Explode Your Engagement: Social Media Hacks You're Not Using But Should Be!
If you’re ready to be blown away with some new tricks that you can start using on your social media platforms, you’ve come to the right place! If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I’m always scouring the internet to learn what’s new and then I love to share it with all of you! There are so many awesome people out there hacking up a social storm and creating amazing content. I’m especially excited to share my unique tricks that you’re not using, but you really should be because some of them are totally underutilized.
If you’re here, I assume you’re looking for a change in the way you’re currently handling your social platforms. Whether it’s to see better engagement or to gain followers, these tricks should definitely help you out. While I have plenty of hacks to share with you, let’s keep things simple and streamlined and focus on just the most “social” platforms today: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are definitely tricks for others (and I plan to share those later on down the road), but today, let’s focus on these “top dogs” who are currently rocking your engagement needs. Whether your main objective is to grow a small business, establish yourself as a social media influencer, provoke emotions through powerful visual aids (ways like dating can help unleash your potential, use of services like Twitter likes, retweets, and comments, etc.) or just have fun and meet new friends – utilize these creative hacks on these specific platforms and let’s watch you explode with that engagement!
Understanding the Importance of Engagement on Social Media
I believe that every single one of us wishes that every single post or tweet that we placed in the various social media platforms would explode and take off, gaining us tens of thousands if not tens of millions of likes or shares or retweets. And, while there are strategies in place to make that happen, they are the stars of abiding by “if you build it they will come.” Rather than concentrating on sheer numbers surrounding your presence, I also contend that people should be devoting equal time and/or resources for their social media metric or analyzing the data that’s so available about those presences.
If we are to use social media as the tool of communicating with our target audience, it stands to reason that we want to get the most bang for our buck regarding how many individuals, as well as who those individuals, are seeing, and then acting upon our posts. Fortunately, no matter which platform you enjoy using, each one of them keeps track of those stats and provides various means to help you analyze and act on the information that they provide.
However, before we embark on some of the steps that you can take to explode your engagement on these platforms, I want to take a minute to define what we mean by “engagement”. Simply put, engagement is a marketing term that measures the public shares, likes, and comments for an online business’s social media efforts. When your target audience likes, shares, or makes a comment on any of the posts that your business makes, that counts as engagement.
Furthermore, to go a bit more in-depth, engagement measures behaviors, which include what a viewer actually does with the social media content that they come across. These types of social media behaviors can be used to evaluate and thoroughly compare the individual user’s involvement and actions. Each user’s participation can include the use of any type of content – such as the text, the audio, or any video that is contained in the post. If they click on that post to find out more information about what they are looking at, that is considered engagement.
Leveraging Visual Content for Increased Engagement
Did you know that images on Facebook get 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs compared to text-based posts? Images that are vibrant, colorful, and tell a story get the most engagement. Try to avoid generic images and opt instead for something that makes your business stand out. For example, social media pro Marsha Collier uses images of her computer before and after having her cat BubbatheCat lay on it, which you can definitely say is part of her personal brand. Another way to boost engagement is to get to know your audience better. Try running contests and having more personal conversations to get a sense of what your community likes. You could also ask your fans what images they would like to see more of, and then of course try to post content that reflects those interests.
After you find the sweet spot of when to post, what to post, and who responds, it’s time to optimize what you learned from all this analysis. Here is what you should be checking: Who comments the most? Where are your fans located, and what are their age and gender? For example, on they discovered the page was popular in Western countries, but Arabic-speaking users sent the most comments. It’s a good idea to figure out where your users are logging in from (i.e., desktop, mobile, iPad) since that has an effect on the ideal time of posting. It’s also important to track how often your competitors are posting and what times and types of posts they are putting up as well. Use a combination of your findings together and execute them precisely at the time the data shows, in order to optimize the effectiveness of your posts.
Utilizing Infographics and Data Visualization
As you know, people’s attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter. It’s like we have a love affair going on with mobile devices and social media, constantly craving bits and pieces of information. So, large amounts of information are not as important to a majority of people. That’s why information presented in small, easy-to-understand bits is becoming more and more popular in the website design world.
Infographics and data visualization not only provide bite-size pieces of information, but they also help relay a message in a quick, effective, and appealing way. You’re providing a valuable resource to people that is informative, good on the eyes, and so easy to share on social media. People love sharing infographics and data visualization because of its standalone features. Find statistics and facts related to a relevant topic and get ready to create or have an infographic done on your brand’s behalf. Share it on your site first and then be prepared for others to link to it and share throughout their social networks. You are likely to gain traffic in no time.
Creating Engaging Videos and Live Streams
Creating videos can be intimidating. The way around that is to use live streams or to edit your videos into polished pieces. There are some specific things that get a lot more engagement on videos. By learning to do these things, you can make sure that when you create video content, you’re creating content people actually want to see. Creating content that people want to see isn’t just about getting likes and shares, though. It’s also about getting information out there in a way that people will learn from it.
I talk a lot about the importance of creating how-tos and educational content. One reason I think it’s so important is that text-only answers aren’t sufficient when people are learning something new. Answering questions with a video means that the person you’re helping can see the steps to their answer. This is much more effective than trying to describe it with words. There are several platforms out there that give you numbers that show you which answers have worked best and which have failed. Review the videos you get good interaction on and figure out what worked. Then apply those techniques to your lower-performing videos.
Harnessing the Power of User-Generated Content
A shift from consumer to participant is visible in the way we interact through social media today, and businesses can benefit from that. Followers cultivate authentic content, and trust in information can help persuade buying behavior. So if it’s authentic enough to influence behavior, then it is worthy of your attention. Utilizing user-generated content (UGC) is low-hanging fruit for digital marketers because it strikes the perfect blend for driving engagement for businesses. (It’s inexpensive, it requires real audience participation, and it’s a lot of fun).
In essence, allow your followers to do the talking on social with user-generated content. If athletes, employees, customers or vendors engage with your brand in person, professionally, or online, enable the community to take part in creating content and lighten up your load. Encourage others’ creativity, receive verifiable, authentic, persuasive content, and strengthen the confidence and unique appeal of your brand. UGC doesn’t seem to be just about repainting existing content; it’s about moving back to the basics and producing actual authentic, helpful cutting-edge products or services. The most enjoyable thing for both firms and consumers is the variety and platform where UGC functions. Have fun experimenting and thinking about approaches that your brand can transform submissions into innovative user-generated content.
Maximizing Engagement Through Interactive Features and Polls
Getting people involved in your content isn’t easy. Fortunately, there are ways to encourage interaction. Social media outlets are constantly coming out with new ways to keep your followers involved. Learn what your audience loves to see, and don’t be afraid to mix things up.
Stay on trend, and use significant hashtags. By participating in a trend, you’re getting the attention of anyone with an interest in that trend. Use specific and relevant tags to grab the attention of an engaged and interested audience.
Taking a poll or quizzing your followers is another way to boost your interactivity. People love to give their opinions (case in point: how vocal everyone is about politics right now). See an opportunity for a trivial poll? Take it, and capture the attention of the unwilling.
Throughout this eBook, I’ve shared with you many tactics that successful YouTubers, bloggers, podcasters, and other influential social media users across platforms have used to effectively connect with their followers. Although you are not in those positions, you ought to consider all of those strategies and start at least using some of them to become your own influencer, an influencer among your business’s important followers. Your fans will benefit from the same tactics to grow their influence and be happy that you taught them a new and effective technique. They will look forward to fresh content, from which they will gain knowledge and inspiration. Your impressions, shares, followers, and profits will explode. This is a challenging field, but with creativity, patience, and an understanding of the true practices found in this enjoyable profession, you will see results over time.
You will also develop real, meaningful relationships with the people who search for and recommend reliable recipes, share similar personal experiences, or share updates on a myriad of professional activities. You have content marketing messages scattered across your network, which already has some relevance to the messages it sends out. You will be more of a resource and less of a one-way commercial. Being a business in the social networks is challenging, but also provides a tremendous number of opportunities. Thank you for letting me be your guide, counselor, and teacher. If you need further instruction, I’m here!