One Simple Tip To Immediately Increase Social Media Engagement

Social Media Comments photo from ShutterstockBetween April 1 and July 31 of this year, social media optimization platform SocialFlow conducted a study collecting data from 1.6 million organic posts from Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. They found that an amazing ninety-nine percent of non-paid posts generated little to no engagement at all.

If you’re using social media to build your personal brand, find a job or grow a business, you want your updates to be a part of the elite one percent of posts generating engagement; likes, shares (retweets), and comments. All forms of engagement are not created equal. While likes are nice, they are not nearly as valuable as a comment, which demonstrates an increased level of interaction and interest from your social media connections, or a share (retweet on Twitter), which is social media gold in the form of others increasing your reach by introducing your posts to their own friends/followers. How do you increase engagement?

Make it about your audience

The simplest method for increasing interaction on social media quickly is making your posts about your connections. You obviously want to post items that your connections will find valuable, but don’t stop there. Take it a step further and ask them for their opinions. For instance, if you share a blog post via Facebook outlining ways stay-at-home moms can increase their efficiency, make sure you ask your connections to share their number one tip as well. You may even tag a couple of stay-at-home mom bloggers you know, asking for their opinions.

Another way to make a post about your connections is to ask them what they need/what questions they have about a topic pertaining to your area of expertise. Encourage them to provide each other with solutions as well, especially on networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ where strings of conversations are fairly easy to follow. You’ll not only see more interactions, but you’ll also foster feelings of goodwill as you’re facilitating a community conversation versus simply focusing on you and your responses.

Lastly, share posts from friends/connections and tag them in your comments leading up to the link. Building a personal brand on social media is not simply shining a spotlight on yourself twenty-four hours a day. To be seen as an expert, share resources and stories from others that help solidify your core brand message while still adding value to connections reading the shared posts, as well as those who you are highlighting.

Picture of Crystal Washington

Crystal Washington

Crystal Washington is a social media marketing strategist, speaker, co-founder of Socialtunities—a social media instruction brand that trains Gen Ys-Boomers on the strategic use of social media, and the author of The Social Media WHY: A Busy Professional’s Practical Guide to Using Social Media. She is hired by corporations and associations around the globe to provide keynotes, workshops, and webinars.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

We can describe exactly who we used to be. We still don’t have the words for who we are now.

We can describe exactly who we used to be. We still don’t have the words for who we are now.

The Vessel

People about to give a speech consistently believe their own nervousness is far more visible to the room than it actually is, a specific mismatch researchers gave its own name decades ago and the pattern keeps showing up

People about to give a speech consistently believe their own nervousness is far more visible to the room than it actually is, a specific mismatch researchers gave its own name decades ago and the pattern keeps showing up

The Blog Herald

Writers who try to sound like everyone online eventually learn the same lesson: the voice that works for everybody works for no one

Writers who try to sound like everyone online eventually learn the same lesson: the voice that works for everybody works for no one

Global English Editing

The best communicators are not the most detailed but the most selective about which details their audience will use

The best communicators are not the most detailed but the most selective about which details their audience will use

Global English Editing

A study that tracked how couples split their time between texting, calls, and being in the same room found that face-to-face time — and, more surprisingly, even brief phone calls — predicted how understood a partner felt, while hours of texting moved satisfaction not at all

A study that tracked how couples split their time between texting, calls, and being in the same room found that face-to-face time — and, more surprisingly, even brief phone calls — predicted how understood a partner felt, while hours of texting moved satisfaction not at all

The Blog Herald

As AI-generated content floods search results and social feeds, a growing number of companies now exist just to certify that a human made the thing you’re looking at

As AI-generated content floods search results and social feeds, a growing number of companies now exist just to certify that a human made the thing you’re looking at

Global English Editing