Top tips to boost your social media engagement

When you’re new to social media, you won't have an established following so you’ll need to create one. When engaging on social media – just like meeting new people face to face, it’s better to start a conversation with them about the things that interest them – don’t just talk about yourself. Joining groups and/or creating ones on certain topics will help facilitate this and, in turn, help to get your name known. 

If someone else can provide better answers to a query, make use of their content. Your customers will see that you are willing to help them - whether that support comes from you or not.  

Social media is a two-way street. Make sure you share your customers’ posts or, to make them feel truly engaged with you, give direct responses to their content. 

Adding images and videos to social media posts and marketing content in general will help make it stand out more and encourage better engagement. 

Another good way of creating engaging social media posts is by using polls and surveys. Social media polls and surveys will also give you customer feedback quickly. 

Making sure your social media channels are regularly updated is vital to show your audience they’re right up to date. They want to know what’s happening with your brand as it occurs. It’s also good to post at optimal times to give your post the best chance of being seen. This can differ depending on the social media channel. 

Click for more information on the best times to post on social media.  

Analytics tools can help monitor engagement levels on social media. They’ll also give you insights to make much needed campaign changes for improvements. 

Companies typically measure social media engagement by looking at the following metrics: 

• Likes 
• Comments 
• Shares 
• Follows 
• Mentions 
• Impressions 
• Branded hashtag usage 

One way to track your engagement is to use a social media engagement tool such as Hootsuite or Orlo.  

Creating an effective social media engagement strategy is not a one-person job. If you want to get in front of your target audience and improve engagement, you need to have as many people as possible within your business sharing your content.  

Creating or curating content on topics or events that are ‘trending’ can improve your chances of appearing at the top of social media feeds — making sure your audience sees your posts first.