Engaging and retaining your social media followers.
For many companies on Facebook and twitter, a common shared problem is being able to effectively engage with their following, and finding out how successful they are at it. And as most people (unless they feel as though they are being spammed or overwhelmed) will not unfollow a Facebook page or twitter account – even if they do not actually ‘follow’ the content being produced – it is hard to gauge what works and what does not.
This is the paradox which many companies using social media channels are struggling to deal with. Because their numbers seem to be stable, no matter the rate of content output – how can they know if they are effectively engaging their audience?
In this blog I will help explain some of the biggest complexities facing social media active companies in regards to follower engagement, ways to find relevant solutions for your business, and how Tron Media can help!
1. Getting your readers attention
It may seem obvious, but how often have you simply scrolled past an article posted on your feed simply because the title, or the description simply didn’t ‘grab’ you? This is quite often because the post was centred around just being informative, almost as if it were designed for somebody specifically looking up a solution for a specific problem i.e. “How to optimise your websites meta-descriptions”.
Unless by some remarkable coincidence your followers happen to be looking for that solution in that exact moment of time, they will see it as an irrelevant piece of information. What you need to do in order to grab their attention is to pose your information as a solution, or as something benefiting the user.
2. Audience interaction
Another tip that may come as no surprise to you, but one that definitely seems to matter is how often you directly interact with your audience, whether replying to their posts or liking/retweeting comments they have made about your service – If your followers see that you are more than just a page on their social media accounts, and that there are actual people involved then you establish a relationship with your following.
In short, the more you interact with fans – the more likely they are to interact back with you. With this you will find that you can establish a large vocal community on your social media feeds and it will be far easier to find out whether you are getting through to them or not.
3. Creating a professional biography
A brief description can be useful to identify your company, but you need to let your followers know who you are, what you do and how you do it – and a brief summary might not be able to meet these requirements. For example, which description do you feel more inclined to follow out of the following: “Media Business Inc. EST. 2005. Phone No. 01234 555 1234” and “At Media Business Inc., we supply detailed, tailored solutions to suit your needs. Book a skype consultation with and find out how we can help”.
With a professional, engaging bio you will seem a lot less reclusive than the non-preferable alternative.
4. Staying active
Be frequent, or at least consistent with your posting. If you get into a rhythm of posting every so often, your social media audience will be conditioned to expect content from you at a certain point in time. This can both work in your favour and against it, because if you do post in that ‘expected’ time-frame then you may find that there is a rather immediate response from your audience, but if you do not meet that time-frame, people will notice and best case scenario, may not check as frequently, and in the very worst case, might actually bring it up on the page.
Quantity over quality is not the answer in this regard, but keeping consistency and not ‘maintaining radio silence’ for long periods of time then suddenly posting a lot in a short duration is important to note.
Are you looking to up your social game? At Tron Media, we can help you increase your online presence through the use of different social media platforms. Our social team have a copious amounts of knowledge to help you engage and reach more people, whether that be through the use of paid advertising or organic posting. Get in touch today!