Every savvy business leader knows that in this time of intentional distancing, social media is the best tool to bring the customer base closer. But the new stars of communication — Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest — can only bridge the gap if it’s a two-way street. In social media terms, that means engagement.
The simplest test to finding out how engaged we are on social media is to check how many likes, followers and shared posts your business has today. Then, look back and see how much growth you’ve had since you started your profiles.
You don’t have to be an expert in Twitter feed analysis and YouTube audience retention. A busy leader needs somebody they can ask every week, because these numbers hit the bottom line of communications. There’s no trick to interpreting the results. If your team is following 100 media sources and nobody is following you, you’re invisible.
If sales are slipping, action is required. If your social media campaign isn’t working in the time of COVID, it’s a reputation emergency. Here’s what the team needs to do and fast:
- Focus on your audience and check out your competitor’s profiles. Take time to research what your competition is doing and who follows them. If your Twitter or Instagram only has 50 followers, look at who others in the industry are following and build your audience. One strategy of growth we deploy is following 100 people on Twitter/Instagram daily and then unfollowing the accounts that didn’t follow back at the end of the week. Posting regularly, at least 3-5 times per week, will also keep your profile active and encourage your audience to engage.
- Optimize your profiles. Every aspect of your social media profile can adjust for better visibility. Much like the algorithms for Google, SEO tactics enhance social media. To optimize SEO on your channels, you’ll need a photo with an identifiable company logo, a bio that includes the company website and a keyword-rich description with a straightforward call to action.
- Time your posts. Social media users often believe their posts are seen by all of their followers when in reality the algorithm only shows your post to about 10% of your followers (or less). Post at slower times of the day to get on the right side of the algorithm and show up on your followers’ timelines. One misconception is that you should be posting when your followers are all online, but if you wait until non-peak hours to post, you are less likely to be inundated in the sea of posts that are going live at that time.
- Balance your content between promotional and useful information. Social media platforms should promote a business, but too many promotional posts can drive users away and leave a bad taste in their mouths. Users like to see posts that are useful to them like how-to’s, attention-grabbing articles and surveys. Use vivid imagery to accompany posts. Videos tend to drive up engagement by 20-30%. Twitter and Instagram’s polls allow the audience to directly engage.
- Interact and engage with your followers. One of the biggest misconceptions companies have when creating a social media page is that if they post some content, the engagement will come, which is often not the case. You will build rapport and accelerate customer trust if you “like” or retweet posts and respond to comments. The measure of social media success is more than audience size — it’s an engaged one.
OWC’s clients have seen tremendous growth in social media, doubling in followers, engagement and impressions within one quarter of the steady activity outlined above.
We develop a full report of what is working and what isn’t, what your competitors are doing and track improvement each month to ensure growth and successful engagement.
Give us a call, and we’ll help you analyze and strategize.
