How To Engage Your Customers on Social Media

Social media engagement has never been more crucial, with algorithms changing and business page reach being sacrificed for individual users’ content. The more engagement your posts receive, the more likely they will appear on users’ newsfeeds and timelines. Competition for space on the newsfeed is tougher than ever before, if you’re not at least engaging current customers, your presence will inevitably fall behind. If your business gets little-to-no social media engagement on social media, fear not. The average interactions with brands currently sit at: Facebook – 0.07% Instagram – 4.21% (this is more than likely considerably higher due to Instagram bots) Twitter – 0.03% This means that your business is not too far behind the average. The best people to begin targeting in terms of social media engagement are those who have already engaged with your brand either offline (visiting your store, buying a product) or online (visiting your website, following you on social media). Make sure you use all the data at your disposal to reach any of these people who don’t already follow you. Use the likes of a Facebook tracking pixel and your email marketing database to target these people using Facebook Ads. Looking to boost the number of comments, clicks, likes, and retweets your posts get but don’t want to dip your toes into Facebook Advertising yet? Increase customer loyalty and brand awareness for free by following our guide to engaging current followers on social media.

User-Generated Content

User-generated content is very useful for a variety of reasons. It…
  • Encourages brand loyalty and social media engagement.
  • Advertises your brand, product and/or services.
  • Helps produce future posts and content for your pages, without much work from you.
Try addressing your current and former customers by asking them what they thought of your product or service. You could ask them to…
  • Share a picture of them using their product
  • Comment what their favourite thing about your brand is
  • Leave a review/testimonial of your products and/or services
  • Get in touch with what content, products, or services they’d like to see from your brand. This will influence your content plan moving forwards.
These are all things you can then share multiple times over the coming months. You can incentivise people to do any of the above with a competition, discount or freebie.

Ask them to engage

If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Want customers to engage? Use the active voice and pronouns such as “you” to address them directly, asking them to check-in, comment, or click on a link you’re sharing. Ask yourself, what do you want people to do when they see your post? Make sure this is apparent in your copy with a call to action. Use the following examples as a template: “Wondering how many people tuned in to watch the World Cup final? Click here to find out: [insert link]” “How would you like to receive 10% off your next round of drinks? Check in next time you visit to receive an exclusive discount!” “What’s your go-to order on our smoothie menu? Let us know in the comments below!”

Increase engagement across all of your social media channels

There’s nothing wrong with directing people to your other platforms. Extend the connection your Twitter followers have with your brand by encouraging them to like your Facebook page or follow you on Instagram, for instance. Do your followers subscribe to your email newsletter? If not, you should consider sharing a subscriber form on your page. The more your customers see your brand, the more likely they are to engage. This way, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind when they require one of your products or services.

Add value with your content

‘Value’ is a word that is often bandied about when it comes to content marketing, but what does it actually mean? When creating a post, think: What impact will this have on our audience? Make sure there is a clear purpose behind every bit of content you produce. The purpose and value of a post could be one of the following:
  • Try making your audience laugh or marvel at your content, while remaining on brand and sticking to your tone of voice. Video marketing is a great option for engagement, as social networks tend to prioritise this type of content on the News Feed/timeline.
  • Raise awareness of an upcoming event, occasion or update within your sector. For example, we often share social media related news, such as a new algorithm update or Facebook feature.
  • Share tips, advice, and information to add value. “Did you know” posts will always intrigue followers, while blogs tend to prove valuable in terms of gaining clicks through to your website. The more you educate, the more you present yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information.
  • Adding value could simply be giving something away. Whether that’s a discount or prize draw is completely up to you. Remember to keep in line with Facebook Competition Rules, though.

Make your Facebook page a community

If you seek high engagement, aim to make your Facebook page an inclusive, welcoming community of like-minded people. Make the most of Facebook’s Group feature, which will encourage users to actively join and engage with one another about your brand, services or industry. If you’re a health and nutrition brand, for instance, you may want to create a group that encourages members to share their favourite recipes and exercises. Groups promote discussion, however, you need to be careful to ensure it is healthy discussion that is on-brand and friendly.

Useful tips to increase engagement on social media

Social media post timing: The timing and frequency of your posts is important. You want to be reaching your customers when they’re most likely to be online. Make the most of Facebook Insights to figure out the most effective timings. This will mean testing post timings and types of content at various times of the day, logging into Facebook Insights, and checking the engagement and reach of each individual bit of content.

Hashtags

Hashtags are a superb way of extending the reach (and hopefully engagement!) of your content on Twitter. Do a bit of research into what popular hashtags exist within your industry and make a note of them. You can then pluck particular hashtags for your content and see which ones prove most effective. Keep an eye on trending hashtags and latch onto ones that you can relate to your industry. We recommend using 1-2 hashtags per tweet as, according to a recent study, this will increase your chance of engagement by 21%.

Pictures

Always aim to include visual content next to your copy to make your post more eye-catching on the News Feed or Timeline. Tweets with images get 150% more retweets, while 87% of Facebook Pages’ engagement comes from photo posts. Employees: Ask your team to share posts and engage with your business’s social media content. This could be tagging the business in their own tweets, sharing content from the page, or tagging themselves at the office, for instance. This will make your account more personable, extending each post’s reach to the family and friends of those who form your brand. It also helps to promote your business as a fun, friendly, and welcoming place to work.

Need help with your social media and content marketing?

Struggling to find the time or resources to perfect your business’s content and marketing? At Knapton Wright we can help increase your reach and engagement figures by offering training, content creation, social media management and much more. Get in touch today to find the marketing solution you and your team are looking for! Oliver Wilkinson Content Marketing Exec Knapton Wright
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