Social media will constantly change and evolve, but one thing will always remain the same; results come from the relationships you build with social media users. When you have established those relationships with social media users, they are more likely to become customers. Besides, the game is in the name; it’s all about being social.
One of the ways to create relationships with social media users is to use engagement practices.
An engagement practice refers to a series of actions a social media user performs to create visibility for their business within their target demographics. By liking, sharing and thoughtfully commenting on the content of social media users you would like as customers, you begin to form a relationship and nurture trust. When algorithms within social media platforms notice engagements happening between accounts, they increase the visibility and discovery rate of the account and the types of content generating all of these engagements. Remember, social media platforms want to keep users engaged for as long as possible. Human attention is what they sell to advertisers, so they reward accounts that can hold a user’s attention with a higher level of visibility.
If you’re not sure how to use engagement practice in your social media strategy, we’ve outlined five ways to use this tactic below.
If there’s one engagement practice you need to perform to keep your accounts healthy, it’s a community engagement practice, and there are two main reasons why. First, social media platforms reward accounts with more visibility within their communities when interactions are happening between accounts. Second, effective social media is about creating relationships with the people that follow your accounts. Human connection and conversation generate trust and loyalty for any business or brand. Social media is not a one-way street; you need to show community members that you genuinely care about them as human beings and are interested in what they’re choosing to share on their feeds.
Put it into action:
Spend time each day exploring and consuming the content your followers and community members share. Leave thoughtful comments on their posts, and acknowledge their effort with a like, save or share.
Spend time in the communities that are specifically interested in the niche of your business. Engage within the hashtags you use to categorize your content. Join groups that specifically focus on topics related to the business you run. Make sure to network on platforms like Linkedin and clubhouse with experts and voices that work within your industry. This type of engagement practice will influence the visibility rate of your content within those niche search terms. Simply put, your posts will show up if a social media user is searching for keywords associated with the products and services you sell.
Put it into action:
Search for groups to join and participate on platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Follow hashtags on Instagram and Topics on Twitter to customize your feed with content related to your business and look for opportunities to engage and join the conversation. This engagement practice is about creating visibility for your business by sharing your expertise, questions and opinions.
This tip is essential for businesses trying to attract customers within their geographic location. Most social media platforms will allow users to add a location tag to their posts. Spend time engaging with content tagged in your business’s area. Showing up in the comments and notifications of residents and other local companies will create awareness for your business.
Put it into practice:
Search for your city or town in the location tab of Instagram and engage with the most recent content that shows up. Join local Facebook groups that provide community updates and info on events. Search for professionals on LinkedIn that could use your services or products by location.
Many brands and businesses similar or related to yours will have followers and community members that fit your target demographic in their audiences. For example, we are a social media agency that provides professional social media management to business owners who are too busy to manage their social media. Likely, these business owners are also hiring out their accounting, web development and email marketing. So we’ll find accounts in these industries and engage with the active social media users in their follower lists because they likely have a need for our services.
Put it into practice:
Identify the businesses that share similar audiences to your target demographic. Then, follow the business account and regularly engage with the social media users that leave comments on their posts or share their content.
Today, most events use social media to build awareness, provide information, answer questions, and build excitement. Event pages and posts generally have very captive audiences that consume their content with anticipation. If there is an event in your local area or one that ties into your particular industry, make the event accounts a target for engagement practice.
Put it into practice:
Make a list of local events in your area and leave comments on the event posts. Then, engage with the social media users that follow the event pages and comment on or share the content. If your business is involved in the event, take it a step further by creating content saying you’ll be there that’s easy for the event organizers to share on their feeds.
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