Have you been posting on social media for a while now, but aren’t seeing as many comments and likes as you expected?
Engagement on social media is one of the most important metrics you should be looking at.
It indicates the quality of your posts, as opposed to impressions which only show how far they have reached.
Increasing your engagement rate can transform your social media presence and generate leads at a substantial rate (even for medical device companies).
We’re here to shed some light on what can be done to improve engagement on your social media posts and ensure that your audience is interacting with you.
What is engagement and why does it matter?
Every time someone interacts with a post on social media it counts as engagement, and for many, this is their main measure of success on social media. Engagement includes likes, comments, clicks, shares and mentions.
For many companies, getting eyes on their posts (aka impressions) is the main priority, but is this necessarily good for business? Without also getting good engagement, it’s like a comedian performing in a sold-out arena, but none of the audience is laughing or even listening.
Engagement is so important because, as mentioned earlier, it indicates the quality of your posts – higher quality posts are likely to receive more engagement, and a more engaged audience is more likely to convert.
High engagement rates also inform social media platform algorithms (which dictate what is shown and when) that your content is worth sharing, extending the reach of your posts.
So, creating engaging content can help to increase your brand awareness, as well as nurture your current audience.
Know your audience
If you’ve read some of our other articles, you may have noticed that this is a point that we come back to time and again. It really is that important!
How can you expect to post content that gets people talking if you don’t have a solid idea of what topics they’re interested in?
Social media presents an excellent opportunity to build a connection with your audience, by demonstrating that you’re passionate about the same things that they are, and that you know them well enough to know what matters to them.
Instead of posting about the features and benefits of your device (which should take up no more than 10-15% of your feed) you can use social media to start discussions surrounding your industry.
Have an identifiable voice
Social media is such a special area of marketing because it allows a deeper dive into the personality of your brand.
Sure, your website and all your marketing collaterals were designed to your brand guidelines (or should have been, check out our article on the importance of branding), but social media is continuous, and it builds.
Consistency allows you to build an identifiable voice for your brand, almost like creating a tangible, real person. Strong branding like this encourages connection and therefore makes your brand memorable and recognisable.
The more people see your posts and recognise them, the more likely they will be to engage when the time is right.
Include interactive elements in posts
One way to increase engagement on your social media posts is to include interactive elements, such as polls, questionnaires and scrollable PDFs.
They ask for input or action from your audience, ensuring there is something for them to engage with. Interactions with polls and clicks through to questionnaires etc, all count towards your engagement rate.
Ask questions
One of the simplest ways to improve engagement on your posts is simply to ask for it.
You will probably see that some of the most popular social media accounts tend to end their posts by asking a question.
Essentially, you’re asking viewers to interact and even giving them a starting point. The most success of this tactic is usually seen on posts that encourage a discussion, or even debate.
Users will even begin to interact with one another, and your engagement will go through the roof.
Questions can still work, even on posts that don’t spark debate, if the question you ask is related to the topic of the post and is something that people would be happy, even excited, to answer.
Next time you post, why not try starting or ending it with a question? It could start with something like “How do you….” or “What do you think?”.
Interact with users
There’s nothing more off-putting to social media users than accounts that “post and ghost”. These accounts will post their content, and then forget about it, failing to respond to any of the comments they get.
Responding to comments shows that your brand cares and appreciates when people engage with you. When a brand ignores comments, it can seem quite cold.
Make sure you respond to your feedback, both positive and negative, and get involved in the conversation.
Interact with other accounts
The clue is in the name: Social media. Use your platforms to interact with other accounts by following them and liking and commenting on their posts.
Not only will this extend your reach, by getting you in front of people who potentially haven’t seen you before, it begins to build relationships.
When you interact with people’s posts, they’re appreciative and may naturally feel inclined to return the favour.
People are much more likely to engage with the posts of people they feel they have some kind of relationship with, even if it is just from commenting on each other’s posts.
You can also collaborate with other accounts to increase your engagement. For instance, hosting webinars and cross-posting not only creates opportunities to engage with one another’s posts, but you can also capitalise on their audience.
Use the platform as it was intended, rather than secluding your brand and avoiding conversations
Share your team
Sharing images of your team is one of the quickest ways to boost your social media engagement, and it can be easy to do.
Your team are the people your audience interacts with every day. They’re the friendly faces who serve as a reminder that there are people behind the screens, making the social media posts happen.
Additionally, posts with pictures of people in them tend to perform better as they are perceived as more trustworthy. Just having a picture of a member of your team in your post could multiply the amount of engagement you receive.
Why not try posting about your team’s achievements or even get some quotes from them to use?
Keep up with the data
Data is your best friend when it comes to successful social media. You’ll probably find that all the answers to your questions are contained in your analytics.
It couldn’t be easier to check your engagement rates, and therefore, begin to establish a pattern of what posts perform well, and which ones aren’t as popular.
For instance, if you find that posting PDF slideshows get people liking and commenting, the smart thing to do would be to make more of them.
In the same way, if you find that posting about a certain topic isn’t seeing much success, you shouldn’t waste your time posting about it in the future.
If you’re curious and would like to know more, you can check out our article on the importance of social media reporting.