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Written By The Art of Business Content Team
As a business owner or marketer, did you know that Twitter’s website traffic is three times bigger than its actual user base? This means that if you’re focusing on popular social media engagement metrics like likes and retweets, you’re cutting yourself short — big time!
Twitter allows non-registered users to browse their site freely, leaving no noticeable mark — or mentions — behind for marketers like yourself to record. Does this mean that social media engagement on the platform is useless?
Just how can you gain real social media engagement in 2021?
Social Media Engagement can be defined simply as the number of likes, shares, comments, and similar engagements that a business gains from social media marketing tactics.
While regular users are mostly interested in the high they get from a few hundred likes on their posts, businesses focus on social media engagement metrics as it relates to leads and sales.
Or, at least, they should.
Social media engagement grants all the benefits of social media marketing but may lead to added advantages such as brand loyalty, community development, and increased referral rates. (Looking to get started or optimize your existing marketing efforts? Check us out!)
While social media marketing covers your presence on social media, the engagement part means that you’re making a concerted effort to interact with your audience. You want them to see you, come to love you, and eventually root for you without prodding on your part.
No — it’s not just a gorgeous graphic that sends users to your website. When consumers see comments underneath your Instagram promo post praising you for good customer service, fast shipping, and an excellent product, then they’re more likely to head over to your site.
If you’ve shared some words or a message that resonated with them, then there’s a significantly increased chance of them signing up for your newsletter or visiting your blog. Engagement can be that pivot trigger you need to get people to click.
By employing social media engagement in your business, you will be a step ahead of one that does not for many reasons. Firstly, you’ll be at the forefront of minds within your target market when potential customers are ready to make a purchase.
Secondly, social media engagement boosts information-gathering opportunities. Q&A’s and other community events can, directly and indirectly, provide useful marketing data that will help your business better cater to your market’s needs and desires.
The above social media engagement tactics like Q&As, praise in the comments, and post relatability will further boost your referral rate by building customer trust. People want to know the real you behind the brand.
Have you ever recommended a business you don’t trust? Social media engagement is the perfect means of introducing, building and cementing confidence in your brand. Eventually, this leads to loyal consumers who are eager to share your business with others.
Social media engagement is no easy task. People will tell you that you just need to be consistent, and all will come. While it’s true that consistency is key, you also need to have a strategic means of engaging with your audience to realize meaningful success for your business.
All profitable strategies begin with some form of an audit. Social media engagement is no different. Before setting out to magnify your engagement, have a look at the already existing data. You might get this information from the social media platforms themselves or from the scheduling software you choose.
For example, our chosen management platform, Sprout Social, provides these in a summarized fashion for easy analysis. We use these metrics to see things like where our audience is most active and engaged. We then make deductions like where to focus and what content to produce more of.
It’s hard to deduce the exact engagement numbers you should aim for in your given industry. Top competitors may not be getting tons of likes but could have income coming in from another channel. If you go by their engagement numbers, you won’t be aiming high enough.
Furthermore, the potential for social media engagement is nearly limitless — do you want 700 likes of 7 million? Whatever you choose, put a number on it and decide exactly how you’ll reach there. Be creative, offer value, and make things interesting.
If you need help in clarifying your marketing objectives or producing content, don’t be afraid to reach out to professionals. The Art of Business team is eager to use our wealth of experience to help you boost your social media engagement. Book a discovery call with us today!
Even if you’ve already established a presence on several social media platforms, you might want to cut down. Focus your efforts on what is working, as established in your audit, and gain a deep understanding of the ideal content types. Make it work for your business.
Different platforms call for different types of content. However, across the board, images are the most preferred type of content. This is followed by video, text, stories, and polls. Live video continues to grow, while GIFs also do well on informal platforms.
In our introduction, we highlighted Twitter’s hidden potential which most marketers miss. Passive content consumption should not be an oversight. Sometimes, you’re better off going for reach and reactions (not just impressions), instead of participation.
Remember, your content should always ask your audience to do something. It might be to visit your website. Even if that’s all it does, this makes a world of difference in large enough numbers.
This leads to our next point — quantifying engagement beyond likes and comments. Business success will ALWAYS be about the bottom line, so make sure you have a system, for instance, if increased engagement equates to more website traffic or sales.
Data integration is now growing for this purpose. Enterprises like Salesforce or Marketo allow you to plug in social media engagement metrics and receive output that will help you connect the dots.
Another option? Paid social ads, which provide customer identity data and allow you to see your return on investment in black and white.
Above all, when it comes to social media engagement, you first need to know who you are targeting. Don’t take a reactive approach and just wait for consumers to engage.
Be intentional with your message, and know whose eyes you’re trying to get on it. Know your target market at all times, align your KPIs with your broader marketing goals, and always remember to expect the unexpected!
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