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Today, social media is considered to be one of the best ways businesses can engage with their target market but it takes much more than simply setting up a profile and sending out a message each day. In order to build your engagement and get the most out of social media, you need to establish a clear strategy.

Below we’ve outlined some of the tasks you need to add to your social media checklist in order to build engagement on social media:

Your profile…

If there are key bits of information missing from your social media profiles then it’s going to look like you can’t be bothered with them.

Make sure you include relevant information about your business, your logo and not forgetting your cover image.

The tone of your profile content should match that of your business and other marketing material to keep things consistent. Most social networks now allow you to add a cover – don’t miss out on the opportunity present your brand key messages in a visually striking way and capture your visitor’s attention.

Understand the etiquette of each social media channel

Whilst all social media channels are great for building engagement, the way you go about it will be different depending on the site you’re using. Make sure you do your research first so you know how to target your audience effectively:

• With Twitter you can get away with posting short updates on a frequent basis, using hash tags to extend your reach.
• Whereas on Facebook, you’re probably not going to want to post as frequently (though keep it consistent) and should think about using highly visual content like images and video to increase engagement.
• On a site like LinkedIn, you need to make sure you’re not
  spamming or hard-selling your products to your business connections. It’s best to post content that shows you’re an industry expert instead, and don’t forget to utilise LinkedIn Groups..

You shouldn’t underestimate the importance and potential of creating videos and optimising them for platforms like YouTube. You can also consider creating micro videos. For the most part the
two ‘flavours’ available for micro videos are Instagram and Vine. All three can be valuable and ensuring you post regularly, with well optimised content, will help you to reach new subscribers and increase your brand visibility.

Find out the best time to post

Do you find that when you post at certain times a day you get way more interactions than at others?

Finding out your optimal posting time is essential and can be done using tools like Buffer and Hootsuite. There’s no point in posting if no one is going to be online to read it, so make sure you’re only posting when your target audience is present and ready to interact.

Remember it’s not all about you

Your followers aren’t going to stick around for long if all you ever post is links to your website or blog.

You need to make it more interesting for them. Sharing industry-relevant content from other sources and your own thought leadership pieces is a great way to keep them interested and show there’s value in following your social media account.

Posting stories and media that show your brand people behind the brand will provide some personality and individuality. You should create content that your social media followers will be interested in. Tailoring content around their needs is a great way to build social media engagement.

Engage your followers

Don’t forget to reply to any comments you get on social media. Even if someone has just re-tweeted you on Twitter, say thank you and give them a retweet in return. The more interactive you are with your followers, the better they will respond to future updates and posts.

The best way to build engagement on social media is to be social – the clue is in the name! We’re always delighted to hear from you here at Opace, so please give us a call if there’s any aspect of
this article you’d like to discuss.

To find out more about our social media projects, please see our case studies here:
https://opace.agency/services/social-media-projects