Five Tips for Increasing Social Media Engagement

How to increase engagement on social media

Social media is a fun and effective way to engage with your community and gain new followers. Whether you are considering launching your first Instagram account, looking to grow your Facebook following, or increase the number of retweets and likes on your Twitter page, here are a few manageable ways to get your social media on the right track:

1. Review your Social Media Engagement Goals, Target Audience, and Voice 

• • Start off by asking yourself a lot of questions: Who is my audience? What platforms are my competitors using and performing well on? What is my marketing goal? Am I serious, funny, professional or sarcastic? Do I have great visuals or literary insights to share? 
  • Knowing your demographic and the type of messaging you want to put out there will help you select and focus your efforts on the platform(s) that will provide the most opportunity for you/your business.
  • If you have great visuals, Instagram might be a good choice, but if you are looking to drive traffic to your website, Facebook would be better. Check out this handy reference to help you narrow down your choices: 

(Credit: coschedule.com)

2. Be Consistent with Engagement and Plan Ahead

1. • Post regularly and find a schedule that you can be consistent with. Whether it’s 2-3 Stories and 1 Grid post a day, or 5-10 Stories a day and 1 Grid post every other day, be sure you stick to it.
   • Pay attention to when your audience is engaging the most with your platform and post more on those days and times.
   • Create a calendar and try a scheduling platform like HootSuite that will allow you to schedule posts ahead of time. This will help you avoid scrambling last minute for that holiday or 5-year anniversary post. 

3. Produce Quality Content

• • This might be obvious but is often overlooked and is especially important for any visual platform such as Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook.
  • When you focus on the quality of the content you post, it shows your audience that you also pay attention to the quality of your product/service. 
  • Apps to help generate great content:
    • Canva – Think Photoshop for anyone, this graphic design app has templates that will allow you to easily create professional-looking graphics or other visual content for your stories and grid.
    • Snapseed – A photo-editing app to enhance photos or apply filters.
    • InShot – This app can be used to create videos (trim clips, change the speed of your footage, and add music and text), edit photos, and create image collages.

4. Use Hashtags

1. • Adding hashtags to your posts allows you to reach users who are interested in topics that align with your content.
   • Research the top hashtags, the best hashtags for your content, and your competitors’ hashtags.
   • Keep them short and memorable; each hashtag should not be a full sentence. 
   • Avoid adding too many hashtags per post as this can come across as spam-like.

5. Engage, Engage, Engage

1. • Social media is so much more than posting and getting likes. It requires you to interact with your followers.
   • Reply to comments on your posts, re-share stories you are tagged in, and interact with your followers’ posts (especially when related to you or your industry). 
   • Running contests are a fun and easy way to partner with another account and will leverage your page’s reach.
   • Even negative comments deserve attention! Consider it as a source of feedback, reply in a timely manner, and learn from it. 

Remember that each platform is unique, so avoid creating the same exact content for your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. If each page is identical your followers will have no reason to follow you on more than one account. Visibility on social media is key to exposing your art and brand to new audiences and should be incorporated into your marketing strategy. 

NEXTSTEPS GUEST WRITER: ALEXANDRA KNOWLES | 1.23.21

Alexandra Knowles Alex is a communications and business strategist with success in driving revenue and increasing client retention. Currently she leads the brand strategy and logistics for a boutique fitness company, DanceBody, as their Senior Director of Business Development.

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