Start-ups and corporates may have different goals and services, but they do share one thing in common, they all use different social media platform as one of their tools to reach out to their customers. As we have said before, aside from a fully-functioning website, social media sites are also a great avenue for businesses to make their voices heard. The question is, how do you choose and how to engage your audience in social media? Of course, the preferred social media platform is wide-ranging on what type of business a company has. For businesses who need to showcase their products or services by visual means, there is Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest, for starters. Twitter, with its 140 character format is a favorite for a quick update method. For those who are in need of a social media platform that offers flexibility and wider reach, the preference is, of course, Facebook.
Conducting a swift research with a few clicks here and there, we have checked the usual number of users on different social media platform (via Dreamgrow). And, we are telling you, in case you are still one of the few who needs convincing to use social media in your business, the number of users is staggering high!
As expected, Facebook is on lead with a whopping 1.94 billion users. Next is Youtube with 1 billion users. Instagram has a recorded 700 million users and Twitter, on the other hand, has 313 million. The data has been compiled as of March 2017. Pretty much updated!
With this information about social media users, what does typical business owner can do about it? And of course, how to engage your audience in social media? With all those active users, it seems that your voice and account got buried in the sea of social media meme, news, gossips, and other things. Don’t fret! And no, there’s no need for you to resort to posting cute puppies and kittens to make your page alive.
So, are you struggling to make a connection with your followers to your social media accounts? Have you done everything that you think will capture their attention, but still, there are no improvements at all? Well then, here are few steps on how to engage your audience in social media platform like we always do.
Consistency is the key
No matter how much you spend on any social media platform paid ads, if you’re not posting on your page religiously, there would be no improvements at all. Hence, you must create a schedule every day and keep up. Notice the other social media pages you will see on your newsfeed, even though they do not offer services even if it is just a simple quote that is indeed relatable to its readers, it gets popular each and every time. That’s our first tip on how to engage your audience in social media!
Create a schedule that you should follow, never miss a day not to post on your social media platform, and you will see the result after a month.
How to engage your audience in social media? Share some love!
According to the Director of Strategy at Carrot Creative, RG Logan, everybody loves free stuff since the dawn of time, he said:
“We’ve worked on enough of campaigns to realize that the real strength in sweeps is the scale of the audience you’ll bring in. Sweepstakes and contests are a great way to generate leads.”
Let’s say you’re a hotelier and you need to increase your sales revenue; it is advisable to conduct an online contest where contestants will state why they deserve to get the prize, what is so exceptional about them. The winners will get a free accommodation in one of your hotel rooms, then require them to leave a review on your site. In this way, your post engagements will increase as well as your branding will be known by your target markets. It can also be a simple gift, a special feature, anything that you can think of to make your audience feel loved. Another sure-fire way on how to engage your audience in social media!
Share your customer’s success story
There’s no better way to attract potential clients and how to engage your audience in social media but to share your customer’s success story with the use of your services; this helps to boost your social media organic reach without spending any money at all to paid ads. Everybody loves a positive story with a happy ending. It also makes your business “real” and “relatable”. Say example, if you are in the fashion industry, a photo of a blooming bride on her wedding day can tug a couple of emotional strings of a soon-to-be bride compared to a mannequin.
Start to interact (that’s why it’s called social media platform)
If you want to really know what’s the best way on how to engage your audience in social media, you must know how to keep them focus and stay on your page. If there are comments, questions, and unread messages, it’s about time to allot at least 30 minutes to answer all those comments and messages. Failing to do so, your social media reach will decrease, this is also one of the easiest ways to how to keep your audiences keep coming back to your social media accounts. However, do watch out for “spams”.
Also, it is also good to interact with businesses with similar interests to yours! It’s not feeding information to your competitors. Consider this as a healthy exchange of ideas or even some good-natured jokes. There’s no harm in trying!
Aim Higher
Marketing strategy requires you to set small goals to engage your audiences in social media. Let’s say for example for this week you aim to have 100 post reach then if you have achieved this goal, set another goal but this time it should be higher than your previous one. Also, try to get out of your comfort zone and check out other social media platforms, like Reddit or gather your courage to launch a Youtube channel. You will be amazed to get a chance to interact with other people who can be a potential audience or influencers.
Check out and try whichever method or platform suits you and your business well. At the end of the day, what matters on how to engage your audience in social media is you’ve made a connection with your audiences in the crazy world of internet. If you need some assistance, we offer various services either to get you started or to get you going with your social media plans.
Did we miss anything out? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.