You realise the importance of social media marketing for your business upon hearing that an estimated 4.9 billion people use social media across the world. That’s just over half of the population! As well as that, the average person will visit six to seven different social platforms each month. So, if you’re not using social media marketing, you should. And if you are, you should be taking a multi-platform approach.
77% of businesses use social media to reach customers for a multitude of reasons. It can be brand awareness, customer outreach, to increase revenue, or all three. If you’re one of the 80 million business pages on Facebook, for example, then you’ve got a lot of competition.
Boosting your social media engagement is crucial to increasing your visibility online. So, how can you do it?
Where is your audience?
First of all, you need to discern who your audience is and where they are. The number of users on each social platform does vary and sometimes the top three might not be right for you.
According to data from Statista, Facebook is on top with almost 3 billion active monthly users, and YouTube follows closely behind with 2.5 billion. Instagram registers at 2 billion and X/Twitter has 564 million. Alternative platforms such as TikTok have an audience of 1 billion and Pinterest has 465 million.
Users go to different platforms for different reasons and many companies will mix and match to suit. At DCA, for example, we use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for our own business as we feel these best match who we’re trying to engage with.
You can decide which platform would be right for you by looking at the most popular user demographic and also considering the capabilities and functionalities of a certain social media network. For example, the largest age group of users on LinkedIn is from 30-39 whereas YouTube is 15-35 years old.
Similarly, if you’re only looking for somewhere to post video content then YouTube, TikTok and Instagram’s Reels feature would benefit you. If you’re looking to start insightful conversations, make network connections or share media stories, LinkedIn would be better suited.
Posting engaging content
The number one way you’re going to boost engagement on your business’s social media page is by posting engaging content. There are multiple ways around this and ultimately your idea of ‘engaging’ will differ from another business.
One thing is for certain, videos consistently outperform other types of content on social media. A study found that brands who use videos within their marketing will see a 49% faster revenue growth than those who don’t.
Whether it’s a professionally made showreel or a social snippet for your TikTok, video is much more likely to draw in an audience and keep their attention.
Another way to increase engagement on your social media is to engage in trends. For some companies, this is not something they’re interested in pursuing. However, for those who do, it can be a great way to insert humour or a feeling of community into the content plan.
Depending on your brand voice and content themes, you may also want to include more ‘real’ and personalised content into your strategy. People like to engage with people. Putting on a solely corporate face can sometimes alienate those wishing to get involved. Whether you’re sharing team updates or photos of people working away in the office or out in the community—these are a great opportunity to engage.
Competitions and call-to-action
Competition or giveaway posts are a great way to inject some life into a social media channel. They work really well at growing your reach and the engagement levels you’re used to achieving. By asking your audience to like, share or comment to count as their entry, the post will soon pick up. We have done this in the past for our clients and have seen incredibly positive results.
This also works in a similar way to having a good call to action on your posts. If you’re encouraging users to engage through likes, comments, or shares then likewise the performance should increase.
Engage with your audience
Another way to boost engagement on your company’s social media is by engaging with your audience. It’s up to you how and what you reply to but ultimately it shows you’re present and engaging back with your customer base. Some companies, such as Ryanair, often opt for the cheekier side of responses. The polar opposite of that would be Adobe who have an entirely separate account dedicated to help and customer service. They use the platform to showcase user work, help with tech issues and to escalate trickier fixes.
The way you use your social media to engage will all lead back to your initial marketing strategy, your goals, and your target demographic. Remember your brand voice is your own, so don’t try to emulate the competition.
Another great way to engage with your audience is by sharing content from them. Whether you take it as far as posting User-Generated Content (UGC) or just collaborating with other companies, this is a surefire way to increase reach and engagement. In turn, your audience may be more likely to engage with your content or submit their own.
Finally, it’s good to be responsive to direct messages or mentions. Often, people will be looking for help, guidance or to leave feedback. A quick response shows you’re proactive and this will help to boost your overall engagement if you are seen to have a helpful demeanour online.
Social media engagement
Before making any changes towards your engagement strategy, you need a solid and reliable way to measure your metrics. Once you are familiar with the averages your page is achieving, you can begin to set reasonable goals. Month on month, you will then be able to measure what is boosting your engagement and what isn’t working so effectively.
The only downside to measuring your engagement closely is that, depending on the level of detail you want, you may need to pay for costly monitoring software. Plus, whichever way you do it, you’re still going to need to devote time to planning and acting on your engagement strategy. And if your social media really takes off you may even find yourself struggling to manage this alongside all the other areas of the business.
DCA is experienced in creating engaging marketing campaigns designed to boost the reach and engagement of our clients’ social media channels. We can run effective digital advertising campaigns and create professional videos to really get those numbers up. Plus, we have the facilities to fully monitor your social channels and evidence this with a detailed social report each month.
Whether you’re after a fully managed social media package or you’d just like some help populating your channels, we can help. Head to our Services page to see what we offer.
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