Engaging with your community on social will give a whopping boost to your social media. But how can you get your audience talking?
We got a host of winning ideas from Helen Reynolds, founder of Comms Creatives, when she popped in for a chat with our CEO, James. Catch up on the webinar, or read on for our fave highlights from Helen’s wealth of knowledge…
- Concise is nice
People come to social for a bit of a break – a few minutes’ distraction. They’ll scroll right past a post that’s like an essay because that’s not why they’re here. But grab your audience with a straightforward message and it’s a whole different story – you’ll have their attention.
If you can pinpoint the things people care about in a short, snappy post, you’re much more likely to get engagement. And if you think followers might want the full deets, drop them a link so they can find out more on your site.
- Gratitude gives back
People love being thanked for what they do, so appreciate your community on social to get great engagement.
Share a snap from a recent event and thank your audience for coming, or thank an individual for an act of kindness towards your team – people will soon pile on to share their experiences and gratitude, too.
And, voila! Your engagement gets a massive boost.
- Maintain the conversation
Your followers are commenting – that’s fab! But that’s not the end of it. Now you need to respond.
Take time to appreciate what a follower has shared with you and reply with a question – when they comment back, it’ll keep the conversation going.
Treating followers like friends gives them a glow when they think about your organisation, AND it’s good for engagement too. So it’s a winner all round – strong engagement drives your reach to new audiences.
- Quality not quantity
Whatever you post on social, focus on making your content the very best it can be. That means thinking hard about what matters to your audience, and working out how you can create posts that appeal to them.
It’s more important to give your audience amazing posts a few times a week than rubbish ones every hour. High engagement on a fantastic post will power-up your social. But poor performance will see your posts penalised and your reach will drop.
- What EVERYONE loves
There’s one topic that people never get tired of, and that’s… themselves. Yep, if you can get your audience talking about their opinions and experiences, their likes and dislikes, you’re likely to get good levels of community engagement.
Public sector organisations can seize untold potential here because people care deeply about their local area and the services they receive. If your audience likes to have a moan about litter or antisocial behaviour, use that energy to respond to their concerns and raise awareness on important issues – you’ll soon tap into bucketloads of engagement.
Fired up to create your own engagement-winning posts and drive your social forward? Grab a pen and settle back for loads more ideas and examples of thumb-stopping content from Helen in her fab webinar, Supercharge your social. See you there.
