A big part of meaningful and valuable experiences on social media is the way that you engage with your audience. While sharing posts that you believe your target audience will enjoy is part of maintaining your social media presence, you also need to encourage and cultivate interactions that are more than a simple like or share.
There are a lot of brands, companies, people and performers out there who seem to have a large social media followings (on their official Facebook Page) but when you look more closely at individual posts, their engagement levels are pretty low (I'm talking little to no likes and/or comments here). The people and brands that are seeing more engagement from their followers are doing so by building communities (Facebook groups and other online forums).
This isn’t to say that communities are a new concept (far from it), but they are being built by brands and people in different ways, which is paying off big and will continue to do so as we continue through 2021. “While social communities aren't a new concept, how brands build them is changing the way we interact with them. There are many brands, both B2C and B2B, that have massive followings with no real engagement. The bottom line is your online presence should expand your reach, to ultimately drive more conversions.
For starters, it's crucial to measure your efforts and stay in touch with your audience. Social media suites are a great way to see everything in one place, from post creation and distribution to monitoring and analytics. Figure out what's working and what's not – don't be afraid to pivot and try something new!
· Encourage your team to create their own social presence to promote content and increase overall brand trust. This tactic leads to an authentic voice for your company,
· Twitter chats help create a strong sense of community through content, bringing thought leaders from all areas together in a real-time conversation. It gives your brand the perfect opportunity to engage directly with current and potential customers.
More than ever before, potential buyers want to hear from current customers – so give them a place to do just that.”
Bridget Poetker – Senior Content Marketing Specialist at G2
Building social media communities (separate from your profile/Page) is just the beginning - creating a group and having people join is no guarantee that they will engage. You also need to create content that gets them talking, encourages conversations and cultivates that sense of community.
“I believe that the days of merely posting content and people showing up to engage are slowly coming to an end as pay-to-play social media becomes more and more prevalent with every social network over time. As a company, you're already at a disadvantage, which is why it will become more important than ever to actually engage with your community.
I'm not talking about engagement so that your content shows up better in the algorithm, but actually thanking those people in your community not only when they comment or engage with your content but actually proactively reaching out to them like a social media user would reach out to a friend. If your business wants to survive in organic social media in 2020, I believe that this sort of humanization of your brand will be necessary.”
Neal Schaffer - Leading Global Educator and effective implementer of social media strategy for business.
Are you part of any Facebook groups or other online communities? Do you think they are more engaging than Pages? Do you interact more often in a group than on a page or personal account? Have you created your own group/community for your brand, a show or launch? How did it work out for you? I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me an email at camillacreamburlesque@gmail.com or shoot me a message via Facebook here
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