How to Generate Engagement On Your Social Media Channels

With over 1.82 billion social network users worldwide, social media has quickly become an essential channel for businesses to reach their audience more effectively. In fact, according to statistics, about 8 out of 10 small to medium business enterprises use social media marketing to drive growth to their business. However, while there’s no doubt a ton of potential with social media, some businesses are not quite hitting it as big as others. So while some businesses are obtaining remarkable results there are yet others taking the same approach that seem to be achieving tepid results.

But as far as strategies go you are using every trick on the book, so why isn’t your business as successful?

Engagement, engagement, engagement.

Here’s the brutal truth:

Even if you are writing awesome content and have an active digital presence, without engagement, you won’t be able to benefit from social media.

In this blog post, we will discuss a few surefire ways to generate a little more engagement on your social media channels without necessarily being too pushy.

Pick the Right Time to Post Content

Assuming you know how much content you should post and what you need to post, there’s just one question: when do you post?

Now I know what you’re thinking: as long as I have my content together cant I just post any time of the day?

Wrong!

If you want people to engage you need to target the specific hours that they are most likely to see your content. So say you’re looking to maximize your click-through rates, you should post your content anywhere between 12 pm and 6 pm.

However, each channel is a bit different so while you’ll get more click-through rates at around 3 pm on Facebook, on LinkedIn you’ll have a better shot if you post content between 10 am and 11 am.

Leverage the Use of Visual Content

You know what they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And quite frankly, when it comes to sharing content on social media, there’s no better currency than visual content.

Want proof?

According to a 2014 survey carried out by Adobe and Software Advice, the use of images was rated as the most important social media optimization tactic. And according to marketer Jeff Bullas, articles with images get 94% more views than those without.

If you are looking to engage more audience, then you definitely need to leverage the use of great images.

Understand What Kind of Content Resonates With your Audience

Here’s the kicker – posting mediocre content won’t cut it anymore. The audience is a bit more particular and will shun blatant content as soon as they see it. They now require a higher level of quality than they did a few years ago. They want to feel that you are not only dishing out content for the sake of it but actually posting content that resonates with them at a more personal level. Therefore, if you can post content that that’s valuable to them, you’ll be able to allure more to them and as a result get more engagement.

Ask Questions

More than just dishing out tons of content, you also need to ask your audience questions. It could be questions relating to their experience thus far or just simple questions relating to what their preferences and likes are when it comes to products and services. This Q&A session will not only help you get more engagement but also find out exactly what the audience thinks about your products and services.

Another idea is to hold a Q&A session on your social media channels where your audience can ask you questions about your products and services.

Take the First Step and Engage

Most of the tactics above are great in helping foster some social media engagement but they are not exactly the most proactive tacts. If you want a more proactive approach you have to take the first step and actively interact with your audience. Now, there are a couple of great ways to actively interact with your audience including hosting a contest where you’ve put up a prize up for grabs.

Wrapping It Up

With more than 2.5 billion people using social media and millions of more opening accounts daily, it’s safe to say that social media is here to stay. But as a business person, you wouldn’t really want it to go away any time soon either because it puts you right in front of your customers and audience and opens the door for you to better interact with your audience.

However, while it’s an important channel to help you get results, generating engagement just doesn’t happen. You have to understand the nuances of social media and couple that knowledge with a few surefire strategies to help you generate the engagement you need.