Are you one of those people that think, “ugh…engagement!” or “YES! Engagement!”
You could either be frustrated that you aren’t getting any or super excited when it does come.
Either way, there are some SIMPLE things you can do to increase the engagement on social media.
Give Shout-Outs to Clients & Partners
One of my most favorite ways to increase engagement on my social media pages is to give shoutouts to my clients and partners. I don’t typically do this TO increase my engagement, that’s just something that naturally happens which is why I’m including it in my list.
The real reason I do it is because I love to share other people’s content and celebrate when they do something awesome. If someone else can provide a better answer to something than me, I make use of their content.
If your social media feed can provide your tribe with relevant information, they will be attracted to your brand and want to follow you – even if it’s not your content. Use this as an opportunity to build a relationship with your followers, but also the person that wrote the article.
I also like to highlight our client’s metrics each month (y’all know I’m a numbers girl!) We partner with our clients to get some amazing results and you better believe I celebrate them! And we talk about metrics and wins every single week in the monthly membership.
I often share content from someone that I really want to work with too. It shows I’m dedicated to the relationship and introduces them to my tribe too.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to connect your content to a specific topic, event, theme, or conversation. They make it easy to discover posts and join the conversation around those specific topics. And almost all of the social media platforms are encouraging them these days.
Optimal hashtags per post:
- Instagram – 5-10
- LinkedIn – 3
- Twitter – 1-2
- Facebook – 1-3
- YouTube – 2-3
- Pinterest – 2-5
When you are using hashtags, make sure your account is public. If it’s set to private, only your followers will see your posts.
Use relevant and specific hashtags. If you use ones that are too obscure or don’t relate at all to your post, people won’t be able to find you.
Keep them short! The best hashtags are short and easy to remember.
Including hashtags in your posts means that you are taking part in a conversation that is happening on social media. And it’s a fun way to increase engagement on social media and connect with other people that are also joining that conversation. Oftentimes businesses will use a specific hashtag for an event or a giveaway, so you can help spread awareness.
Microcontent
Microcontent is short, easy to consume content. They are shorter posts, memes, visuals, bite-sized pieces of content, and even short videos. Google’s Featured Snippets are an example of microcontent.
Long-form content is great for your blog or website and micro-content should be fueling your social media. Microcontent demonstrates the value of what you have to say, which will increase the chances that someone will read your longer posts.
Most of the world these days reads their social media from a mobile device. The shorter the content, the easier it is to consume and comment. People are scrolling, scrolling, scrolling to find something that grabs their attention. You have 8 seconds to capture someone’s attention with a headline, image, or video clip. Making your content scannable is especially critical on social media.
I talk often about using your own quotes for graphics on social media, instead of sharing a google image from someone famous. Sharing that microcontent of your own words, will cultivate a group of interested followers who care about what you have to say. And if you add a question to the end of the post (or have the question be the post itself), it will encourage engagement and continued conversation.
TL; DR
Some of the most effective ways to increase engagement on social media are:
- Give Shout-outs: share an article they wrote, celebrate a win, or give a testimonial about someone important to you. Be sure to tag them so their audience sees the post too!
- Use Hashtags: Hashtags connect your content to a specific conversation, event, topic, or theme.
- Microcontent: Make it easy to consume and comment!
No matter how often you are getting engagement, make sure you are taking time to respond to each comment. That will make your audience feel like they are part of the conversation when you are giving them direct responses to their content.
Things to know:
- Follow me on Instagram. I’m going to be hanging out there a lot more!
- I have made some incredible updates to the Content Simplified Monthly Membership. It’s sooo good. Watch for more about that in the next week. It’s simpler and easier to implement, but creating amazing results for the current members