How to Increase Social Media Engagement

Social media has become a primary focus for many companies that rely on it to generate new leads and maintain healthy relationships with customers and fans. For many businesses, it is a significant catalyst for growth. When social media interactions are handled properly, these platforms can boost your brand's reputation and lead to more conversions. Rather than advertising alone, social media enables you to communicate for free to an audience that has already expressed interest in your company and products. While it is not an instant growth solution, an active social media presence can increase your profits and customer retention in the long run.

To promote your business on your preferred social media platform, you need to find a way to increase social media engagement. Reaching your customers is more than uploading content, photos, and videos. Followers should feel like they are part of your brand and be excited about experiencing it online. Success on social platforms demands that you make meaningful connections with your online followers and prospects and encourage them to interact, not just observe. 

Social media engagement is measured with simple metrics, such as comments, likes, shares, follows (audience growth), click-throughs, and so on. While you could sit back, relax, and watch your followers grow, boosting social media engagement takes active effort. Don't worry, though — we've got you covered with tips on how to increase social media engagement.

6 Tips to Increase Social Media Engagement

Increasing engagement is a step-by-step process that requires your followers to feel like they can relate to your content. The more comfortable and familiar followers are with your brand, the easier it will be for them to interact with your company on social platforms. Here are some tips you can try out.

1. Measure your social media engagement

Before you start increasing social media engagement for your brand, it’s essential to understand the starting metrics for your account today. By measuring your present-day social media engagement, you’ll be able to accurately track your progress and understand where you need to improve from the start. You can use data analytics tools to break down how your social media page is faring. Take note of the number of followers on each profile and platform, the number of comments, likes, and shares that the followers give on each post, and other important metrics that define social media engagement.

These numbers will form the base from which you can measure changes in the engagement levels. They will let you know when a particular strategy is working and when it isn’t. Different social media analytics tools can be applied to measure critical metrics in this stage and provide robust reporting tools that you can share internally.

2. Determine your goals

Set goals that align with your business motives and capabilities. You may want to increase social media engagement to build a positive perception around your brand, get new leads and prospects, get feedback on your products and services, or educate your audience about the quality of services you offer. It’s important to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to help every company increase social media engagement. 

Success will require quality data, savvy strategies, and a true understanding of your audience. The ideal approach for one company may not fit a different brand’s customers. The actions you take depend on factors like your business goals, audience, and budgets. Experimenting, monitoring results, and refining strategies will lead you to unique social media strategies for your brand. 

3. Get closer to your audience

It will be challenging to increase social media engagement if you are unfamiliar with your audience. The type, language, and tone of online attention that you are interested in creating will largely depend on the kind of company in question. What works for a skateboard company would be completely different from a luxury clothing brand.

Actively conduct audience research to discover valuable information about your target market. When you understand your target audience, you will be able to decide how to target them on social media platforms, the best time to publish, the type of content to upload, and the tone of your online brand voice. Note that while your brand should provide a consistent experience from platform to platform, you may need to adapt the post content to different audiences on the various social media apps. Take a look at your audience demographics to learn more about potential variations between platforms.

4. Create meaningful content

Now that you have a good grasp on what your target audience cares about and how you can reach them, the next step is to decide on the content to share with them. Focus on helpful content that aligns with their needs, demands, interests, and plans. Most people have a specific reason for following an account; if you can tap into why they are there, you can feed them the content they desire. 

Social media makes it easy to communicate directly with your audience in a friendly, casual way that is not possible through typical landing pages and email blasts. Leverage the tools available to you to establish a conversation with your followers. Refrain from simply broadcasting one-directional messages without expecting a response. Instead, share your content, including glimpses behind the scenes, so your target audience can feel like part of the brand. If all your content is only centered on why the brand is so fantastic or if it pushes too hard to sell products, your social media engagement will suffer.

Don’t let your audience feel like you are trying too hard to sell yourself. Instead, let things flow naturally from your end. Try to focus on content related to different topics in your niche. Do your research and find out what’s hot and trending in your industry. This can give you a good idea of what your target audience is interested in reading about and spark new content ideas. Feel free to experiment and try out different ideas for your content or even share content from profiles that complement yours and have the audience you’re trying to target. Consider creating contests, asking questions, going Live, conducting polls, and uploading animations and custom stickers. Don’t be scared in your content creation journey. You may have to try a few things out before settling on what works.

5. Stay on point and focus on important topics

There may be times when you are unaware of what to write about or discuss on your social media profile. Don't panic. Instead, look for a trending topic or conversation in your niche and interact with people there. Contributing commentary about current events and trends relevant to your business can demonstrate your brand's personality and create the perfect avenue to connect with your audience instantly. It will also let your target audience know that you are up-to-date and concerned about what goes on in the industry.

6. Show a human side

This tip is quite important. If you wish to increase social media engagement, let your followers and target audience see that you are human too. There is a higher chance of gaining more interactions from your followers when they feel like they are communicating with a real person on the other end. So, don’t hide your human side. Be charming and interactive. Respond to posts quickly and reply directly to comments and DMs from your followers. Also, try adding some humor and warmth to your responses and comments. In general, let your followers feel comfortable communicating with you, and you will watch your social media engagement grow.

Forget the Cookie-Cutter Template

Regardless of the size of your company, it will benefit from a robust social media presence with an engaged audience. Success on social media is not about following a cookie-cutter template. Instead, focus on your audience and their interests to guide your content development and ensure it is relevant and engaging. Monitor the data closely to understand how your strategies are performing and always be ready to revise and adapt. Notice that many smaller accounts have superior engagement and more devoted followings than profiles with larger follower counts. So, whether your business is large or small, implement these quick tips with confidence, and you too can increase social media engagement and reap the rewards of an active and devoted following. 

Learn more about how to build a strong social media strategy using our resources below!

Last updated on May 10th, 2023.