How to Boost Social Media Engagement

You’ve probably heard it before: When you’re posting on social media on behalf of your company, one of the most important things you can do is encourage engagement.

“Engagement” is somewhat of a nebulous term, though. It can refer to page views, comments or likes, and it isn’t always clear what steps you can take to foster it.

Here, we’ll be explaining three ways you can boost social media engagement and, in doing so, spread the word about how awesome your company truly is. Let’s jump in.

Focus on Quality

The most important thing to remember about social media engagement is that if you’re producing sub-par content, you’re only going to get sub-par engagement in return. So, before trying to implement any tips or tricks, concentrate on building a solid foundation of content that readers will want to engage with.

To do this, you’ll want to hone in on the main markers of high-quality content:

Meaning: Everything you write should be meaningful. What this means is that your content should include filler or fluff, and when you’re writing it, you should have a clear idea of what you want to say. Check out Jessica’s post on content strategy for help forming a cohesive plan.

Form: This refers to grammar, spelling and organization. To find out more about how you can make sure your social media posts are clean and clear, read Jessica’s post on proofreading and editing, as well as my tips for writing organized content.

Function: Before you click “post,” consider whether your content will be useful to your readers. Will it communicate information they might otherwise know? Will it teach them how to do something, or explain a complicated idea?

Provide an Incentive

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book: give your readers a tangible reason to comment, like or follow on social media. When I say a tangible reason, I’m talking about a prize that you can offer with the help of a contest or giveaway.

To learn how to host a winning contest/giveaway, I’d recommend checking out Social Media Today’s article on the subject, which includes the following tips:

• Define your goals. Do you want to grow your audience? Boost your organic reach?
• Decide which type of contest you want to host. Potential types include sweepstakes, questionnaires and photo contests.
• Outline the rules. A contest is no fun if you end up disqualifying half of the participants, so make sure they’re aware of the rules from the start.
• Offer a tempting prize. For obvious reasons, your contest is much more likely to be successful if your readers actually want to win the prize you’re offering.
• Encourage sharing. This could involve requiring entrants to tag a certain number of friends in the comments or share your original contest post on their personal social media page. And, to keep things easier for you, limit the contest to one platform.
• Promise to host future contests (and remember to follow through). This will make sure that everyone who didn’t win doesn’t feel too discouraged and knows they’ll have another chance.

Ask Questions

One of the simplest ways you can foster engagement is by asking your readers questions. I’ve seen social media influencers generate high levels of engagement through this method by asking fun, simple questions, such as, “What’s your favorite song right now?” or “Where are you from?”

Make readers feel like you actually care about their responses. You can accomplish this by doing a follow-up post where you discuss their answers, or by posting your question in the form of a poll, the results of which you’ll post later.

Or, if you’d like to start a more in-depth conversation, you can ask your readers more detailed questions that are relevant to your industry or to the topic of your post. Encourage future engagement by responding to your readers’ responses–this will make them feel like their opinions are valuable and valid.

And, if all of this seems like a lot of work to you, you can always get help managing your social media content–check out our managed services to learn more.

How do you boost engagement rates on social media? Do you have tips I didn’t include here? Let’s talk about it in the comments section!