By Bill Sheikh
Over the years, social media has become an integral part of people’s lives. Users rely on these platforms for information, entertainment, business, marketing and more. Out of the 3.5 billion Internet users, approximately 3.03 billion of them are quite active on social media.
Facebook remains to be the most commonly used social media platform and represents 75.54% of the market. This is followed by Pinterest with 10.05% and Twitter with 5.74%. Tapping into the online market is a great way to establish your brand’s online presence. As a result, more people will be able to know more about your brand even if they are miles away. While social media engagement can be a challenge when it comes to small business owners, there are some ways for you to get the shares, comments, and likes that your business is looking for. Here’s how:
Target Your Audience
Engaging with the billions of social media users is difficult. However, targeting who you want to engage with can be a little easier. Choose a target audience that can appreciate and use what your business has to offer.
Increasing your engagement with your target audience can be a lot more difficult than simply increasing your followers. Follower engagement is when your followers actually respond to your posts. This can be a way to measure if they actually look at your social media account and read your posts.
Be Visual
When posting content, especially pictures or videos, they should be visually stimulating. Avoid posting dull and boring content. Create engaging posts by keeping them colorful, bright, well-organized and easy to understand. Otherwise, your followers will simply skip over your account and move onto the next interesting page they see.
Internet users often turn to social media platforms for entertainment. In a way, it is their means to reduce their stress after a long day. Therefore, keeping your posts entertaining is a great way to engage with your followers.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags are often used in social media websites such as Instagram and Twitter to identify captions or messages under a particular topic. A pound or hash sign often precedes words or phrases to form a hashtag.
The use of hashtags can be a big help, especially if you wish to increase your online visibility. Once you use a popular hashtag, every online user can more easily view what you posted. High quality content with unique hashtags helps promote your account and keep your followers interested in what you will post next.
Trigger Your Followers’ Emotional Responses
People are naturally emotional beings. Our emotions are the reason why we usually interact with social media posts. Triggering people’s emotions may be a little tricky. You have to study what makes them react and what kind of posts they view.
Triggering happiness. Most social media users like to see posts that evoke happiness. Increase your follower engagement when you:
- Share happy stories that people can relate to.
- Share photos that make your followers smile, like a cute baby or a dancing corgi.
- Share daily jokes – only include the funny ones.
Triggering stronger emotions. Passion, grief, anger and empathy are some of the strongest feelings that can move people. If you are successful in touching the emotions of social media users, they can voluntarily participate in what you do. Through evocative content, you can encourage your followers to:
- Volunteer for charity.
- Give donations to the needy.
- Share your posts so more people can see them.
Businesses that are able to capture the emotions of their followers are always the ones to stay relevant in the online world.
Ask For Your Followers’ Opinions
Online users become more active when you ask them to. If you own a business, you can try to interact with your followers through:
Surveys or Polls – conducting a product survey can promote interaction with your followers. A poll inquiring which of your products are customers’ favorites is also a good example. In exchange for their answer, you can offer product discounts. You can also ask your followers for their opinion about how to improve your products.
Contests – holding a contest for your followers is also a great way to keep them interested in your page. Post your contest instructions and make them easy to follow. A good way to do this is by holding a contest on Instagram where your followers must repost and share your posts with your chosen hashtag. Once the contest is over, you will select winners through a random name picker.
Seeking feedback from your followers makes them feel involved in your business. You are allowing them to be a part of your decision-making process.
Show Character
Your social media websites should show professionalism. However, they should also show some character and personality. Interact with your followers by replying to their comments and direct messages. You can also share behind the scenes photos or videos. This way, your followers can see more of the real people behind the brand.
Along with the tips presented in this article, U-Thrive Marketing can also help you increase your follower interaction. You can visit their website to know more.
About the author:
Bill Sheikh is the founder of U-Thrive Marketing, Tulsa, Oklahoma’s premier online marketing and website development firm. He has helped hundreds of businesses across Oklahoma and the rest of the US take their business to next level online. He specialises in finding more customers for the businesses he works with by utilising tried and tested digital marketing tactics such as Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click & Social Media marketing. Along with having an extensive background in digital marketing, Bill has also spoken at numerous digital marketing conferences and workshops across the US.
