ADAPT OR DIE: How to improve your social media engagement

How do you increase your social media engagement if you're a small or medium-sized company so that your social visibility grows? 

The quick and easy answers to that question so that you don't have to read the entire article are the following. This way, you can get back to what you need to do rather than spending 5 or 10 minutes reading the article.

• Test and analyze content types
• Share information that your audience will love
• Develop a consistent brand
• Identify the best times and days to post
• Reply back to people who comment on your posts  

Test and analyze content types

Testing new forms of content can feel a little intimidating, mainly if your company is accustomed to doing things a specific way. However, one thing that can help you mitigate the risk and the fear of not knowing whether your new strategy is working or not is to have a content calendar outlining content topics/categories and how they will be communicated. Each piece of content must also be in line with the metrics you want to measure so that you can determine why a piece of content performed the way it did. 

If you're not sure how to get started, here are few things you can think about when deciding the best format for social media and how to communicate a message. 

What if I don't have a budget large budget? 
Let's assume that you have decided that you want to try video for your social media platforms. Hiring a videographer to shoot and create a video can be costly if it is a one-off asset. However, instead of creating one video and hoping to perform well, you can still shoot one video and divide it into smaller pieces that put a story together. This way, you have a campaign that you can test, measure, and improve on your next campaign or your successive iterations of content.​

Share information that your audience will love
How do you know what kind of information or content your audience will like?

Again, this goes back to testing different types of content and formats that cohesively come together so that you can measure and identify trends in your analytics. Your audience will tell you that they like your content based on likes, comments, shares, saves, or direct messages that you receive.

However, this is not to say that these are the only metrics to look at if you are creating a campaign. It's important to think about how other metrics may signal that your audience on social media likes your content. For example, maybe a piece of content you designed or created for a campaign is meant to drive traffic to your website, and you expect to drive 2000 users from IG to your website because you want people to know about your product or service. If you get less than 2000, does it mean that it fails? If you get double the amount of traffic to your website, does it mean it succeeded? Different purposes have different metrics, and how your audience shows you that they like your content depends on how your expectations are set from the beginning.

Develop a consistent brand per platform

Depending on the industry and the market you cater to, it's important to create content with how you want to present your brand on social media. Social media is a very loose, conversational channel that can show your brand's different facets of your company. It doesn't mean that your web brand should directly translate to Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok.

For instance, Apple does not create content focused on Apple products on Instagram. Boeing does not just focus on commercial aviation. The creative direction and the communication that your brand can establish on social channels are dependent on the goals your company wants to develop.

Identify the best times and days to post 

Did you know that if you disregard the times and days in which your audience is most active with your content and on your profile, you can be the one inhibiting your social media growth?

Despite differing opinions on when and how frequently to post, the times and days are available to you on your business Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube profiles shining light for your business to post and create content on your terms and in the needs of your business. This is your personalized agenda on determining the frequency and days you should consider posting.

Reply back to people who comment on your posts. 

Are you replying to comments people leave? Do you only answer to the negative comments and leave the positive comments out?

One of the simplest things that can help you increase your social media visibility is replying to comments people leave on your social media account. Believe it or not, people remember the comments they leave and whether you respond to them or not. If they are your biggest fan, they love your brand; they want to connect that someone inside your company takes the time to reply to them. Replying to someone signals to someone that they are important to your business, reinforcing the relationship a customer or a fan has with your brand.

Why is social media engagement important? 

Social media engagement is the one key that enables your business to establish authority. People make a common mistake to assume that likes, comments, and shares are one way to measure engagement.

Engagement is a two-way street. The second way your business should consider measuring engagement should be spending time replying to people or connecting with other people on social media and reaching out to those who liked your post, spending time on competitor accounts, and commenting on their posts. An additional metric people don't look at is how many messages were sent out via direct messages and comments.

The more you spend time connecting with other accounts, Instagram, Facebook, Linked In, TikTok, improves the overall social media visibility, the audience groups you are connecting with to discover your profile and look at your content. Additionally, you also receive look-alike content in your suggestions page or explorer pages that you can use to reach out to similar accounts for your business and also build upon who your ideal client is.

Is social media engagement the only metric that I should worry about to improve my business? 

Social media engagement is one thing to look at when people are considering options for a solution. People who like, comment, share, or save your posts are because they express intent and are in the consideration stage of their buyer's journey.

This is one reason why replying back to your comments, reaching out to people who liked or shared your post is crucial because you are actively engaging in their journey. It's a personalized approach that can signal to your biggest followers, fans and customers, how much you care about them and how much they're willing to vouch for you.  

All elements from developing a brand, creating different content topics, replying, and understanding your audience's time frames are most active create a winning social media strategy that will get your social media up and running in no time.

So how do you get started?

There are a few things to consider for your approach. First, why is social media essential for your business, and how is a social media strategy going to improve your business performance? This is an important question because what we see happen is that there is a lot of business who see other companies doing social media and experience social media envy. Many companies take a one-to-one approach where they believe that the website brand should translate to social media and end up with content focused entirely on the business. In other situations, companies don't' know how social media is contributing to their business objectives or how social integrates into the fabric of the business. 

Remember, social media is not about you; it's about them.

​It's also important to note that your social audience is not a 1 to 1 comparison to your general company audience. Assuming that your social audience will resonate with the same message as your general company audience is a sure-fire not to reach your business objectives on social. Social media moves a lot faster than everything else, and to help your business, Astrobrand Media conducts a SWOT analysis to solve challenges and create your goals. Having an actionable social strategy allows us to dig deep into the numbers and the audience's sentiment on social so that you can find new customers and grow your business. ​If you're considering having a social media program that works for your business, your marketing team must work alongside creative minds to brainstorm ideas, conduct research, and layout the communication that aligns with your business goals and your audience. That way, you have measurable insights on how you're approaching your objectives if you're hitting your targets that you have outlines for your business on social. 

Start Your Social Media Journey

​About the Author

​Orlando Martinez
Social Media Strategist | Digital Marketing | Partner
Orlando is a social media marketing specialist helping businesses become social and integrating social into your business objectives and how it works for you.