Through the use of social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, we are now able to interact with our audience more easily than ever before, and building a loyal following is high on the agenda of anyone managing their social media channels. Whether you have 100 followers or 100,000, once you’ve got them you don’t want to lose them! According to Vertical Leap, engagement means “click-throughs from search engines, email opens, web page views, time spent on pages, comments on a blog, an increase in followers, retweets and other social shares, and basically any form of real-time activity.” So how can you ensure that your audience stay engaged and aren’t tempted to click on that pesky ‘unsubscribe’ button?
Consistently Update Your Page
By producing consistent content and updates across your social media channels, you are able to encourage interaction and engagement from your followers. There are some brilliant tools available, such as Hootsuite or our very own Divine Aesthetic Social Media Control Panel, which allow you to schedule posts and ensure that you are reliably making updates across your social media pages. It is also a great idea to use a Content Planner, to plan when and what you are going to share out across social media. Download our free content planner Here!
…But Don’t Spam!
Although posting regularly and consistently is great, posting too often can drive people away from your page. Again, think about putting together a content plan. This can help identity what you are posting and when to ensure a good mix of content topics and post types, as well as when it will be posted. Overtime this will help you identify which post types, post frequencies and posting times were most successful and this can inform your future scheduling. Check out our video on the optimal posting frequency for social media here.
Relevant Content
Suitable content will differ for every company. However, it is important to ensure that the content you are posting is relevant to your business. For example, if you are a graphic design agency then it is unlikely that your followers will be interested in a post about ‘how to prune a rose bush’ in the context of their engagement with you. Instead, choose to share and produce content that is on topic, relevant to your industry, in context and – most importantly – interesting to your target audience. Don’t be afraid to make some more personal posts though. If you love snowboarding, then maybe you could share a video that shows some great snowboarding. Especially if you can bring it back to your audience’s area of interest. This can encourage general discussion on your page, whilst also providing an element of your personality to your social media channels.
Call-to-Action
If you are posting content that promotes your businesses services then be sure to include a link in the post. Your audience will not spend any time searching around for a way to contact you; instead it needs to be clearly visible and easy to access.
Reply to Posts
If people are commenting on your posts, or directly writing to you then that’s brilliant, as it proves that you are successfully engaging your audience. Be sure to respond to anyone that is starting a conversation with you, they will be grateful to know that you have taken the time to reply to them and in turn feel valued. Through conversing with your audience, you are able to build a relationship with them, which will strengthen their trust in your services.
Be Professional But Personable
When posting updates on your social media channels, it is important to make sure that anything you post is professional and won’t be something that you regret in the future! Whilst being professional is important, it is also equally important to be personable. As general rule of thumb keep it conversational, speak as if you’re talking one to one and avoid jargon at all costs.
Encourage Interaction
Source content that is interesting, original and that could inspire discussion amongst you audience. If you share the content and caption it with something such as ‘We think that this is a great idea, what do you think?’ you are helping to encourage a discussion amongst your followers. This in turn can help boost the popularity and visibility of your page.
Know who you are talking to
During the initial developments of your business you would have identified who your target audience is. It is important to keep this target audience in the forefront of your mind when creating any content or posting to social media, and ensuring that the chosen content is suitable and of interest to them.
Establishing a loyal following on social media can be a hard task and it doesn’t always happen easily. But by maintaining a consistent posting strategy, and following the above tips, you can be sure to keep your followers engaged and continue to promote your business.
If you don’t have the time to manage your business’s social media presence you’ll love our management service. We are experts when it comes to optimising your social media channels to get the very most out of the benefits and opportunities on offer. Why not give us a call today and see how we can improve your business’s social media presence? Call us on 02392 007 823 or email hello@lovedadesign.com
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