Sometimes it can be confusing to understand what engagement is and the type of engagement that is the most important on your social media platforms. Essentially engagement is a measure of how people are interacting with your social media accounts and content. The general rule of thumb is that all engagement is good engagement and that is true. But, knowing what the best engagement for your posts is, is going to be the most useful and beneficial when targeting your audience.
Let’s go through the different types of engagement you may get and also ways to engage with people online that will also benefit your brand.
How important are Likes?
Likes are the easiest to understand. You like the look of something you give it a heart or thumbs up. However, there is a lot more to likes than you may think. Essentially likes aren’t everything, crazy right? You can have 100 likes and still not reach your goals with engagement. This is because it has become very easy for people to double-tap mindlessly without even reading what you have posted about.
We are all guilty of following some of our favourite brands and not always reading their posts but liking them anyway, it happens. But, you don’t want this to happen all the time and risk losing an important follower. This is why comments might be better than likes.
Comments – Perfect for communication!
Comments are exactly what they say on the tin. Comments are so beneficial because it’s like a social media call to action. ‘Comment below’ gives your followers a chance to interact with you and support you. It’s a great way for your followers to give you feedback and say if they enjoy your content.
Any type of engagement on social media where your followers actually do something to interact with you is the type of engagement you want. That’s why sometimes it’s important to not focus on the likes and more on the type of engagement where your followers have made more effort to communicate.
Speaking of communication, try and always reply back, even if it is a rhetorical question, maybe reply with an emoji. This is mainly so your followers don’t feel ignored and that they know you are reading their comments and feedback and always taking it on board.
Don’t forget your Dm’s
On the theme of communication, direct messages are one of the most popular ways you will get feedback, questions, queries and sometimes complaints. Most people prefer to use some type of text type of communication to address their questions. With live chat support being so popular it’s not unlikely that your followers may try to contact you directly via your social media. This is a perfect time to respond back and start a conversation, building that bond and trust with your followers.
If you have a good, fairly fast reply rate on dm’s you’re going to slowly start to build a reputation for being very active online. No one likes waiting for a brand to respond when they need help but, sometimes you may be too busy to reply straight away. This is the perfect opportunity to create an automated message making your followers aware that you try to reply back within 24 hours.
Saves & Faves – The Algorithms Favourite
It’s commonly known that not many people know about the save feature on social media, specifically Instagram. The save feature allows you to keep some of your favourite posts or videos in the saved section on your profile. This really helps and boosts your brand’s engagement rates as a brand.
Instagram recognises when people have saved something and if you are getting a lot of saves it sees that people want your content. Essentially the more saves you get the more the algorithm likes you and pushes your posts out onto the explore page. This is a great way to try and initiate more calls to action for your followers.
A really good way to get people to save your posts can be with infographics that have a lot of knowledge on them. People will want to save something that is useful to them.
Start the Sharing cycle
One of the most organic and effective ways to get your followers up and engagement rates boosted is getting people to share your content with their own stories. Bonus points if they have a bigger following behind them. The best way to get people to share your content is by sharing theirs. Follow a brand that you like and think would be happy to support you. If you are both sharing each other’s content your followers will follow them and vice versa.
It’s a great way to gain new organic followers who clearly have similar interests and passions as you and your brand.
Engagement is the key to success online. The more people who are liking, commenting, sharing and saving, the more your brand will get noticed. Try giving it a go for some other brands. Like and comment on their posts because the best thing about social media is there is always a community. If you start to do some of these things for brands you love they will more than likely want to support you too. Don’t be afraid to comment on bigger brands’ posts and even share them. It’s not unheard of that a brand with 300,000 followers has shared a brand that just started or with a smaller following. Be confident!
Get in touch!
We hope that this blog has given you a little more information about engagement and how you can best use it for your brands social media. If you do have any questions or queries, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can also message us on our own social media pages.