If you’ve been paying much attention at all lately to the business world, you’ve probably noticed that there’s been a strong trend towards things being increasingly digital. It applies to business locations that have moved online and marketing techniques that are now capable of reaching a far broader audience for less money. Social media is one of those methods you can use to reach more people. It has proved to be a valuable asset for businesses in a variety of industries, but it relies on a certain level of consumer engagement in order to be successful. So what can you do to boost the level of engagement you have on your social media platforms?
Schedule Your Posts
You already know that it’s important for your business to have a presence where your customers are. That’s part of why you’re using social media in the first place. Have you given much thought to when you’re posting though? In order to maximize the amount of exposure, and thereby improve the level of engagement your business enjoys, it helps to make sure you’re posting when your target audience is online. That gives you the best chance of making sure that your posts are seen. Once you’ve figured out when to post, create a posting schedule to take some of the work out of the process.
Be Responsive
In order to encourage consumers to engage with your business, it’s important to be responsive to them when they reach out to you. There’s a real element of give and take here. The more you respond, the better your responses, and the quicker they come, the more encouraged consumers will be to continue to engage with you. This can play a huge role in your ability to build customer relationships. Respond to posts you’re tagged in, consumer comments, and especially reviews. It helps show consumers that you’re listening.
Offer Different Kinds of Content
There are a variety of kinds of content your company can benefit from sharing on social media. Photos, videos, blog posts, and more all have their own role to play in engaging consumers. It’s important to note that some social media platforms are better suited to certain types of content. YouTube, for example, is the king of social media when it comes to video content. Similarly, Instagram is perfect for photos. Platforms like Facebook work well for posting an assortment of types of content, making it easier to keep things interesting. Take advantage of the different features that platforms have to keep your content fresh and new.
Make Sure Your Content Is Relevant
In order for your content to really work for your business and boost your engagement in useful ways, it needs to be high quality content. Part of creating high quality content is making sure that it is relevant to both your business and your customers. Remember, your customers are coming to you specifically for the services you provide, not because you have information about an industry that is entirely unrelated. That said, you don’t have to limit your content to being just about your business specifically. It’s okay to branch out somewhat into your industry in general, questions, and related topics that your audience may be interested in.
Use Polls and Surveys
Sometimes consumers need a more concrete reason to get involved and engage with your business than just having content presented to them. For this reason, sending out polls and surveys can help boost the level of engagement you see from consumers in general. To be effective, you’ll need to design them so that they encourage responses. Don’t make them too long and try to avoid short answer questions. Estimate the time to completion for your surveys and let consumers know at the outset. You should see fewer abandoned surveys that way.
Use Hashtags
Using hashtags on social media can be a good way to make it easier for consumers who are interested in the things you’re sharing to find you. This applies to people who are already following you as well as those who don’t even know you exist yet. Hashtags work by making it possible to track discussions surrounding a particular topic by using keywords associated with it. This helps you boost your company’s social media engagement by attracting people who are already interested in topics included in your keywords to your posts. Avoid using too many hashtags though, or you might find that it backfires a bit on you.
Boosting your level of social media engagement can be a great way to attract more customers, build relationships, and raise awareness for your business. Figuring out the most effective way to boost your engagement may take some trial and error, but all that effort should pay off once you’ve got it sorted out. Take a look at how you’re handling your social media accounts and see what actions you can take that might help boost your engagement.
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