Your social media marketing efforts can be measured by engagement. This tells you how well your content is received, and can help you attract new people to your accounts.

Engagement is any comments, likes, shares, and reactions people give to your content. Although comments and likes can be considered vanity metrics they can still be helpful in helping the algorithm push your content to more people.

It is crucial to monitor engagement if you want to grow your audience and increase awareness about your brand. People fall prey to the trap of focusing too much attention on engagement tactics that do not work. This includes following random people in hopes of a follow back or commenting on random posts.

People buy followers which can have the opposite effect and reduce their engagement. This can lead to a loss of time and a low quality engagement. 97 Switch describes 5 ways you can increase your social media engagement.

Don’t Sell

A lot of people make the mistake of focusing too heavily on selling their products or services on social media. Although it is important to let your audience know what you can offer them, people don’t want to be bombarded with ads.

It is important to strike a balance between marketing your business and offering value to your followers. Some have suggested that an 80/20 rule should also be applied, with 20% of your content selling your product/service and 80% being value-based.

The definition of what is valuable will vary depending on your audience. It’s important to look at what content has been successful in the past to determine what you should post. Ask your audience what they would like to see. Remember that valuable content must be entertaining and educational .

GoPro’s social media is a fantastic way to entertain and provide value to its followers, which leads to great engagement. GoPro sells rugged cameras that are built for adventure.

These videos are unique and interesting. People enjoy looking at the videos they share on their Instagram feed. They also provide captions with information that explain how certain videos were made. They are offering more than ads to their audience. Instead, they offer an account they enjoy engaging with.

Keep up with the trends

Trends can be a great way to get found by new people via social media. Trending music, hashtags, and memes are more likely to be shared by new audiences. Because it is related to other content, users will be more likely to see it on their discovery pages.

Trends don’t include just funny photos or dances on TikTok. Trends can be anything that is related to current events or social media conversations. People can feel more emotion if they post content that is relevant to their real-life experiences. This can result in increased engagement.

It is important to be creative in following trends. People don’t like seeing the same thing repeatedly. Make a trend yours and tie it to your industry. It will be something people want to share and talk about. This is how to increase engagement.

Short-form video content is a trend that will not fade anytime soon. The average engagement rate of short-form videos is 53.9%. The trend that started with TikTok is spreading as Instagram introduces Reels. It also rewards users for using these new features.

Personalize Your Brand

Although algorithms are not easy to crack, one thing is certain. Social media encourages social interactions. A person behind a company makes people feel more connected and comfortable. To encourage engagement, it is important to build relationships with people.

This can be done by showing faces in your videos and feeds. It’s possible to create a human connection by showing more than just product photos and well-designed graphics.

According to a study, 86% prefer authentic brands that are human-centered over brands that seem distant from customers. When planning your social media calendar, don’t be afraid of revealing the mistakes you have made and being authentic.

Dude Wipes is an authentic and relatable brand. They offer flushable wipes that can be used at-home or on-the-go. They discuss difficult topics on social media, but they make it relatable to everyone.

They also know how to use content from their fans’ pages, thereby putting more faces and connections into play.

While you don’t necessarily have to target the exact same audience, it is worth reading their pages on how to be relatable and build authentic relationships to increase engagement.

Post at Optimal Times

Each company will have its own ideal times to publish content. It all depends on your target audience and their availability on social media. A businessman working a 9-5 job, for example, will be more active after work on his lunch break than during his dinner.

Also, think about when is the best time to post. Some brands will see the most success on weekends while others prefer posting during the week.

Although chronological feeds are gone for the most part, algorithms still consider time when ranking posts. If your audience is not active, your content won’t appear at the top of their feeds. This will make it less likely that they will see and engage with your content.

It is important to identify a target audience for your business and a buyer persona.

For example, a restaurant business would be wise to post on Friday afternoon. Because that’s when most people will be making weekend dinner plans.

The same strategy would not work well for companies involved in business-to-business sales because all its target audience would be at home on the weekends. They will forget about Friday’s post, or even not have seen it by Monday.

The audience analytics of your social media accounts can help you determine the best time to post. This will show you the most active times to post and when.

Each account will have its own ideal posting time, depending on their audience. However, there are studies that show when the best time is to post. You might need to experiment to find the best time for you.

Engage With Your Audience

Engaging with your audience is the best way to get them to interact with your content. It’s crucial to be genuine and authentic when doing this. Engaging with your audience will make you more visible and encourage you to engage with them.

Instagram and Facebook have created stickers that can be used in stories. These stickers are a gold mine for engagement. You can ask questions, slides and polls in a way that is easy to understand and respond to. These stickers can be used to spark a conversation. You should respond to people and engage with them.

A call to action is another way to engage your audience. It can be placed at the end or your captions. This will tell your audience exactly what you want them to do.

They will be able to follow your instructions by saying things like “share this article with someone you’d travel with” or “comment on your favorite ice-cream flavor.”

Crumble is one company that uses calls to action and stickers for engagement every day. Crumble sells specialty cookies and offers catering and shipping.

They have a great social media strategy. But what makes them stand out is their strong relationships with customers and followers. Crumble is open to receiving feedback and shows that they are interested in your opinions.

Their posts contain strong calls to actions and their engagement rates prove it.

Engagement

Although engagement rates won’t skyrocket overnight you can improve them slowly and steadily. These techniques are a great way for your business to grow on social media and can be applied immediately.

It is important to be careful not to allow engagement to consume too much of your time. Quality content is more important than obsessing about engagement for hours per day. 

Engagement doesn’t need to be complicated if you listen and are authentic with your customers.