It is incredibly frustrating to spend time posting on social media and not getting much engagement. You need to always keep in mind that between 0% and 2% of those ‘like’ your Page on Facebook, will actually see your content. Unless you work hard to increase social engagement, which will increase your reach.
Polls
LinkedIn is a great platform to create polls. These help you to understand your audience and ‘hear’ what they really need. And we all love to have our say in a poll, so it is incredibly effective.
Create posts that ask questions
Human beings love being involved and sharing their views. Steer clear of controversial subjects (politics and religion). And never expect and presume that your clients or customers all believe what you believe. You may push some of your clients away if your view does not align with theirs. Focus on being inclusive in all your content which will increase your social engagement.
Engage with people on other posts or in groups
This is where you can provide value and place yourself as an expert. Be helpful, supportive, and knowledgeable. You may only be engaging as your personal profile (and not your business Page, for example), but you will stand out and people will remember you.
Don’t just post on your profile and log off. You need to be active for the platform to put your content in front of a lot more people.
Always respond
The algorithm loves it when you respond to all comments with a reaction and a reply. And if someone has taken the effort to engage with your post, it is simply a courtesy to reply and engage with their comments. Of course, if it is a negative comment, take the reply out of the public sphere and into your Private Messages / Direct Messages. But show publicly that you will reply, but not for everyone else to see.
If the comment is inappropriate, you can ‘hide’ the comment. Only the person who wrote it will see it there, but the rest of your followers, won’t. And abusive posts? You can delete and block the user. Life is too short to deal with this kind of nonsense.
Respond to direct messages
If someone sends you a direct message, please reply to it. Even if just to say ‘thank you for getting in touch’. If you want to take the conversation off the social media platform, ask them to email you, or send them to a link for a contact form from your website.
Most importantly, you will naturally increase engagement when you have fun getting to know your community. And they can get to know you too, which is great for building the ‘know, like and trust’ factor.
