Boost Engagement on Social Media With These 6 Tips

By now, we know that social media is among the easiest ways of gaining more brand awareness & followers. However, we must continuously find creative ways to keep our audiences’ attention in order to boost engagement. Gathering more likes, comments, shares, retweets etc. does require one to think outside the box but it’s not as hard as you might think. Incorporate a few of following into your social media posting schedule and I am willing to bet that you will experience a boost in engagement.

1. Leverage Trending News

If there was ever a good time to boost engagement by piggy backing or riding the proverbial “coat tail” to success, this would be it. While you should definitely piggy back on trending topics that relate to your industry, it is totally okay to share random videos and posts about trending news that may not necessarily relate to your topic. 

Don’t know where to get trending news?

Facebook explains that on a computer, these topics appear on the right side of your News Feed in one of 5 category lists: All News, Politics, Science and Technology, Sports and Entertainment. On mobile devices, trending topics appear as one combined list. You can see this list by tapping the search box. Here is a visual of the desktop view.

To my point, there is nothing wrong with throwing in something random like a great recipe or a funny video to boost engagement. In fact, I highly encourage it. It breaks up the monotony on your timeline and adds an element of surprise. Take one of my favorite videos for example. I am pretty sure you’ve seen the “Thug Life Cat” video…well, here it goes again!

Whether it’s Beyonce’s superbowl performance or a weigh in on a popular tv show, a hot topic is the surest way to boost engagement on your social media channels. Through Pinterest, Facebook or just Twitter, you will not only be showing them that you are “human” but also what your particular perspective is on a topic.

2. Create Groups

This tip is more tailored towards Facebook groups and cannot be performed from your fan page but it is essential in order to boost engagement inside your private group(s). Most of the social media platforms have the option of creating groups where followers and potential clients meet and interact. The trick is not just creating them but also making them active, lively and constructive. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Create theme days- Over in the Young, Wise & Free community, we have a theme for each day of the week to encourage communication and to be sure our members are actively trying to better themselves and aren’t just trying to sale something. If you want to learn how to create effective & organized facebook groups, click here.

• Offer group members discounts and free offerings that outsiders do not have access to.

• Provide ongoing educational instructions specifically for the group before anyone else outside the group is privy to it.

• Doc your highly sought after videos (or links to the videos) in the group and encourage others to join the group if they want to see them.

• Create fun business challenges where members complete a task or series of tasks that will lead them to accomplishing a business that they would have otherwise procrastinated in doing.

Young, Wise & Free Facebook Group

3. Host Live Question & Answer Sessions

Facebook is one of the best platforms where this trick can be exercised as chatting and answering questions can be done in real-time with its live video feature. Also, leverage periscope to take advantage of similar capabilities then have the video post to your Twitter page. 

4. Swift and Thorough Responding

When you respond quickly, your following will undoubtedly increase. People see that you actually care about taking the time to address them. Be sure to always provide thorough and friendly feedback and ask them if you have fully addressed their concern with a sound solution. This also helps to show them that you are answering their questions and that you have not just put them off on the virtual assistant. 

5. Share, Mention, Like, Pin

Here we will call into play the law of reciprocity. Essentially, it means that when someone does something nice for you, your hard-wired human nature determines that you do something nice for them in return. In the social media world we need all the good “ju-ju” lol, we can get. So be sure to share others posts and content as well as comment on their blogs and posts. Does this guarantee that, that particular person will reciprocate? No. However, others will undoubtedly share your material. 

6. Organize Contests 

Facebook and Twitter are arguably the best social media sites today. They not only have billions of users but more are subscribing to their offers on a daily basis. You might have probably seen pages asking for “Shares” and “Likes.” More recently, there have been lots of competitions, typically organized by top brands. You can choose to run a contest whereby you will reward new followers and Likers.

The best way of running the game is by asking your audience to like your page and maybe share your post on their timelines. You can also ask them to tweet a photo tagging your handle. After the contest ends, you can determine the winner by the number of likes and comments their post garnered or favorites their tweet received. It is by so doing that you will be engaging with your audience and thus boosting your engagement in the social media.

I challenge you to work in at least 2 of these ideas into your business this week so you can boost your engagement. If you have any questions or want to see these live and in action, come check out the Young, Wise & Free group.