How to Interact with Your Audience for Better Social Media Engagement

Quality over quantity has never rung louder and clearer than in the modern era of social media. Yes – you need to be consistent. No – you don’t need to be dumping low-quality content on all of your platforms every single day.  

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But we’re not talking about content quality in this blog. Instead, we’re exploring why the quality of your social media community is more important than the size, and what you can do with this information to maximize your business.

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Let’s chat about interacting and engaging with your audience, so you can watch it serve your vision (and your ROI).

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What’s Up with Social Media Engagement?

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Gone are the days of standing on a pedestal with a megaphone to get your message heard. Now, it’s all about creating meaningful conversations and authentic connections between your brand and your audience. Strong social media engagement is a good sign that your business is booming.

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Social media engagement involves the process of interacting with your audience on social media platforms. This can include anything from likes and comments to shares and mentions.

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Engagement is important because it helps you build relationships with your followers.

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It also allows you to better understand their needs and wants. Plus, when people are engaged with your content, they're more likely to remember your brand and come back for more.

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Having a large follower count might be impressive, but it doesn’t mean much in terms of your business success if those followers aren’t interacting with your content. Imagine throwing a huge party, but people are awkwardly standing around. No conversations, no silly games, no dancing, no snacking on hors d'oeuvres... it’s just weird. It definitely doesn’t scream success.  

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Engagement is measured by a variety of metrics, including:

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• Shares/ retweets
• Comments
• Likes
• Audience/ follower growth
• Click-throughs
• Mentions  
• Branded hashtags

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Keep in mind: it’s a two-way street. If you want to see more follower engagement, you need to engage with your followers!

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How to Bump Up Your Engagement Stats

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As nice as it would be to snap your fingers and see your audience suddenly get to talking, it’s pretty unlikely that will happen without a little nudge. Don’t worry because there are plenty of tips and tricks to make this happen.  

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1. Analyze Your Engagement

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Before you get too excited, get the numbers out of the way and set a baseline to start from. Take note of your current number of followers, the average number of comments and shares on a post, and any other meaningful numbers.  

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Keep track of these measurements as you grow for insightful clues about what is or isn’t working.

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2. Establish Your Strategy

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Here’s the bad news: there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. The good news is that clearly defining your goals and knowing your branding inside and out can make a massive difference in the overall success of your social media efforts.

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3. Know Your Audience

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You need to deeply know the kind of person you will be talking to in order to effectively communicate with them and get them to invest in your product or service.

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A crucial step of our onboarding process at Charisma Communications is defining your ‘ideal client avatar.’ This helps us get to know your target customer and influences the language and tone of voice we use in our content.  

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4. Create Share-Worthy Content

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Now it’s time to open up the dialogue! The content you post should address your client’s pain points, giving them a solution to a particular problem they have. Talking about how amazing your brand is or relying on salesy jargon won’t cut it these days.  

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Create content that encourages customers to interact. This may include post ideas such as:

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• Contests
• Asking questions
• Polls
• “Ask Me Anything” stories
• Tests and quizzes
• Media upload contests
• Animations
• Client spotlights
• Custom stickers or filters

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One of our plumbing clients is about to open up a contest for a free water heater- we know that’s going to get people talking!

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5. Stay Current

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If you aren’t sure of what to post, just join the conversations already taking place! While this won’t work in every situation, there are plenty of ways to authentically tie your brand into current events and trends.  

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Think trending pop culture, big events, holidays, viral memes, or TikTok trends.

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6. Maintain the Conversation’s Flow

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Good conversations are a back-and-forth art form, not a one-way street. It’s important to stay reactive and respond to messages, story mentions, and comments.  

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However, it’s also important to be proactive! Seek out your target audience and engage with content on their pages. You can also interact with other professionals in your industry, offering your support or dropping in your own tidbit of wisdom as a comment.  

Also, keep an eye on hashtags related to your field. This can present a great opportunity to go like and comment on potential clients’ content.  

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7. Be Human

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Now more than ever, audiences are only supporting brands they trust. People are far more likely to trust your business if they know there is a real person on the other end, and they can interact with you.  

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Share the unique stories of people within your company, or interact in other ways such as personally:

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• Commenting to start conversations
• Acknowledging and answering questions
• Responding to comments with humor or warmth

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8. Respond Quickly

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Staying on top of engagement is important so people don’t feel unvalued or get bored or annoyed. The more quickly you respond to messages, comments, and other inquiries, the more satisfied your audience will feel. Therefore, the more likely they will be to invest in what you’re offering.  

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Stand Out > How to Help Your Business Get Noticed

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Engage & Interact

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Social media engagement is key to success in the modern world. By engaging with your audience, you can create a connection of trust and loyalty that will last far beyond a simple transaction.

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If you’re considering incorporating social media engagement into your marketing strategy but aren’t sure where to start, that’s what Charisma is here for! Reach out to our marketing experts today to see the difference good engagement can have for your business success.  

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