How to Engage a Social Media User in New Content

How to Engage a Social Media User in New Content

By Angela Baker

Social media has become the ultimate tool in marketing. For many, it has become the catalyst for all types of brand growth, customer engagement, and lead creation.

It’s fast becoming an essential platform to consider, regardless of the industry that you’re in. Not only does it allow you to reach new people, but it also allows you to build meaningful relationships with existing customers.

Promoting your brand through social media is vital. However, your efforts can go to waste if your content isn’t getting engaged with.

Below are the best ways to increase social media engagement, which will ultimately help your business grow and increase brand awareness.

1. Don’t just talk about your brand

One of the most detrimental things you can do, in terms of social media, is just pushing out sales pitches.

Obviously, every now and then, publishing sales-like content, and advertisement is okay – but you have to create a human voice behind your content.

Talk about various relevant topics, publish friendly content, and don’t make it evident that you’re just on social media to promote your brand.

If you do simply post about your brand, your products, and your deals – although your feed may look full, your engagement rate will be very low.

Merely promoting your brand truly does create a negative impression.

2. Q&As

In fact, one of the best ways to include your audience with your content, and turn attention away from sales is through Q&As.

Many bloggers and YouTubers turn to their own followers, for help with their content.

For instance, they post on their social media platforms, asking for questions to answer in their next blog post or video. Not only is this a fantastic way to include your audience with your content, but it also helps with engagement.

Consequently, this also creates a human voice for many brands.

3. Call to actions and questions

Sometimes, your lack of engagement is due to there not being enough actionable vocabulary in your posts.

If you don’t ask your audience to give your post a thumbs up or a comment, they might not do so.

Just like with copywriting and blog writing, your social media posts should all end with a simple call to action.

For example:

• “Double-tap if you agree”
• “What do you think?”
• “What do you want to see next?”
• “Comment on this post if you want to be featured”

4. Share other people’s content

The best way to get noticed on social media is by noticing those around you.

If you “retweet” other people’s content, or add it to your Instagram story, people will do precisely the same with yours. Social media is very much a transactional area. If you share something, your posts will also get shared.

Of course, make sure any pieces of content you do re-share is relevant and appropriate for your brand. You don’t want to alienate specific followers with shared content.

5. Guest posting

Guest posting works in both ways – each time it’s beneficial to your engagement rate, and content.

Firstly, you can guest post for somebody else. Throughout the blog, mention your brand. From this, share your work on your social media platforms – and gain new audiences.

Secondly, you can ask other bloggers or brands to guest post on your website. Ultimately, they will then share this on their social media platforms, and bring in new followers to your social.

Either way, encourage your guest posters and your followers to engage with your posts, and you’ll a surefire way to fill your platforms with valuable, exciting content.

The majority of people follow and engage with accounts online that will bring them something meaningful. Guest posting is undoubtedly one way to provide them with this.

6. Contests and giveaways

For momentary engagement, that will be sure to bring in new followers and audiences, contests and giveaways are the best options.

Of course, these can’t be a daily occurrence, but they certainly help to push your brand message out there and encourage audience engagement.

Contests and giveaways should all end with a call to action, or “rules”. For instance, they must like, follow, and share your posts.

If you conduct contests or giveaways regularly, your audience will also engage with your other posts more frequently.

7. Don’t forget about visuals

Social media is an incredibly visual place, and large bodies of text just won’t suffice.

Break up everything online with pictures and videos, and make sure they’re high-quality and relevant.

Visuals will make your social media posts more appealing and will grab the attention of the reader instantly.

Try out all types of visuals – Images, Gifs or videos, and see which one works best for you.

8. Influencer marketing

This is assuming that you already have an established connection with an influencer. Influencer marketing is a great way to get your content viewed, engaged with and shared.

By asking influential accounts, revolving around your niche, to promote your posts will be sure to increase your engagement rate. Be aware that you will need to offer them some kind of reparation – whether it’s with money, a discount or a freebie.

You could even ask influencers to guest post for you, which is a win-win situation, and benefits you and your brand in more ways than one.

In fact, collaborating with others in the industry, regardless of follower counts, is always a thoughtful way to encourage engagement.

9. Use hashtags

Many social media users have started to stray away from hashtags, which is a big shame, especially when they have so many benefits.

Firstly, hashtags are a great way to signify keywords in a post and emphasize a specific piece of information. For example, ending a post with a list of #emotions are a great way to articulate these feelings.

Hashtags also provide you with a great way to start social media campaigns or give your followers an easy way to follow a discussion. Take Coca Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign, for example.

10. Make them feel engaged

One of the best ways to make your audience engage with your posts is by simply making them feel involved.

This means actively engaging with their posts, and including them in discussions. Liking, commenting and sharing their posts, will make them do the same for you. Like we said, social media is an extremely transactional form.

Start a conversation with your customers, and directly include them in every aspect of your content. Mentioning them in your posts, and tagging them in various tweets.

You content itself should also engage with the audience. Ask questions and talk about relevant, topical issues.

11. Post frequently

Of Course, every one of the points above is essential, but posting regularly is perhaps the most important tip.

If you genuinely want your followers to engage with your posts, you need to frequently create them. Don’t just pop up every now and then, and expect your audience to be loyal and supportive.

Don’t forget to look into optimal times and post accordingly.

Conclusion

All the points above require one thing; analytics.

Every new engagement tactic or approach that you try, you have to track your analytics, to ensure that they are doing well.

Remember to also keep on track of the latest trends in your industry, and on social media as well.

Angela Baker is a self-driven specialist who is currently working as a freelance writer at BestEssayEducation and GrabMyEssay writing services and is trying to improve herself and her blogging career. She is always seeking to discover new ways for personal and professional growth and is convinced that it’s always important to broaden horizons.  Angela writes for LiveInspiredMagazine.

More information about Irish Tech News and the Business Showcase

FYI the ROI for you is => Irish Tech News now get over 1.5 million monthly views, and up to 900k monthly unique visitors, from over 160 countries. We have over 860,000 relevant followers on Twitter on our various accounts & were recently described as Ireland’s leading online tech news site and Ireland’s answer to TechCrunch, so we can offer you a good audience!

Since introducing desktop notifications a short time ago, which notify readers directly in their browser of new articles being published, over 16000 people have now signed up to receive them ensuring they are instantly kept up to date on all our latest content. Desktop notifications offer a unique method of serving content directly to verified readers and bypass the issue of content getting lost in people’s crowded news feeds.

Drop us a line if you want to be featured, guest post, suggest a possible interview, or just let us know what you would like to see more of in our future articles. We’re always open to new and interesting suggestions for informative and different articles. Contact us, by email, twitter or whatever social media works for you and hopefully we can share your story too and reach our global audience.

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking