Social and digital media have revolutionised the marketing landscape.
Businesses and brands can no longer rely on a flashy infomercial or monopoly of the market for people to buy their product or service without a challenge. Consumers are savvier than ever before with infinite knowledge and choice at their fingertips thanks to smartphones and still trusting the word of their family and friends.
When it comes to antiquated media like newspapers, magazines and free to air TV, there are two types of consumers;
1. The Content Consumer
2. The Customer
These two consumer types have two vastly different behaviours - The Customer has transactional intent and the Content Consumer has informational intent.
The way social media is used, people are almost always content consumers, so your aim as a business is to use social media as a branding strategy rather than a sales strategy.
By consistently talking with your fans in a way that catches their attention, is engaging, useful, or entertaining, they will engage more with your business or brand and the recall of your product or service when they need it will be higher.
Engagement is the buzz word of the day but it’s one of the few important metrics you should be monitoring to understand whether you’re getting your social strategy right or wasting precious time and money.
So, how do you boost engagement with your customers on social media? We have a few tips to help out.
1. Post high-quality content like informational or funny videos or images
Simply by sharing the rules of his restaurant to better inform his customers, Rocco of Rocco Pizza – Italian Sourdough went viral, leading him to be interviewed on multiple radio stations and have his story published in local TV news, print and online. He has grown his customer base into a cult-like following and continues to experience success from the simple idea of staying true to his product.
2. Provide solutions to common problems
Tania Pradun, owner of Amazing Grazers, answered the call of her followers to share behind-the-scenes advice to make their platters look as fancy as her own. She began sharing video snippets with her fans on how to cut blueberry stars and dress up their boring pineapples. With this small yet effective method exploding on Tik Tok, it made her business go viral with millions of views.
3. Respond to followers, quickly and timely
Answering your follower’s questions in a timely manner makes them feel validated and that your business cares about them. It is even more important to respond to negative comments constructively and with empathy. Not all publicity is good publicity so be sure to reassure anyone who may come across your responses in the future that you care and you resolve issues or complaints with professionalism and humility.
4. Invite guests or experts that relate to your business to share their expertise on your platform
By striking symbiotic relationships with experts that are a relatable fit with your services or products, and having them share their expertise with your customers, your own followers and those of the expert can consume content that is valuable and useful to them. This method also exposes each business to each other’s customers that they may not have previously been reaching or speaking to before. A great example is the way ING Australia shares videos of well-known people and experts giving their best financial tips.
5. Go live answering frequently asked questions
Hosting live FAQ videos helps to provide valuable evergreen content for your followers, they can get to know who you are and what you can do for them, and it is a great way to nurture their needs which can directly influence their purchasing decision when it comes to your product or service. Back in Motion Brighton are a great example of a well-executed FAQ video.
6. Create a strategic posting schedule that matches when your followers are online
You are at the mercy of the algorithm of the social media platform you use. These fancy little AI codes determine who sees your content, and what content to show. To ensure your own followers and new users see your business, be sure to post when your followers are most active and likely to engage with you. The more people who engage with your content, the more the algorithm learns what content to show, whom to show it to, and to how many people.
7. Test user knowledge - Host a quiz or ask a poll
A simple, fun way to get to know your followers and their needs is just ask them! Cherie Barber - Renovating for Profit regularly asks for feedback from her followers on what renovation trends they like, this helps Cherie determine the best content to share.
8. Be topical
It’s important not to only be reactive (answering questions or messages), but provide proactive engagement (sparking the conversation). Covid-19 raised a lot of community issues, Lindblom Lawyers saw the need to answer these concerns and shared content relevant to the conversations people in the community were having.
9. Share interactive posts
Making up posts relating to your business can add to the personality of your brand and your followers get to have a little fun with you. Things like ING Australia’s “What’s your motorcycle’s name?” can be lots of fun. You then create a list of adjectives for a first name initial and nouns for surname initial and boom, your followers have a way of connecting with your business. (For the record my motorcycle name was ‘placid screamer’, quite the oxymoron!).
This simple post from Weetbix received 4.8k interactions, 400 comments and 739 shares!
10. Show your human side
Post ‘Meet the team’ bios, or share videos showing team members performing their special skill, even simple things like signing off posts with your name. People like to interact with a business when there is a human on the other end. This lovely post by I Do for Two shows us the human behind the brand.
People don’t like to be sold to unless they’re actively seeking out your product or service, so remember, the premise of social media is to be social.
By following our top 10 tips to boost your engagement on social media you’ll be interacting with and getting to know your followers in a more personal way, ensuring you become part of a broader conversation rather than only posting annoying and interruptive messaging, ads and promotions.
Want to know more? Chat to us and find out what we can do for your business.
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