, we’ll show you how to achieve this.
How to create an engaging feed
Followers don’t want to engage with a faceless brand, it needs a personality. The content that you push on your feeds cannot only be about your brand. It’s very tempting to do this, trust me I know, but it doesn’t work and I’ll tell you why.
Before someone shares a brand post, they ask themselves: “What will this look like on my feed?” If it doesn’t match their “personal brand”, they won’t share it. But if you’ve shared compelling content that appeals to them (and hints on your brand) – then you’ve got a shot, my friend. Because you will have engagement on that post and your brand in the back of their minds.
Businesses tend to treat social media engagement like a soapbox or dinner party. Soapboxes are accounts that make it all about themselves. Instead, they should be treating social media engagement like a dinner party – welcoming people in and encouraging conversation between the host and the guests. You can pull this off by making it seem effortless and unforced.
A very good example of this is the “Share a Coke” campaign. It worked because the company placed the product at the centre of content that delights. It was easy to drive engagement on social media with this campaign. The social team could ask its followers to snap pictures of their drinks with their names on the bottles and cans and share them to the brand’s account. In this way, the company got engagement and free advertising.
It’s easier for “John” to share a picture of his Coke with his name on it to his Facebook account than a Coca-Cola post on why you should buy a bottle now. Not that it would, Coca-Cola is very good at producing content that isn’t in your face about buying. It’s subtle and drives engagement. Research shows that when social posts are highly engaging, they lead to greater in-store spending.
This is where we want to take your brand – and we can. We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back, but here at League, we’re very good at creating unique campaigns that drive engagement.
It’s hard work
Social media is a noisy place and it’s understandable for businesses to feel overwhelmed by it, so it’s best to have a strategy in place before you embark on your journey. When you focus all content on addressing your social audience’s needs, it will help you to generate a far greater frequency of quality interactions and organic reach. All this adds up to an improvement in the relationship between your brand and the social visitor.
Important factor: Social engagement is achieved differently for each account. A new account or one with a small number of followers will receive less engagement as it needs to build an audience first.
It involves a great deal of planning, testing and pooled resources (consultants, writers, designers, innovative thinkers) to get the job done. But at the end of the day, it’s all worth it when you start seeing the numbers.
Let’s start generating engagement for your brand. Chat to a digital expert now about a social media marketing plan that will suit you.
