How to Engage with your Audience on Social Media
So we’ve covered who you need to engage with, to grow your small business, but how do you engage with these people? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to cover in this post!
Engagement is all about building brand awareness and creating meaningful conversations with people within your industry to build a solid community around your brand. Engagement is something that is often overlooked and not given much time to, which is understandable when you have a million other things to do but it is something we suggest committing 15-20 minutes a day to. This is something you could do on your lunch break, before you go to bed, or even when you’re sitting on the toilet!
Remember Social Media sites look for posts and accounts with high engagement and push these further to wider audiences, so this is something you need to take seriously!
Hashtag Engagement:
Choose 5 – 10 hashtags related to your industry.
Input each of the hashtags into the search bar on your chosen platform.
Engage with ten posts you like that appear when you input your chosen hashtag.
Ask questions, share your opinion, say why you like the post, etc
In no time you will have engaged with 50-100 posts. Now imagine what could happen if you did that every day!
2. Instagram Stories:
Instagram stories are another great tool at your disposal to engage with your audience and find out more about them. You can run a Poll or Quiz to ask questions and boost your engagement! You can then contact the accounts that messaged you and help them further. You will not only be boosting your engagement but placing yourself as an authority within your industry. Running Quizzes and Polls is a great way to get leads, especially if you’re a service-based business.
3. Facebook Groups:
Facebook allows you to join groups as your page so Join groups where your potential customers are hanging out. For example, if you are a Coach, join some wellness groups. Try and be the first to answer questions and offer the most valuable advice. This is the best way to show you are the best industry and why people should work with you instead of others. We have seen great success from this engagement method!
4. Questions & Opinions:
Simply writing “Cool” under a post is not effective engagement. It comes across as “Spammy” and won’t encourage the person to comment back. However, what will leave an impression, and solicit a response, is asking for their opinion or a question related to the post. See a stunning piece of art? Ask them how long it took or what tools they used. They will answer for sure, and this is valuable engagement for both you and them!
5. Repost:
Reposting other people’s content within your industry is also another great way to get noticed! We see fashion brands do this all the time when they see customers wearing their clothing items. This is a great way to build a rapport with your audience and make them feel seen by your brand. You can also do this to get noticed by other brands/ people you want to work with by sharing their posts and commenting your thoughts & opinions on them.
6. Ego Boost Post
Similar to reposting people’s content, this one is a little more strategic! If you’re a brand trying to get your name out there and get noticed by micro-influencers, I would suggest creating posts that boost their ego slightly. For example, you could create an Instagram story called, “Our Favourite Fall Fashion Looks” or “The Best Dressed this Week” then share a photo of that influencer, tag their account, and say why you like the look. They are more than likely going to reshare this post to their own page and therefore your brand name will be seen by thousands of their followers. You can manipulate this for any industry you are in!
Remember like everything else on Social Media, it is a long process that requires effort to be successful! Put in the time and you will reap the benefits.
If you need help putting together a Social Media strategy for your small business, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us!