The rise of social media
In the modern world, the presence of social media is almost inescapable. From its origins as a way of conversing online, those ahead of the curve quickly saw social medias marketing and advertising potential, seizing on this new and never-ending space to keep pace with our increasingly-online world.
These days, a marketing plan lacking a social media strategy is pretty much unheard of and the bigger brands often use the high reach potential of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as the perfect canvases to launch their latest big-money marketing campaigns.
Yet, social media is a crowded space, with almost every company competing for the attention of the billions of potential customers and converts scrolling through their phones on their daily commute or during the working day. For this reason, brands who do have something to say can often find themselves shouting into the void, especially if they dont choose to focus on the value of engagement as part of their social media strategy.
What is engagement?
Engagement, in basic terms, is how brands and their customers interact on social media. Some may choose to create engagement-ready content such as competitions or polls to achieve this end whereas some will look to spark interaction by establishing themselves as the authority in their particular area of interest. Nearly all will have drawn up a regular posting schedule and be attuned to the trends that move in and out of vogue on a daily basis. Not to forget tailoring their content to each unique social media platform.
With this in mind, there are certainly a lot of dos and donts when it comes to realising social media engagement and this is why some brands can create much better social media profiles than others. As we know, those who can build an enticing brand online have much higher chance of commercial success. Read on for my top tips on how you can better engender social media engagement.
My top tips
- Networking: Puns aside, social media is a place where you can really get networking and throw your ideas into relevant discussions. If youre an up-and-coming business, its naive to think that people will just flock to you because youve created a Facebook page. Participate in conversations relevant to your field of speciality by joining and posting in certain groups, or using certain hashtags. This will allow you to get your name known and interact directly with a potential audience. Be careful not to push your brand too hard though, as increasingly savvy customers will see straight through the hard sell. Instead, focus on contributing meaningful thoughts and ideas to conversations.
- Share other content: Follow the brands and influencers that inspire you and re-share any of their content that speaks to your ideology or is relevant to your brand. This keeps things fresh for your audience and introduce some variety into your content. People will get bored if theyre being met with a constant stream of posts centred solely around your brand.
- Direct responses: Social media has very much witnessed the removal of the barrier between brand and audience, company and client. Through online platforms, customers can now converse directly with their favourite brands and many have used this as an opportunity to make their marketing efforts more personal. Through the ability to tag people in statuses and tweets, as well as to instantly reply to a new post, social media allows us to have intimate conversations with the very clients we are trying to reach. Take advantage of this to discuss your products or rectify any issues your customers may have much more quickly and directly. Marketing doesnt get much more personal than this.
- Vary your visuals: Marketing is just as much about using visual techniques as it is about copy, content and tone of voice. Some social media platforms, Instagram in particular, have completely built themselves around the power of pictures. This gives you the opportunity to display your latest products, ideas or developments in all of their glory, and in a variety of forms. Photos, artistic designs, videos and GIFS are all very much the province of present-day social media. Mix and match them all to keep your audience engaged and interested at all times.
- Use hashtags: With the rise of social media, hashtags have now become inseparable from the modern lexicon. By using these symbols, youll effectively be able to join in any conversation taking place around your chosen subject area. And, whilst these can centre around your speciality, you can also make use of social medias love for all that is trending. As global events unfold, many people will be using hashtags to join the conversation and you should too, providing you keep this content relevant to your brand. Theres also a wide variety of awareness and celebration days, some of which have no doubt come about because of the popularity of social media, that trend on the day in question. Use can also be made of these to promote your brand and join in the discussion. But, again, this is only really advisable if this remains on-brand.
Contact Kendrick PR
If youd like some further advice and support with your social media engagement strategy, or any other area of social media marketing, feel free to contact us today (http://kendrickpr.uk/contact-us/)