So, what do we mean by engagement exactly?
Simply put, engagement means the interaction between your brand and audience. When you respond to users on social, you’re encouraging a conversation. And that drives more engagement. It’s a really effective way to build a relationship with your audience.
Getting engaged: the benefits
Engagement is the starting point for great customer service, because you’re listening and responding. When users feel like your organisation cares about their views, brand loyalty gets stronger.
Social media platforms use engagement as a metric to decide how visible your posts should be. The more engagement, the bigger your reach.
Seems like engagement’s a pretty big deal. So let’s look at ways you can grow it…
1: Grow engagement with great content
Great content isn’t all about push marketing. Tailor your posts to inform, entertain and educate to give a mix of content. If your audience loves it, you’ll get better engagement.
How do you know what content your audience likes?
There are two ways to find out what posts your followers want to see from you:
First, just ask. People like giving their opinions, so run a poll to discover what they want. Added benefit? Polls drive engagement on social AND show you’re interested in your customers’ views.
Second, look back at your performance. Run a report to see which campaigns brought the best engagement, so you can plan more successful content.
2: Respond to inbounds
An inbound is any message flying your way from the public sphere. That’s tweets that mention you, replies to your posts, or DMs to your account.
When a customer engages on social, they’re looking for a response. When you reply to that customer as an individual, you’re building rapport and showing they matter – even when you’re handling a complaint.
If you’re flooded with inbounds, stay on top of things by prioritising the most important messages and get the right person answering them (clever tech like ours does this automatically.) When something’s urgent, response speed is critical, so get organised for the best outcomes.
3: Spot the influencer
Check out who’s engaging most. When fans become advocates, you know you’re getting things right. Monitor who’s interacting and treat top fans like influencers to build your social media engagement.
Why engagement matters on social media: it’s the secret to growth
There’s a strong correlation between engagement, reach, and company success. The return on investment of successful engagement can’t be underestimated.
Let’s look at an example. Local governments in the UK get an average engagement rate of 3%. When newly-formed Buckinghamshire Council started using our platform, their engagement grew to record numbers. The pandemic was a contributor, but since lockdown ended they’ve maintained high numbers, with posts reaching 10-15% engagement levels. It’s a sure sign they’re finding the pain points, sharing content that’s useful and interesting, and providing great customer service. In other words, Buckinghamshire Council’s tailored, strategic approach to social media management has led to a whopping growth in engagement.
Find out more about how you can get more social media engagement and why it’s important with our free Guide to Enterprise Social Media.
