Social Media Engagement & What It Means for Your Business
If your business isn’t on social media, you’re probably missing out on the endless possibilities the world of social media can offer. Whether you are looking to boost sales or increase your brand awareness, social media engagement is important for all individuals and businesses alike.
What is social media engagement?
Social media engagement measures how people are interacting with your social content. Metrics include comments, likes, saves, mentions, clicks and shares. Typically, the follower count is not a measurable metric of engagement. While you want to beef up your follower count, engagement is the key to understanding your audience’s perspective of your business. This lets you know whether or not your content is worthy. Remember, it’s always quality over quantity!
Why it’s important for your business
Expand audience reach. Utilizing interaction-based content such as asking questions or putting up a poll can provide informative data to better position yourself in the industry. It can help you stand out as a brand and separate you from the competition. Not only that, the business will make meaningful connections with current and potential customers.
Brand awareness. Each time you engage with your audience on social media, whether it’s a message, like or comment, your brand awareness has increased. The more interaction there is, the more it can spread across the platform and ultimately encourage customers to learn and recognize your business. The consistent interaction with your audience is great for a brand's reputation. Simply answering a question in a comment or responding to a positive engagement shows that a brand is listening and open to taking in customer feedback.
Boost ROI. Social media engagement can expand audience reach, boost brand awareness and improve ROI as it attracts new customers. In fact, 57% of consumers are more likely to support and buy from businesses that can be reached through social media.
Tips for keeping your audience engaged
- Create shareable content. Informative or helpful content will compel your audience to share so others can benefit from it. It’s also a great way for your brand to show the world who you are and what you stand for.
- Use branded hashtags. Create a personalized hashtag for customers to find more information about a product or service to increase both engagement and brand awareness.
- Ask questions. Encourage your audience to ask questions or create content that asks your audience questions.
- Keep it trendy. Talk about current events as it pertains to your industry coupled with trending hashtags to get discovered.
- Offer incentives for sharing. Effective incentives such as discounts for liking, commenting or sharing can help expand your reach.
- Practice proactive and reactive engagement. Be proactive and spark the conversation with people who are talking about a brand. Be reactive by answering mentions, comments, and messages in a timely manner.
Did you know?
Implementing some of these tips and tricks could increase the social value of your business. The best way to figure out what content is working is to test the waters. After all, an average of 66% of people view brands more favorably if they engage with their audience and can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%!
I’d love to learn more!
Curious to see how your business can elevate it’s social media game? The Elevate My Brand has a team made up of social media marketing wizards and we’re always here to answer your questions. Schedule a Mindmap session with our CEO Laurel Mintz and she can walk you through the entire world of digital marketing.
Shirley Chui, Account Executive
Elevate My Brand