- What is Social Media
- Different types of Social Media Networks
- Importance of being alive on Social Media
- How to improve Social Media engagement
- Metrics to track to review Social Media engagement
- How to increase engagement on Facebook in 2022
What is Social Media?
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn…in simple words are internet-based platforms for communication. Social Media facilitates users as a platform for image sharing and image creation, video sharing and video creation, career prospects and more.
Different types of Social Media Networks
- Media Networks – Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube
- Consumer review networks – Yelp, Zomato and TripAdvisor
- Decision Forms – Reddit, Quora and Digg
- Bookmarking and Content Curation Networks – Pinterest and Flipboard
- Social Networks – Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
Each Media network helps establish connections socially. LinkedIn as a social media platform can be used to build business connections and also be used to apply for jobs. Facebook on the other hand can be used as a platform to keep in touch with friends and family you don’t get to meet regularly. Every other social media network similarly helps its users either connect or communicate with friends and family.
In addition to these functions with the rise of Digital Marketing in the last decade or so, social media has also become a platform for advertising, lead generation and such. With the help of smart campaigns and user engaging content, a company/organisation can easily connect with prospect customers and cater to all their needs as and when they come by.
Moving on to a question one and all are looking for an answer in 2022, How to improve Social Media engagement? How do you stop people from scrolling past your posts on Social Media? There may certainly be several answers to this question, however, the goal here is to find that one solution that can act as a life hack that can instantly fuel the social media engagement rate of any given organisation.
Also read – How to use Social Media Marketing during these uncertain times to grow your Business
Why is it important to stay alive on social media? How to improve social media engagement?
Social Media as a platform can be used to build brand awareness and also to help an organisation connect with new target audiences. In addition, it can also be used to build an effective direct line of communication with the present audience. All in all, at the end of the day, Social media helps drive impact for your business, in the form of leads or building numbers to fill your sales funnel.
How to improve Social Media engagement?
Step 1
Talk about what they want to learn about and not what you want to say
Let’s use an example to explain the same. Imagine you walk into a tea party and you come across a person who only talks about himself. You learn from his conversation that he is least bothered about what you want to know about him, would you end up enjoying this conversation? Would you take away anything at all from whatever is being said? The answer in most cases is sure to be a no and nothing. Organisations/Brands need to diversify the content they post on social media.
The content published should be engaging and interesting. Based on a study by marketers from a leading organisation, video content contributed to 78% of the content they posted on social media in 2020. The same study also said that in terms of ROI video content contributed towards 88% in 2020, when compared to 33% in 2015.
Step 2
Track the performance of your posts regularly
Social media as a platform hosts an audience who may be from multiple different locations, backgrounds, religions, castes and age groups. Although you may know where your audience lies, you may take a few tries to learn the style of content your audience relates and engages with. To know what works best with your audience, consider tracking the performance of your posts regularly.
A good understanding of the performance of your post will enable you to create a strong content strategy to communicate better with your audience and to get progressing engagement to all your posts.
Step 3
Understand the fact that you can’t be a star on every platform
Social media is home to many different platforms of communication, from platforms that can be used to build a business connection to platforms that are primarily used to communicate with your loved ones and friends.
If you cater to an audience that is primarily B2B, you should consider being more active on LinkedIn. If your business caters to a B2C audience and you are required to be more visual consider being more active on Instagram and Pinterest. If your business requires you to be more video-based, you should consider being more active on YouTube.
3 tools that can help you boost your social media engagement
- Buffer – A platform that can be used to schedule posts on Facebook and Twitter.
- Canva – Canva is a design website and app that provides you with a custom template to help you create images for all social media posts in a flash.
- Google URL Builder – Google URL Builder helps you customise UTM tracking on links used in posts.
Important metrics to track to review post engagement on Social media
- Reach
- Likes
- Impressions
- Comments
- Shares
- Link clicks
How to increase engagement on Facebook in 2024
Facebook over the years has become one of the largest Social Media platforms in the world. Yet the topic of how to use it to increase user engagement in many cases can still be a bit of a juggle.
Listed below are 4 extensively researched algorithm hacks to increase user engagement
Hack 1
Boost your posts regularly
Boosting your posts helps you increase the reach of your posts. Facebook hosts 2 billion users on their platform and it is near impossible for your post to reach even 1/3rd of the audience without pushing past your competition, even if your content is outstanding. Hence if you boost your post and your audience engages with the same, Facebook is more likely to show your next post to them again and if you’re lucky they may end up sharing it with their friends and end of the day your post can go viral like you never thought before.
Hack 2
Create engage worthy content
Repeated posts about your brand and its USP’s alone isn’t going to get your audience interested in knowing more about what your business provides. As a business, you should know that Facebook prioritises posts that are conversational and interactive with their audience, hence posting content that is in line with the interest of your audience, will help you get them to better engage with the content you post, even if it doesn’t necessarily promote your business.
Hack 3
Reach out to influencers
Brands like Beats and I phone rely a lot on influencers. In today’s day and age, users want to know about spec and detail about what’s, the why’s and about the how’s of your products and services well before they decide to invest in them. Who better can they hear about a product they want to buy, than from an influencer they are inspired by, thereby seamlessly helping you in increasing your engagement on social media.
Hack 4
Avoid asking for engagement
Facebook frowns upon posts that beg for engagement, although this technique may have worked in the past, however, this certainly is a matter of the past today. Instead, use a bit of creativity and make your content irresistible to scroll past. Brands like Zomato, Uber and Swiggy are known to use creativity to achieve great user engagement.
The list certainly doesn’t end here, however, these tips can be used as a start to increase your engagement on Facebook and other social media platforms in 2024. If social media marketing fascinates you, then apply now for the PG Program in Strategic Digital Marketing!