social media? engagement on how do i get · successful social media strategy is driving engagement....
TRANSCRIPT
The most complicated area of asuccessful social media strategy isdriving engagement. Getting users tolike, share or comment on your posts. Social media is designed to be just that- social. It’s not a broadcast mediumlike TV or radio, it’s an interactive,living, breathing space. It only trulyworks if you pay it significant attentionand focus on your audience. All the platforms have realised they canmake more money by pushing brandsinto paying for ads.
It made social “social” againIt made businesses think more creatively about the content they produce
To make this work, they changed the algorithms to ensure personal posts are prioritisedabove commercial posts in users' feeds. As a business, that means your chances ofgetting your posts seen have dropped dramatically. Understandably, many businesses complained about this when it first happened, as agreat source of free marketing disappeared. But we say it's good news for two reasons:
How Do I CreateEngagement?
MAKING SOCIAL TRULY SOCIAL AGAIN“ ”
InteractionCreates Happiness
OK, we all know this is as much about Facebook making ad revenue as it is abouthumanitarian altruism, but the result is the same. The way to get your content seen by users is to get engagement. The more people who engage with your content by liking it or clicking on a link orsharing it with their own network, the more the platforms will show it to others. All the algorithms now rate the value of posts by whether people are engagingwith them - liking, sharing or commenting. They test posts by showing them to asmall section of your followers at first, then judge whether to show the post tomore of your followers based on how popular it is. That means you need to understand your audience, know what they want to seeand understand where and when to post it. And guess what? It doesn’t really matter how many followers you have. What matters is how active and engaged they are. One thousand active followerswho regularly engage with your content will get far better results than tenthousand who aren't really that interested.
Interacting with people is associated with a greater sense of well-being… On the other hand, just scrolling through your Facebook feed,passively reading or watching without interacting with others, tends tomake people feel worse.
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As Facebook themselves have said:
But what you get from these platforms are fake followers. People who have nointerest in the product or service you’re offering and are never going to becomecustomers. Many of them aren’t even genuine users, there’s likely to be a whole hostof bots, fake accounts, spam accounts and other detritus. Fake followers won't engage with your content. You haven't acquired them in atargeted way and most of them will have little to no interest in your products orservices. Having a high number of followers who don't engage lowers your engagementrates. And low engagement rates are a sure way to make the platforms hide yourcontent. Which means those genuine followers who would be interested will never see it.
Genuine, engaged followers and fans are the key to a successful social mediacontent strategy. If only a handful of your audience ever interact with your content, your engagementrates will be low and the platforms won’t show your posts. That’s why buying followers is such a terrible idea. There are hundreds of apps andwebsites that promise you follower growth, particularly for Instagram.
Don't BuyFollowers. Ever.
74% OF PURCHASE DECISIONS AREINFLUENCED BY SOCIAL MEDIA“ ”
When we talk about growing your following, what we really mean is growing yourfollowing of real, relevant users who appreciate your content and share it withother like-minded individuals or groups. Those thousand active followers we talked about before will play a huge part inincreasing the number of genuine followers you attract, which further amplifiesyour brand… and so the cycle continues. Their engagement will get your posts infront of a wider audience But you have to reciprocate for this to be successful. Driving engagement isn’t justdown to the content you put out - you have to engage in return. We all like to beliked. So when someone comments on your social media posts or shares themwith others, you feel warmer and more positive towards them.
It’s a tough truth of social media that there's no substitute for sitting at thekeyboard taking the time to like, comment on and share other people’s posts. Begenuine, be authentic. It gets you noticed by others, engenders positive sentimentand makes users more likely to reciprocate. And the more people like and shareyour content, the more your reach increases, the more new people see the contentyou've worked so hard to create.
Paying BackThe Love
71% OF SOCIAL MEDIA USERS WOULDRECOMMEND A BRAND TO OTHERS“ ”
Engaging with others is also a fantastic opportunity to position yourself as athought leader. Writing lengthy blog posts and articles takes time. It’s a valuableexercise but it takes time. Well thought-out, insightful comments on pieces and observations others haveshared on social creates the same kind of positioning in a fraction of the time. And you can comment on many more articles than you can write, so you have theopportunity to show the breadth or depth (depending on your objective) of yourwisdom.
Bonus effect: this gets you noticed byinfluencers. Every industry has its notable figureheads andengaging in an intelligent, articulate way withthem brings you to their attention - just don’t doit in a creepy, sycophantic way, play it carefully. We've used that exact technique to get CEOsinto lists of top influencers in their industriespurely on the strength of their social mediaactivity.
Building YourPersonal Brand
There’s a LOT more to discuss on this but the long andshort of it is - you have to put in the work to get the results.There are no shortcuts.
BE AN INDIVIDUAL WHO REPRESENTS, BUTEXISTS SEPARATELY FROM, YOUR BUSINESS“ ”