How Can I Engage My Audience on Social Media?
Here are 5 tips to increase engagement with your followers.
Leverage Polls, Quizzes & Questions on your Instagram Stories
People love to have their voice heard. If you offer your audience an opportunity to share their opinion, chances are, if they care enough about the topic, they will engage with your content. Try to think of an umbrella topic (something you could describe in one to a few words) that your audience cares about and then craft polls that are engaging and you want to actually know the answer to! This is a great way to build a report or gather insights directly from your customers and/or potential customers.
Quizzes are another fun way to engage with your audience. They are also a great way to posture yourself as a leader in your industry. If you take time to craft inquisitive questions you will begin to establish credibility with your audience.
Questions on your story such as “What kind of content do you enjoy seeing from us?” and “Do you have any questions for us?” offer an opportunity to provide prompt customer service and an outlet for your customers to feel as if they are able to get ahold of you when they need to. This establishes reliability and makes them feel more connected to your brand.
Comment back to people who comment on your posts
If one of your followers comments on your post you should absolutely take the opportunity to comment back. A great way to make people feel special is by crafting unique responses. Some of your audience might start to notice you comment back and engage simply because they want a response from you. Not to mention, it also doubles the amount of comments you have on that post and spurs on more engagement!
Like and engage with your followers’ content
One of the best (free) ways to build a loyal following is by engaging with people who already follow you and with people who do not yet follow you. This makes your followers feel like their engagement is not a one-way street. Others who are not yet following you and see that you have engaged with their content will be encouraged to check out your page and might end up finding interest in your brand. (Disclaimer - tread lightly with this approach… sometimes this can become spammy and that’s the last impression you want to give potential customers!)
Add creative CTA’s (call-to-action) to your posts and stories
Try to add creative calls to action at the end of your caption. You should most likely stay away from ones like, “follow us!” or “like this photo, please!” These are too abrupt and most likely will deter people from doing what you ask. Some that I have noticed are effective include “check out our website for more information on the {insert whatever}” or asking a question and then prompting your audience to comment with their thoughts.
Take exceptional pictures and videos and put time into crafting captions
First impression are really everything, as much as people try to deny this, it rings even more true on social media. It is so important that you have quality content! Above all else, if your content isn’t engaging, people aren’t going to want to come back for more.
If you are taking a video, make sure you are holding the camera steady. The last thing someone wants to watch is shaky footage. Also, portrait mode is way better for capturing Instagram and Tiktok content than landscape mode. Picture quality shouldn’t look like you took it on your mom’s 2004 Motorola either. Make sure you’re investing it the right tools you need to take quality content.
You should also make sure you are putting time into crafting quality captions. The longer your captions are, the longer a user stays on your post which tells the Instagram algorithm that your audience likes seeing your content. Try to craft stories that draw your customer in. There are lots of resources for crafting engaging copy. This is a great opportunity to express with words (not just photos or videos) what your brand is all about.
It might seem like a lot of work, but overtime the consistency of staying active on social media will undoubtedly grow your business. Social media is only growing and active users are increasing everyday. If you don’t have the time or the expertise to do it yourself, you should consider hiring a social media marketer like Let’s Glow Media to build out a strategy for your company. If you don’t have the resources to hire someone, you should learn the bare minimum about social media to ensure you aren’t missing out on what could be a great opportunity for your business.
Thanks for reading!
