Brands, organizations, and institutions use social media platforms every single day to connect with their audiences, raise awareness, and drive leads and business.

Social media engagement is an important metric to consider when building an online presence. While most want to increase the size of their audience, they often fail to increase their social media engagement as well. When you engage with your followers on social media, the key is to build a thriving online community (not fans), who'll actively engage with your content, share it with their networks and in other cases, become your consumers.

Looking to grow your social media audience? In this post, I’ll share some tips that have helped me to keep my social media engagement progressive.

• GIVE PEOPLE A REASON TO FOLLOW YOU

You need to have a unique quality that sets you apart from the rest of the crowd. What value are you providing? What are you offering that will entice your audience to stay tuned in? Think about the reasons people use each network, then formulate a plan to consistently post and share content that will resonate with your specific audience. Have exciting content that will draw your audience to your posts. 

• POST CONTENT WORTH ENGAGING WITH

Being active on your social media pages will show that your page is worth following. By posting content regularly, communicating with your audience, people will naturally follow your page. You’ll also grow followers when you engage with people who don’t necessarily follow you. They’ll be more likely to follow your page when you build relationships with them. You need to create content that people can engage with. It could be a poll on Twitter, a video people can relate to, a graphic that makes people laugh, or a product photo that encourages someone to tag their friends. Choose to post content that will receive a positive reaction and content that’s relevant to your audience.

• HAVE A THEME

Having a consistent theme on your social media accounts can also increase your followers. People may be more likely drawn to your page if they know what they can expect. A theme can be the type of content you share (funny, inspirational, fashion, beauty, travel) or the look of your content (minimalist, colorful, smarties). How would you want your brand to be perceived by others? Focus on creating a consistent personality and voice for your content. Once again, try to have something that sets you apart from the rest.

• RESPOND TO ALL COMMENTS

To increase social media engagement, you need to be social too. Engage with your audience. When a follower sends you a message or leaves a comment on your post, they’re giving you an opportunity to talk to them. Whether they leave a positive or negative message, you should be responding to each person who takes time to engage with you or your posts. You can show appreciation for positive messages and suggest a resolution for negative ones. The only time when you don’t have to respond to a post is if someone tags their friend as they’re not directly engaging with you and if a person is bullying you (report or delete those comments).

• ENCOURAGE READERS TO COMMENT, LIKE, AND SHARE

There’s nothing wrong with asking people to engage with your work. When you create a post always add a call to action at the end of it. You can ask people to like, comment, and share with their friends. People are more likely to share a post if you ask them to. Try to be natural about it when asking, so that people are not bombarded with requests. 

• RUN GIVEAWAYS

The easiest way you can increase social media engagement is to run giveaways. 

One of the conditions to win could be for the followers to follow you and to tag their friends. Ensure that post competition, you continue to post exciting content so that you keep your followers.

• DO POLLS AND ASK QUESTIONS

When you post on social media, an easy way to engage your fans is to ask a question. Asking a relevant but fun question is a great way to get your customers to leave a comment on your post. For example, you can create a post that compares two different dresses and ask questions like: ‘Which would you rather wear on date night? Skirt or pants’ This allows you to incorporate your product into the question while still being playful with your audience.

• POST MULTIPLE TIMES DAILY

To increase social media engagement, you’ll need to post regularly on your pages. On average, 2-3 posts per platform per day will help you build an engaged audience. If you post too much, you may annoy your audience, which can result in unfollows. On average, between 1-3pm is the best time to post on most social networks, however, this may differ for each person. Make sure you check your analytics to see which time best suits your audience and make the most of those times.

• POST ON STORIES/ FLEETS AND GO LIVE

Make sure you make us of the stories feature on Instagram or the new ‘Fleets’ by Twitter. Post stories every couple of hours. Instagram Stories show up at the top of both your news feed and the explorer page! This means that new users will be able to discover your account just from you posting stories. The more you post stories, the more they will appear on the explorer page, which will attract more followers. Stories also allow your audience to engage more with you and your content.

• POST VIDEOS, IGTV’S AND REELS

Video content, IGTV videos and Reels boost your following (especially if shared onto the explore page). They are a fun, yet interactive way to post content.  When it comes to IGTV vs Reels, each platform offers something a little different, so you should take your audience and your preference into consideration. Reels tend to draw in more viewers, as they’re short (like our concentration span) as compared to longer videos. See what works for you and your audience and maximize on it!

Hopefully these tips will help to improve your social media experience!